eng_aiv Amundson Interpretive Version Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deut Deuteronomy id=eng_aiv name=Amundson Interpretive Version (AIV) status=draft spec=USFM-USX 3.1.1 export=2026-11-02 char:add=translator-addition-italic char:wj=words-of-Jesus-as-received-unmapped note:f=footnotes para:r=parallel-passage-references para:d=psalm-superscriptions The Command to Leave Horeb (Exodus 33:1–6) These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven days from Horeb1.2 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai; also in verses 6 and 19 by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that YHWH had commanded him concerning them, after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorite, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei. On this side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:1.5 Note that Deuteronomy 1:6 through Deuteronomy 4:40 may be presented as a continuous section of unbroken speech by Moses. In place of multiple levels of nested quotes, this section has been set apart with a double space. YHWH our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: “You⁺ have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and set out for yourselves, and go to the mountains of the Amorite and to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the hill country, and in the Shephelah, and in the Negev, and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanite, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. 1.7 Or foothills or lowlands; that is, the western foothills of Judea See, I have set before you⁺ the land. Go in and possess the land that YHWH swore to your⁺ fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.” Moses Appoints Leaders (Exodus 18:13–27) And I spoke to you⁺ at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you⁺ alone. YHWH your⁺ God has multiplied you⁺, and behold, today you are as the stars of the heavens in multitude. May YHWH, God of your⁺ fathers, add to you⁺ as a thousand times, and bless you⁺ as He has promised to you⁺. How can I bear alone your⁺ troubles and your⁺ burdens and your⁺ disputes? Choose for yourselves men, wise and understanding and knowledgeable, from among your⁺ tribes, and I will appoint them as your⁺ heads.” And you⁺ answered me and said, “Good is the thing that you have told us to do.” And I took the heads of your⁺ tribes, men wise and knowledgeable, and I appointed them heads over you⁺—leaders of thousands, and leaders of hundreds, and leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens, and officers for your⁺ tribes. And I commanded your⁺ judges at that time, saying, “Listen between your⁺ brothers and judge righteously between a man and between his brother or the sojourner who is with him. You⁺ shall not discern faces in judgment; the small as well as the great you⁺ shall hear. You⁺ shall not be afraid of the face of any man, for the judgment, it is unto God. And the case that is too hard for you⁺, bring to me, and I will hear it.” And I commanded you⁺ at that time all the things that you⁺ should do. Twelve Spies Sent Out (Numbers 13:1–33) And we departed from Horeb and went through all that great and fearful wilderness, which you⁺ saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorite, as YHWH our God had commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea, and I said to you⁺, “You⁺ have come to the hill country of the Amorite, which YHWH our God is giving to us. See, YHWH your God has set before you the land. Go up, possess it, as YHWH, God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not be afraid or be discouraged.” And you⁺ all came near to me and said, “Let us send men before us, and let them search out for us the land, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up into it, and of the cities into which we shall come.” And the plan was good in my eyes, and I took from among you⁺ twelve men, one man per tribe. And they departed and went up into the mountains and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and they brought back to us word and said, “Good is the land that YHWH our God is giving to us.” Israel’s Rebellion (Numbers 14:1–12) And you⁺ would not go up, and you⁺ rebelled against the mouth of YHWH your⁺ God, and you⁺ murmured in your⁺ tents and said, “Because YHWH hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite, to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brothers have discouraged our hearts, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the heavens. And moreover, we have seen the sons of Anak there.’” And I said to you⁺, “Do not be terrified and do not be afraid of them. YHWH your⁺ God goes before you⁺. He will fight for you⁺ according to all that He did for you⁺ in Egypt before your⁺ eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how YHWH your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the way that you⁺ went, until you⁺ came to this place.” And in this thing you⁺ did not believe YHWH your⁺ God, who went before you⁺ on the way to search out for you⁺ a place to pitch your⁺ tents in the fire by night, and to show you⁺ the way in which you⁺ should go in the cloud by day. Israel’s Penalty (Numbers 14:20–35) And YHWH heard the sound of your⁺ words, and He was angry and swore, saying, “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land of which I swore to give to your⁺ fathers— except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him I am giving the land that he walked in, and to his sons, on account of that he has been fully after YHWH.” Also YHWH was angry with me for your⁺ sakes, saying, “Even you shall not go in there. Joshua son of Nun who stands before you, he shall go in there; strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And your⁺ little ones, whom you⁺ said would be for plunder, and your⁺ sons, who have no knowledge today of good and evil, they shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. And as for you⁺, turn and set out for yourselves into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.1.40 Or the Sea of Reeds” The Defeat at Hormah (Numbers 14:40–45) And you⁺ answered and said to me, “We have sinned against YHWH. We will go up and fight, according to all that YHWH our God commanded us.” And you⁺ had girded on, every man, of his weapons of war, and you⁺ were ready to go up into the mountain. And YHWH said to me, “Tell them: Do not go up, nor fight, for I am not among you⁺, lest you⁺ be stricken before the faces of your⁺ enemies.” And I spoke to you⁺ and you⁺ would not listen, and you⁺ rebelled against the mouth of YHWH and proudly went up into the mountain. And the Amorite who dwelt in that mountain came out against you⁺ and chased you⁺ like the bees do, and drove you⁺ back from Seir to Hormah. And you⁺ returned and you⁺ wept before the face of YHWH; YHWH would not listen to your⁺ voice, nor give ear to you⁺. And you⁺ remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you⁺ had dwelt. Wanderings in the Wilderness And we turned and set out into the wilderness, the Way of the Red Sea,2.1 Or the Sea of Reeds as YHWH had spoken to me. And we went around Mount Seir for many days. And YHWH spoke to me, saying, “You⁺ have been going around this mountain long enough; turn for yourselves northward. And command the people, saying, ‘You⁺ are passing over into the border of your⁺ brothers, the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you⁺. And you⁺ shall be on guard exceedingly. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give to you⁺ of their land even the treading of the sole of a foot. For as a possession to Esau I have given Mount Seir. You⁺ shall buy food from them with silver, and you⁺ will eat; and you⁺ shall buy water from them with silver, and you⁺ will drink.’” For YHWH your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He knows your walking this vast wilderness these forty years. YHWH your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing. And we passed beyond our brothers, the sons of Esau, who dwell in Seir, by the way of the plain, by Elath and Ezion-geber, and we turned and passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab. And YHWH said to me, “Do not harass Moab and do not contend with them in battle, for I will not give to you of their land as a possession, because to the sons of Lot I have given Ar as a possession.” (The Emites in times past had dwelt there, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. They also were regarded as Rephaim like the Anakites; and the Moabites call them Emites. And in Seir the Horites dwelt formerly; and the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before their faces and dwelt in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which YHWH gave to them.) “Now rise and pass over to the Brook of Zered.” And we passed over the Brook of Zered. And the time that we walked from Kadesh-barnea until that we passed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until were finished all the generation of the men of war from the midst of the camp, as YHWH had sworn to them. For indeed, the hand of YHWH was against them to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they came to an end. And it came to pass, when all the men of war had finally perished, dying from among the people, that YHWH spoke to me, saying, “You are to pass over this day the boundary of Moab at Ar. And when you come near the sons of Ammon, do not harass them and you shall not fight with them, for I will not give of the land of the sons of Ammon to you as a possession, because I have given it as a possession to the sons of Lot.” (It was also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, even it; the Rephaim dwelt there formerly, and the Ammonites call them Zamzumim— a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim—and YHWH destroyed them from before them and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place— as He had done for the sons of Esau who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horite from before them and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. And the Avites who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites who came from Caphtor2.23 That is, Crete destroyed them and dwelt in their place.) The Defeat of Sihon (Numbers 21:21–30) “Rise, set out, and pass over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land. Begin to possess it and engage him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under all the heavens, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.” And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, “Let me pass through your land; in the way—in the way I will go along, I will not turn to the right or left. Food for silver you shall sell me that I may eat, and water for silver give to me that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, as the sons of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did for me, until that I cross the Jordan to the land that YHWH our God is giving to us.” Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for YHWH your God hardened his spirit and made obstinate his heart, that He might deliver him into your hand in this day. And YHWH said to me, “See, I have begun to give over to you Sihon and his land. Begin to possess—to possess his land.” And Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And YHWH our God delivered him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction2.34 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. every city, the men, and the women, and the little ones. We left no survivor. Only the livestock we plundered for ourselves, and the spoil of the cities that we had captured. From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, and as far as Gilead, there was not one city that was too high for us. YHWH our God gave all before our faces. Only near the land of the sons of Ammon you did not go near, anywhere along the River Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or wherever YHWH our God had forbidden us. The Defeat of Og (Numbers 21:31–35) And we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And YHWH said to me, “Do not fear him, for into your hand I have delivered him and all his people and his land, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorite, who dwelt in Heshbon.” And YHWH our God delivered into our hands also Og king of Bashan, and all his people. And we struck him until he had no remaining survivors. And we took all his cities at that time. There was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. And we devoted them to destruction3.6 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city, the men, the women, and the children. And all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we plundered for ourselves. And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorite, who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon— the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion and the Amorite call it Senir— all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bed was an iron bed. Is it not in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon? Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width by the standard cubit.3.11 Og’s bed was approximately 14 feet long and 6 feet wide (4.3 meters long and 1.8 meters wide).) Land Division East of the Jordan (Numbers 32:1–42; Joshua 13:8–14) And this land we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead; and its cities I gave to the Reubenite and the Gadite. And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob with all Bashan was called the land of the Rephaim.) Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurite and the Maachathite, and called them after his own name, Bashan Havvoth-jair,3.14 Or the villages of Jair to this day. And to Machir I gave Gilead. And to the Reubenite and the Gadite I gave from Gilead and as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the valley and the border, and to the Jabbok River, the border of the sons of Ammon, and the plain, and the Jordan, and the border from Chinnereth, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,3.17 That is, the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah to the east. And I commanded you⁺ at that time, saying, “YHWH your⁺ God has given to you⁺ this land to possess. You⁺ shall pass over armed before your⁺ brothers the sons of Israel, all the sons of valor. But your⁺ wives and your⁺ little ones and your⁺ livestock—I know that you⁺ have much livestock—shall stay in your⁺ cities that I have given you⁺, until that YHWH has given rest to your⁺ brothers as to you⁺, and they also possess the land that YHWH your⁺ God is giving them beyond the Jordan. And you⁺ will return, every man to his inheritance that I have given to you⁺.” And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that YHWH your⁺ God has done to these two kings. Thus YHWH will do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. Do not fear them, for YHWH your⁺ God Himself fights for you⁺.” Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan (Numbers 27:12–17) And I pleaded with YHWH at that time, saying, “O Lord YHWH, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand. For what god is in the heavens or on the earth who does works as Your works and as Your mighty deeds? Let me pass over, please, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, this pleasant hill country, and Lebanon.” And YHWH was angry with me on your⁺ account, and He would not listen to me. And YHWH said to me, “Enough of it. Do not add to speak to Me anymore of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes toward the west, and the north, and the south, and the east, and look with your eyes. For you shall not pass over this Jordan. And command Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land that you will see.” And we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor. An Exhortation to Obedience (Deuteronomy 11:1–7) And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I teach you⁺ to observe, that you⁺ may live and go in and possess the land that YHWH, God of your⁺ fathers, is giving to you⁺. You⁺ shall not add to the word that I command you⁺, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your⁺ God that I command you⁺. Your⁺ eyes have seen what YHWH did at Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-Peor YHWH your God has destroyed from among you. And you⁺, the ones clinging to YHWH your⁺ God, are alive, all of you⁺ today. See, I have taught you⁺ statutes and ordinances as YHWH my God commanded me, that you should act accordingly in the midst of the land that you⁺ are going there to possess it. Therefore, be careful and observe them, for that is your⁺ wisdom and your⁺ understanding in the eyes of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation.” For what is the great nation that has a god near to it as YHWH our God is to us in all that we call upon Him? And what is the great nation that has righteous statutes and ordinances according to all this law that I set before you⁺ this day? Only take heed to yourself and keep yourself diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and teach them to your sons and to the sons of your sons. That day you stood before the face of YHWH your God in Horeb,4.10 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai; also in verse 15 when YHWH said to me, “Gather to Me the people and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their sons.” And you⁺ came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burned with the fire to the heart of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness, and YHWH spoke to you⁺ out of the midst of the fire. You⁺ heard the sound of the words, and you saw no form, only a voice. And He declared to you⁺ His covenant, which He commanded you⁺ to perform—the Ten Words.4.13 That is, the Ten Commandments And He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And me YHWH commanded at that time to teach you⁺ statutes and ordinances, that you⁺ might observe them in the land that you⁺ are passing over to possess. A Warning against Idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Ezekiel 6:1–7) And guard greatly your⁺ souls, for you⁺ did not see any form when YHWH spoke to you⁺ at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you⁺ act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female— the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens and you see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the host of the heavens—and you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which YHWH your God has given as a heritage to all the peoples under the whole heavens. And YHWH has taken you⁺ and brought you⁺ out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to Him for a people, as an inheritance this day. And YHWH was angry with me because of your⁺ words, and He swore that I would not pass over the Jordan, that I would not enter into the good land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance, but I must die in this land. I am not passing over the Jordan, and you⁺ shall pass over and possess this good land. Take heed to yourselves, lest you⁺ forget the covenant of YHWH your⁺ God that He made with you⁺, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything that YHWH your God has forbidden you. For YHWH your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 4.24 Cited in Hebrews 12:29 When you beget sons and sons of sons and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the eyes of YHWH your God to provoke Him to anger, I call to witness against you⁺ this day the heavens and the earth that you⁺ will surely perish quickly from the land to which you⁺ are passing over the Jordan to possess. You⁺ will not prolong your⁺ days in it, but you⁺ will be utterly destroyed. And YHWH will scatter you⁺ among the peoples, and you⁺ will be left few in number among the nations to which YHWH will drive you⁺. And you⁺ will serve gods there—the work of the hands of man—wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. And you⁺ will seek from there YHWH your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days, and you turn to YHWH your God and obey His voice— for a merciful God is YHWH your God—He will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers that He swore to them. Yahweh Alone Is God For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth, and from one end of the heavens and to the other of the heavens, whether there has been as this great thing, or has there been heard like it? Has a people heard the voice of God4.33 Or of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire—as you have heard yourself—and live? Or has God attempted to come to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that YHWH your⁺ God did for you⁺ in Egypt before your eyes? It was shown to you, that you might know that YHWH, He is God; there is none other besides Him. From the heavens He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and He brought you out with His face, with His mighty power, from Egypt, to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in to give to you their land as an inheritance, as on this day. Therefore know this day and return it to your heart that YHWH, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. And you shall keep His statutes and His commandments that I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, that you may prolong your days in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you—all the days. Cities of Refuge (Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9) Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, for to flee there the manslayer who kills his neighbor without knowing, and he without having hated him from yesterday and the day before yesterday, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau, for the Reubenite; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadite; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassite. Introduction to the Law And this is the law that Moses set before the sons of Israel. These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel after they came out of Egypt, on this side of the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorite, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt. And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan—two kings of the Amorite who were on this side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun— from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and to Mount Siyon,4.48 Or Sion; Syriac Sirion that is, Hermon, and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah,4.49 That is, the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah. The Covenant at Horeb And Moses called unto all Israel, and said to them:5.1 Note that Deuteronomy 5:1 through Deuteronomy 26:19 may be presented as a continuous section of unbroken speech by Moses. In place of multiple levels of nested quotes, this section has been set apart with a double space. Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances that I speak in your⁺ hearing today, that you⁺ may learn them and be careful to observe them. YHWH our God made with us a covenant in Horeb.5.2 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai Not with our fathers did YHWH make this covenant, but with us—we, these here today, all of us who are alive. YHWH spoke with you⁺ Face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17) I stood between YHWH and between you⁺ at that time, to declare to you⁺ the word of YHWH; for you⁺ were afraid because of the fire, and you⁺ did not go up the mountain. He said, “I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. 5.7 Or besides Me You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them and you shall not serve them, for I, YHWH your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons and on the third and fourth of those hating Me, and showing loving devotion to thousands,5.10 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. to those loving Me and keeping My commandments. 5.10 Or to a thousand generations You shall not lift up the name of YHWH your God in vain, for YHWH will not hold guiltless him who lifts up His name in vain. Observe the day of the Sabbath, to keep it holy, as YHWH your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, and the seventh day is the Sabbath to YHWH your God; you shall not do any work—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and your ox, and your donkey, and any of your cattle, and your sojourner who is within your gates—that your manservant and your maidservant may rest like you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Upon thus YHWH your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as YHWH your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, that it may be well with you in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you. 5.16 Cited in Matthew 15:4, Matthew 19:19, Mark 7:10, Luke 18:20, and Ephesians 6:2–3 You shall not murder. 5.17 Cited in Matthew 5:21, Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Romans 13:9, and James 2:11 And you shall not commit adultery. 5.18 Cited in Matthew 5:27, Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Romans 13:9, and James 2:11 And you shall not steal.5.19 Cited in Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, and Romans 13:9 And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.5.20 Cited in Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, and Luke 18:20 And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, and you shall not covet the house of your neighbor, his field, and his manservant, and his maidservant, his ox, and his donkey, and anything that is unto your neighbor.” 5.21 Cited in Romans 7:7 and Romans 13:9 Moses Intercedes for the People (Exodus 20:18–21; Hebrews 12:18–29) These words YHWH spoke to all your⁺ assembly in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, in a loud voice. And He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And it came to pass when you⁺ heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and while the mountain was burning with the fire, that you⁺ came near to me—all the heads of your⁺ tribes and your⁺ elders, and you⁺ said, “Surely YHWH our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen that God speaks with man, and he has lived. And now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us if we add to hear the voice of YHWH our God anymore, and we shall die. For who of all flesh is he who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we, and lived? Draw near, you, and hear all that YHWH our God may say. And you tell to us all that YHWH our God says to you, and we will listen and do it.” And YHWH heard the voice of your⁺ words when you⁺ spoke to me, and YHWH said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people that they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. O that their heart had been given thus, to fear Me and to keep all My commandments all the days, so that it may be well with them and with their sons forever! Go and say to them, ‘Return to your⁺ tents.’ And you, stand here by Me and I will speak to you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances that you shall teach them, and they will do them in the land that I am giving to them to possess.” And you⁺ shall take heed to do as YHWH your⁺ God has commanded you⁺; you⁺ shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. In all the ways that YHWH your⁺ God has commanded you⁺, you⁺ shall walk, so that you⁺ may live, and that it may be well with you⁺, and that you⁺ may prolong your days in the land that you⁺ shall possess. The Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34) And this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances that YHWH your⁺ God has commanded to teach you⁺ to do in the land that you⁺ are passing over there to possess, so that you may fear YHWH your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I am commanding you—you and your son and the son of your son—all the days of your life, that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you⁺ may multiply greatly, as YHWH, God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is One. 6.4 YHWH is our God, YHWH is One or YHWH is our God, YHWH alone; cited in Mark 12:29 And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6.5 Cited in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27 And these words that I am commanding you today shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and talk of them in your sitting in your house and in your walking by the way and in your lying down and in your getting up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. And it shall be, when YHWH your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you cities large and beautiful that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and wells dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you have eaten and are satisfied, then take heed to it lest you forget YHWH who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. YHWH your God you shall fear, and Him you shall serve, and by His name you shall swear. 6.13 Or serve Him, and take your oaths only in His name; cited in Matthew 4:10 and Luke 4:8 You⁺ shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you⁺, for a jealous God is YHWH your God among you—lest the anger of YHWH your God be kindled against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. You⁺ shall not test YHWH your⁺ God, as you⁺ tested Him in Massah. 6.16 Massah means testing; see Exodus 17:7; cited in Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12. You⁺ shall diligently keep the commandments of YHWH your⁺ God, and His testimonies and His statutes that He has commanded you. And you shall do right and good in the eyes of YHWH, that it may be well with you, that you may go in and possess the good land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you as YHWH has spoken. Teach Your Children When your son asks you hereafter, saying, “What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that YHWH our God has commanded you⁺?” Then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And YHWH showed signs and wonders, great and severe, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes. And He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in to give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers. And YHWH commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear YHWH our God, for good to us all the time, to keep us alive as this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this command before the face of YHWH our God, as He has commanded us.” Drive Out the Nations When YHWH your God brings you into the land that you are going in to possess, and He has cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you— and YHWH your God delivers them over to you, then you shall strike them down—you must devote them to complete destruction.7.2 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also twice in verse 26. You shall not make a covenant7.2 Or a treaty with them and you shall not show mercy to them. And you shall not join in marriage with them; your daughter you shall not give to their son, and their daughter you shall not take for your son. For they will turn away your sons from following Me, and they will serve other gods; and the anger of YHWH will be kindled against you⁺, and He will destroy you swiftly. But rather thus you⁺ shall deal with them: Their altars you⁺ shall break down, and their pillars you⁺ shall smash, and their Asherah poles you⁺ shall cut down, and their carved images you⁺ shall burn with the fire. For a holy people you are to YHWH your God; YHWH your God has chosen you to be for Himself a special treasure, a people above all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. Not because you⁺ were more numerous than any other of the peoples did YHWH set His love on you⁺ and choose you⁺; for you⁺ were the least of all the peoples, but it is from the love of YHWH for you⁺ and from His keeping of the oath that He swore to your⁺ fathers, that YHWH has brought you⁺ out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And you shall know that YHWH your God, He is God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant of loving devotion for those loving Him and keeping His commandments for a thousand generations. And He repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them. He delays not to him who hates Him—to his face He will repay him. And you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the ordinances that I command you today to do. The Promises of God (Exodus 23:20–33) And it shall come to pass, because you⁺ listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that YHWH your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers. And He has loved you and blessed you and multiplied you, and He has blessed the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flock in the land that He swore to your fathers to give to you. Blessed you shall be above all peoples; there shall not be among you a barren man or barren woman—or among your livestock. And YHWH has taken away from you all sickness, and all the terrible diseases of Egypt that you have known He does not put on you, and He has put them on all those hating you. And you shall destroy all the peoples whom YHWH your God will deliver over to you. Your eye shall not have pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for it is a snare to you. If you should say in your heart, “These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?” You shall not be afraid of them; you must surely remember what YHWH your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: The great trials that your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which YHWH your God brought you out. So shall do YHWH your God to all the peoples of whom you are afraid, before their faces. Moreover, YHWH your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left and who hide themselves from you have perished. You shall not be terrified of them, for YHWH your God is among you—a God great and awesome. And YHWH your God has cast out these nations before you little by little; you are not able to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. And YHWH your God will deliver them over to you, and He will confuse them with great confusion until they are destroyed. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under the heavens; no man shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. The carved images of their gods you⁺ shall burn with the fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to YHWH your God. And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction. Remember Yahweh Your God Every commandment that I command you today, you⁺ must be careful to do, so that you⁺ may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that YHWH has sworn to your⁺ fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that YHWH your God led you this forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you know that the man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH the man shall live. 8.3 Cited in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 Your garments did not wear out from you, and your foot did not swell this forty years. And you shall know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, YHWH your God disciplines you. And you shall keep the commandments of YHWH your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For YHWH your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which without scarcity you will eat bread; you will not lack any in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from the hills you can dig copper. And you will eat and be satisfied; and you will bless YHWH your God for the good land that He has given you. Take heed to it that you do not forget YHWH your God, by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes, which I command you today— lest you eat and be satisfied and build and inhabit beautiful houses; and your herd and your flock multiply, and your silver and your gold multiply to you, and all that is to you is multiplied; and your heart is lifted up, and you forget YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery; who led you in the great and the terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the rock of flint; who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, so that He might humble you, that He might test you, to do you good in the end; and you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” And you shall remember YHWH your God, for He gives you power to gain wealth, that He may establish His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And it shall come to pass, if you ever forget YHWH your God and follow after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you⁺ this day that you⁺ will surely perish. As the nations that YHWH destroys before you⁺, so you⁺ shall perish, because you⁺ would not listen to the voice of YHWH your⁺ God. Assurance of Victory Hear, O Israel! Today you are passing over the Jordan to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified to the heavens, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and you have heard: “Who can stand before the faces of the sons of Anak?” And you shall know today that YHWH your God is He who is passing over before you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before you. And you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as YHWH has spoken to you. Do not speak in your heart, after YHWH your God has cast them out before you, saying, “Because of my righteousness YHWH has brought me in to possess this land.” For the wickedness of these nations, YHWH is driving them out from before you. Not in your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations YHWH your God is driving them out from before you, so that He may fulfill the word that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And you shall know that not in your righteousness is YHWH your God giving you this good land to possess it; for you are a people stiff of neck. The Golden Calf (Exodus 32:1–35; Acts 7:39–43) Remember—do not forget—how you provoked YHWH your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you⁺ came to this place, you⁺ have been rebellious against YHWH. And in Horeb9.8 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai you⁺ provoked YHWH to wrath, and YHWH was angry with you⁺ to destroy you⁺. In my going up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that YHWH made with you⁺, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat and water I did not drink. And YHWH delivered to me two tablets of stone, written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that YHWH had spoken to you⁺ on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that YHWH gave to me two tablets of stone, tablets of the covenant. And YHWH said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people have acted corruptly, whom you brought out of Egypt. They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.” And YHWH spoke to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a people stiff of neck. Desist from Me, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.” And I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with the fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you⁺ had sinned against YHWH your⁺ God; you⁺ had made for yourselves a molten calf; you⁺ had turned aside quickly from the way that YHWH had commanded you⁺. And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, and I broke them before your⁺ eyes. And I fell down before the face of YHWH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; bread I did not eat and water I did not drink, because of all your⁺ sin that you⁺ committed in doing the evil in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and the fury with which YHWH was angry with you⁺, to destroy you⁺. And YHWH listened to me also at that time. 9.19 LXX And I am greatly terrified; cited in Hebrews 12:21 And against Aaron YHWH was very angry and would have destroyed him. And I prayed also for Aaron at that time. And your⁺ sin that you⁺ had made—the calf—I took and burned it with the fire, and crushed it and ground it well, until that it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. And at Taberah9.22 Taberah means burning; see Numbers 11:3. and Massah9.22 Massah means testing; see Exodus 17:7. and at Kibroth-hattaavah9.22 Kibroth-hattaavah means graves of craving; see Numbers 11:34. you⁺ provoked YHWH to wrath. And likewise when YHWH sent you⁺ from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land that I have given to you⁺,” you⁺ rebelled against the commandment of YHWH your⁺ God, and you⁺ did not believe Him and you did not obey His voice. You⁺ have been Rebellious against YHWH from the day that I knew you⁺. And I prostrated myself before the face of YHWH forty days and forty nights, when I kept prostrating myself because YHWH had said He would destroy you⁺. And I prayed to YHWH and said, “O Lord YHWH, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Be mindful of Your servants, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; turn not to the stubbornness of this people, and to their wickedness, and to their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, ‘Because YHWH was not able to bring them to the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.” New Stone Tablets (Exodus 34:1–9) At that time, YHWH said to me, “Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.” And I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, and the two tablets were in my hand. And He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the Ten Words10.4 That is, the Ten Commandments that YHWH had spoken to you⁺ in the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And YHWH gave them to me. And I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And they are there, as YHWH commanded me. And the sons of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan10.6 Or from the wells of the Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and he was buried there. And Eleazar his son acted as priest in his stead. From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. At that time YHWH separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of YHWH, to stand before the face of YHWH to minister to Him, and to bless in His name, to this day. Upon thus Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers; YHWH is his inheritance, as YHWH your God spoke to him. And I stayed in the mountain, as at the first days, forty days and forty nights. And YHWH heard me also at that time; and YHWH chose not to destroy you. And YHWH said to me, “Arise, begin in journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.” A Call to Obedience (Joshua 24:14–28) And now, O Israel, what does YHWH your God require of you except but to fear YHWH your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of YHWH, and His statutes that I command you today for good to you? Behold, unto YHWH your God are the heavens and the heavens of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet in your fathers YHWH delighted to love them, and He chose their seed after them, you⁺, above all peoples, as it is this day. And you⁺ shall circumcise the foreskin of your⁺ heart, and be not stiff-necked anymore. For YHWH your⁺ God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, God, the great, mighty, and awesome, who regards not persons nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and He loves the sojourner, giving to him food and clothing. And you⁺ shall love the sojourner, for you⁺ were sojourners in the land of Egypt. YHWH your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall hold fast, and by His name you shall swear. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. With seventy persons Your fathers went down to Egypt, and now YHWH your God has made you like the stars of the heavens in multitude. Obedience and Discipline (Deuteronomy 4:1–14) And you shall love YHWH your God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments, all the days. And know today that it is not your⁺ children who have known, and who have seen the discipline of YHWH your⁺ God, His greatness, and His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm, and His signs and His acts that He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land, and what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and their chariots—how the waters of the Red Sea11.4 Or the Sea of Reeds He caused to flow upon them as they pursued you⁺, and how YHWH has destroyed them to this day, and what He did for you⁺ in the wilderness until you⁺ came to this place, and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and their tents and every living thing that was at their feet, in the midst of all Israel. But your⁺ eyes have seen every great act of YHWH that He did. God’s Great Blessings (Joshua 1:1–9) And you⁺ shall keep every commandment that I command you today, that you⁺ may be strong and go in and possess the land, which you⁺ are passing over to possess it, and so that you⁺ may prolong your days in the land that YHWH swore to your⁺ fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land that you are going in to possess, it is not like the land of Egypt, where you⁺ have come from, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as for a garden of herbs. And the land that you⁺ are passing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys—from the rain of the heavens it drinks water— a land for which YHWH your God cares; the eyes of YHWH your God are always on it from the beginning of the year and to the very end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if you⁺ listen carefully to My commandments that I am commanding you⁺ today, to love YHWH your⁺ God, and to serve Him with all your⁺ heart and with all your⁺ soul, then I will give11.14 Hebrew; SP, LXX, and Vulgate He will give; also in verse 15 the rain for your⁺ land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. and I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be satisfied. Take heed to yourselves, lest your⁺ heart be deceived and you⁺ turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and the anger of YHWH be kindled against you⁺ and He shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, and the land not yield produce, and you⁺ perish quickly from the good land that YHWH is giving to you⁺. Remember God’s Words And you⁺ shall place these words of mine in your⁺ heart and in your⁺ soul, and bind them as a sign on your⁺ hands, and they shall be as frontlets between your⁺ eyes. And you⁺ shall teach them to your⁺ children, speaking of them in your sitting in your house, and in your walking in the way, and in your lying down, and in your rising up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your⁺ days may be multiplied—and the days of your⁺ children—in the land that YHWH swore to your⁺ fathers to give to them, as the days of the heavens are above the earth. For if you⁺ carefully keep all this command that I am commanding you⁺ to do, to love YHWH your⁺ God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him, then YHWH will drive out all these nations from before you⁺, and you⁺ will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place where the sole of your⁺ foot treads in it shall be yours⁺, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, and to the Western Sea,11.24 That is, the Mediterranean Sea, also called the Great Sea shall be your⁺ territory. No man shall be able to stand against you⁺. The terror of you⁺ and the fear of you⁺ YHWH your⁺ God will put upon the face of all the land where you⁺ tread in it, as He has said to you⁺. A Blessing and a Curse See, I set before you⁺ today a blessing and a curse— the blessing, if you⁺ listen to the commandments of YHWH your⁺ God that I command you⁺ today, and the curse, if you⁺ do not listen to the commandments of YHWH your⁺ God and turn aside from the way that I command you⁺ today, to go after other gods that you⁺ have not known. And it shall come to pass, when YHWH your God has brought you into the land that you are going in to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the way of the going in of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite dwelling in the plain opposite Gilgal beside the Oak11.30 SP, LXX, and Syriac (see Genesis 12:6); Hebrew Oaks or Terebinths or Great Trees of Moreh? For you⁺ are passing over the Jordan to go in to possess the land that YHWH your⁺ God is giving to you⁺, and you⁺ will possess it and dwell in it. And you⁺ shall be careful to observe all the statutes and ordinances that I set before you⁺ today. One Place for Worship These are the statutes and ordinances that you⁺ shall be careful to observe in the land that YHWH, God of your fathers, is giving to you to possess all the days that you⁺ live on the earth. You⁺ shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you⁺ shall dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. And you⁺ shall break down their altars and smash their pillars, and their Asherah poles you⁺ shall burn with the fire, and the carved images of their gods you⁺ shall cut down, and you⁺ shall destroy their names from that place. You⁺ shall not do thus to YHWH your⁺ God. For rather, unto the place where YHWH your⁺ God chooses out of all your⁺ tribes to establish His Name as His dwelling, you⁺ shall seek and you shall go there. And you⁺ shall bring there your⁺ burnt offerings, and your⁺ sacrifices, and your⁺ tithes, and the contributions of your⁺ hands, and your⁺ vowed offerings, and your⁺ freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your⁺ herds and your⁺ flocks. And you⁺ shall eat there before the face of YHWH your⁺ God, and you⁺ shall rejoice in all the sending out of your⁺ hands—you⁺ and your⁺ households—with which YHWH your God has blessed you. You⁺ shall not do at all as we are doing here today—every man, whatever is right in his own eyes. For you⁺ have not come as yet to the rest and the inheritance that YHWH your God is giving to you. And you⁺ will pass over the Jordan and dwell in the land that YHWH your⁺ God is giving you⁺ to inherit, and He will give rest to you⁺ from all your⁺ enemies round about, so that you⁺ dwell in safety, and there will be the place where YHWH your⁺ God chooses for His Name to dwell in it there; there you⁺ shall bring all that I command you⁺—your⁺ burnt offerings, and your⁺ sacrifices, your⁺ tithes, and the contributions of your⁺ hands, and all your choice offerings that you⁺ vow to YHWH. And you⁺ shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your⁺ God—you⁺, and your⁺ sons, and your⁺ daughters, and your⁺ menservants, and your⁺ maidservants, and the Levite who is within your⁺ gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you⁺. Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see. Indeed rather, in the place that YHWH chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. Nevertheless, whatever your soul desires, you may slaughter and eat flesh according to the blessing of YHWH your God that He has given you within all your gates. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle or the deer. Only the blood you⁺ shall not eat; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You must not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or your new wine, or your oil, or of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or of any of your offerings that you vow, or of your freewill offerings, or of the contribution of your hand. Indeed rather, before the face of YHWH your God you must eat them in the place that YHWH your God in it chooses—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your God in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. When YHWH your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, “Let me eat flesh,” because you long to eat flesh, you may eat flesh of all the desire of your soul. If the place is too far from you where YHWH your God chooses to put His Name, you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock that which YHWH has given to you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates all the desire of your heart. Indeed, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them. The unclean and the clean alike may eat them. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you may not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you when you do what is right in the eyes of YHWH. Only the holy things that are to you, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place that YHWH chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of YHWH your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of YHWH your God, and you shall eat the flesh. Observe and obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, even to forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of YHWH your God. A Warning against Idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:15–31; Ezekiel 6:1–7) When YHWH your God cuts off the nations that you go to dispossess from before you, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods, and I also will do likewise?” You shall not do thus to YHWH your God, for every abomination to YHWH, which He hates, they have done to their gods. For even their sons and daughters they burn in the fire to their gods. The whole thing, whatever I command you⁺, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it. Idolaters to Be Put to Death If there arises from among you a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods (that you have not known) and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of the dream. For YHWH your⁺ God is testing you⁺, to know whether you⁺ love YHWH your⁺ God with all your⁺ heart and with all your⁺ soul. After YHWH your⁺ God you⁺ shall walk, and Him you⁺ shall fear, and His commandments you⁺ shall keep, and His voice you⁺ shall obey, and Him you⁺ shall serve, and to Him you⁺ shall hold fast. And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream, he shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YHWH your⁺ God—who brought you⁺ out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to drive you out of the way that YHWH your God commanded you to walk in it. And you shall put away the evil from among you. 13.5 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known—you and your fathers— of the gods of the peoples who are all around you⁺, near to you or far off from you, from the end of the earth and to the end of the earth), you shall not consent to him nor listen to him. Nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor conceal him, but you must surely kill him. Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear, and not add to do such as this wickedness among you. Idolatrous Cities to Be Destroyed If you hear someone in one of your cities that YHWH your God gives you to dwell there, one saying, men, the sons of worthlessness, have gone out from among you and enticed those dwelling in their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (that you⁺ have not known), then you shall inquire, and search out, and ask diligently, and behold, it is true, the thing is established—this abomination that has been done among you— you must surely strike those dwelling in that city with the mouth of the sword, utterly destroying13.15 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; similarly in verse 17. it and all that is in it, and its livestock, with the mouth of the sword. And all its plunder you shall gather into the middle of the street, and burn with the fire the city and all its plunder completely before YHWH your God. And it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. And in your hand you shall not cling to any of the accursed things, so that YHWH will turn from the burning of His anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, because you have listened to the voice of YHWH your God, to keep all His commandments that I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of YHWH your God. Clean and Unclean Animals (Leviticus 11:1–47; Acts 10:9–16) You⁺ are sons of YHWH your⁺ God; you⁺ shall not cut yourselves, nor make a baldness between your⁺ eyes on behalf of the dead. For you are a holy people to YHWH your God, and YHWH has chosen you to be for Himself a people, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. You shall not eat any detestable thing. This is the animal that you⁺ may eat:14.4 The precise identification of some of the birds and animals in this chapter is uncertain. The ox, a lamb of the flock, and the goat, the deer, and the gazelle, and the roe deer, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the mountain sheep. And every animal dividing the hoof and having split the cleft into two hooves, bringing up the cud, among the animals, you⁺ may eat. Nevertheless, this you⁺ shall not eat of those bringing up the cud, and of those dividing the cloven hoof: The camel, and the hare, and the rock badger,14.7 Or the coney or the hyrax for they are bringing up the cud, and the hoof have not divided; they are unclean for you⁺. And the swine, for it is dividing the hoof and not bringing up the cud. It is unclean for you⁺. Their flesh you⁺ shall not eat, and their carcass you⁺ shall not touch. This you⁺ may eat of all that are in the waters: All that have fins and scales you⁺ may eat, and whatever does not have fins and scales you⁺ shall not eat; it is unclean for you⁺. All clean birds you⁺ may eat. And these are they of which you⁺ shall not eat: The eagle, and the vulture, and the buzzard, and the red kite, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, and every raven after its kind, and the daughter of the ostrich,14.15 Or the daughter of the owl and the screech owl, and the gull, and the hawk after its kind, the little owl, and the screech owl, and the white owl, and the desert owl, and the osprey, and the cormorant, and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. And every swarming thing that flies is unclean for you⁺; they shall not be eaten. All clean birds you⁺ may eat. You⁺ shall not eat of any carcass; you may give it to the sojourner who is within your gates that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to YHWH your God. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. Giving Tithes (Leviticus 27:30–34; Deuteronomy 26:1–15; Nehemiah 13:10–14) You must surely tithe all the increase of your seed that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the face of YHWH your God, in the place where He chooses for His Name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, and of the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear YHWH your God all the days. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, or if the place is too far from you where YHWH your God chooses to put His Name when YHWH your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for silver, and take the silver in your hand, and go to the place that YHWH your God chooses in it. And you shall spend the silver for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for anything that your soul desires; and you shall eat there before the face of YHWH your God, and you shall rejoice—you and your house. And the Levite who is within your gates you shall not forsake, for unto him is not a portion or inheritance with you. At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite may come—for unto him is not a portion or inheritance with you—and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow who is within your gates. And they shall eat and be satisfied, that YHWH your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do. The Seventh Year (Exodus 23:10–13; Leviticus 25:1–7) At the end of seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the form of the release: Every owner of a loan shall release his hand of that he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called a release unto YHWH. Of a foreigner you may require it, and that which is owed by your brother your hand shall release. The end is, however, that there shall be among you no poor, for YHWH will greatly bless you in the land that YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess— only if you listen carefully to the voice of YHWH your God, with care to observe all this command that I command you today. For YHWH your God will bless you as He has spoken to you, and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow; and you shall reign over many nations, and over you they shall not reign. Generosity in Lending and Giving (Matthew 6:1–4) If there is among you a poor man of one of your brothers within one of the gates in your land that YHWH your God is giving to you, you shall not strengthen15.7 Or harden or make courageous your heart and not shut your hand from your poor brother. But you shall surely open your hand to him, and you shall freely loan him what is sufficient for his need, whatever is lacking unto him. Beware for yourself, lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year is near, the year of release,” and your eye is evil against your poor brother, and you give to him nothing, and he cries out against you to YHWH, and it becomes sin among you. You shall give generously to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing YHWH your God will bless you in all your works and in all the sending out of your hand. For the poor will never cease from the midst of the land; upon thus I command you, saying that you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy in your land. Hebrew Servants (Exodus 21:1–11) If your brother is sold to you,15.12 Or sells himself to you a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he has served you six years, in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you send him away free from you, you must not send him emptily. You shall generously furnish him from your flock, and from your threshing floor, and from your winepress; that with which YHWH your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your God redeemed you. Upon thus I command you this thing today. And it shall come to pass that if he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since it is good to him with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear and to the door, and he shall be your servant forever; and to your maidservant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard in your eyes when you send him away free from you, for he has been worth double of a hireling in serving you six years; and YHWH your God will bless you in all that you do. Firstborn Animals (Exodus 13:1–16) All the firstborn that come from your herd and your flock—the male—you shall sanctify to YHWH your God. You shall not do work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. Before the face of YHWH your God you shall eat it year by year in the place that YHWH chooses—You and your house. But if there is in it a blemish—lameness or blindness, any serious blemish—you shall not sacrifice it to YHWH your God. Within your gates you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as a gazelle or a deer. Only its blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it on the ground like water. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:14–28; Leviticus 23:4–8; Numbers 28:16–25) Observe the month of Abib16.1 Abib was the first month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar, usually occurring within the months of March and April; twice in this verse. and keep the Passover to YHWH your God, for in the month of Abib YHWH your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall sacrifice the Passover to YHWH your God, of the flock or of the herd, in the place where YHWH chooses for His Name to dwell there. You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for in haste you came out of the land of Egypt—so that you may remember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And there shall not be seen among you leaven in all your territory seven days, nor shall remain overnight any of the flesh that you sacrifice in the evening on the first day until the morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within one of your gates that YHWH your God gives you. For only at the place where YHWH your God chooses for His Name to dwell, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall roast it and eat it in the place that YHWH your God chooses, and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a sacred assembly to YHWH your God; you shall do no work. The Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:26–31) Seven weeks you shall count for yourself—from beginning the sickle among the grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. And you shall keep the Feast of Weeks16.10 That is, Shavuot; see footnotes for verse 16. to YHWH your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as YHWH your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your God—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow who is among you, at the place where YHWH your God chooses for His Name to dwell there. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful and do these statutes. The Feast of Tabernacles (Numbers 29:12–40) You shall observe the Feast of Booths16.13 Or Tabernacles or Shelters; see footnotes for verse 16. seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow who is within your gates. Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to YHWH your God in the place that YHWH chooses, because YHWH your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the face of YHWH your God in the place that He chooses: At the Feast of the Unleavened,16.16 That is, the seven-day period after the Passover during which no leaven may be eaten; see Exodus 12:14–20. and at the Feast of Weeks,16.16 That is, Shavuot, the late spring feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; it is also known as the Feast of Harvest (see Exodus 23:16) or the Feast of Pentecost (see Acts 2:1). and at the Feast of Booths.16.16 That is, Sukkot, the autumn feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; also translated as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Shelters and originally called the Feast of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:16 and Exodus 34:22). And they shall not appear before the face of YHWH emptily— a man as he is able, according to the blessing of YHWH your God that He has given you. Judges and Justice You shall appoint judges and officers to you within all your gates that YHWH your God gives to you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not twist justice; you shall not show partiality nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Justice and justice alone you shall pursue, that you may live and inherit the land that YHWH your God is giving to you. Forbidden Forms of Worship You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah pole of any tree near the altar of YHWH your God that you build for yourself. And you shall not set up a sacred pillar, which YHWH your God hates. Detestable Sacrifices You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your God a bull or sheep that has in it a blemish, any serious flaw; for it is an abomination to YHWH your God. Purge the Idolater If there is found among you in one of your gates that YHWH your God is giving to you a man or a woman who has been wicked in the eyes of YHWH your God in transgressing His covenant, and who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, and the sun or the moon or any of the host of the heavens that I have not commanded, and it is told to you and you hear it, you shall inquire diligently. And if indeed true the thing is established—this abomination has been done in Israel— then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has committed this wicked thing to your gates—the man or the woman—and you shall stone them with stones and they shall die. On the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses he must surely be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and the hands of all the people afterward. And you shall put away the evil from among you.17.7 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 Courts of Law If a matter is too hard for you to judge—between guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another judgment, or between one punishment or another punishment, matters of controversies within your gates—you shall arise and go up to the place that YHWH your God chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who will be there in those days, and you shall inquire. And they shall pronounce upon you the word of the judgment. And you shall do according to the mouth of the word that they pronounce upon you, in that place that YHWH chooses, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they instruct you. According to the sentence of the law that they instruct you, and according to the judgment that they tell to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word that they pronounce to you, to the right or to the left. And the man who acts proudly and will not listen to the priest who stands there to serve YHWH your God, or to the judge, that man must die, and you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and be afraid and not act proudly anymore. Guidelines for a King (1 Samuel 8:1–9) When you come into the land that YHWH your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and say, “I will set over myself a king like all the nations that are around me,” you shall surely set over yourself a king whom YHWH your God chooses; by him from among your brothers you shall set over yourself a king; you may not set over yourself a foreigner, a man who is not your brother. Only, he shall not multiply for himself horses nor cause to return the people to Egypt so as to multiply horses, for YHWH has said to you⁺, ‘You⁺ shall not return this way again.’ And he shall not multiply for himself wives, and his heart shall not turn away, and silver and gold he shall not multiply for himself greatly. And it shall come to pass, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the faces of the priests, the Levites. And it shall come to pass with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YHWH his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and doing these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom—he and his children—in the midst of Israel. Provision for Priests and Levites (1 Corinthians 9:1–18) There shall not be to the priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—a portion or inheritance with Israel; and the fire offerings of YHWH, His inheritance, they shall eat. And unto them shall be no inheritance among their brothers; YHWH is their inheritance, as He has spoken to them. And this shall be the right of the priest from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is a bull or a sheep; and he shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the cheeks, and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give to him. For YHWH your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of YHWH—he and his sons, for all the days. And if a Levite comes from one of your gates among all Israel, from where he dwells, and he comes with all the desire of his soul to the place that YHWH chooses, he may serve in the name of YHWH his God, as all his brothers the Levites who stand there before the face of YHWH. Equal portions they shall have to eat, besides the sale by him of that of the fathers. Sorcery Forbidden (Acts 8:9–25) When you come into the land that YHWH your God is giving to you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of these nations. There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire,18.10 That is, sacrifices his son or his daughter in the fire a user of divinations, a soothsayer, or a diviner, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells or consults a medium, or a spiritist, or a seeker of the dead. For an abomination to YHWH is everyone doing these things, and because of these abominations YHWH your God is driving them out from before you. You shall be blameless before YHWH your God. For these nations that you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners, and as for you, YHWH your God has not given for you to do so. A Prophet Like Moses (Acts 3:11–26) YHWH your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me; you⁺ must listen to him18.15 Cited in Acts 3:22 according to all that you desired of YHWH your God in Horeb18.16 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of YHWH my God, and let me not see this great fire anymore, so that I will not die.” And YHWH said to me, “What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that whoever will not listen to My words, which he speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 18.19 See Acts 3:23. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—indeed that prophet must be put to death. And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word that YHWH has not spoken?” When a prophet speaks in the name of YHWH and the thing does not happen, and it does not come to pass, it is the thing that YHWH has not spoken. Proudly the prophet has spoken it; you shall not be afraid of him. Cities of Refuge (Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 4:41–43; Joshua 20:1–9) When YHWH your God has cut off the nations whose land YHWH your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall separate for yourself three cities in the midst of your land that YHWH your God is giving you to possess. You shall prepare for yourself the way19.3 Or You are to survey the way and divide into three parts the territory of your land that YHWH your God is giving you to inherit, and it will be that any manslayer may flee there. And this is the matter of the manslayer who flees there that he may live: Whoever strikes his neighbor without knowing, and he without having hated him from yesterday and the day before yesterday, and he who goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut timber, and his hand swings with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood pursue after the manslayer while his anger is hot, and overtake him because the way is long, and kill him, and he did not have a sentence of death, since he had not hated him from yesterday and the day before yesterday. Upon thus I command you, in saying, three cities you shall separate for yourself. And if YHWH your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and He gives you all the land that He promised to give to your fathers, and if you keep all this commandment and do it, that which I command you today, to love YHWH your God, and to walk in His ways all the days, then you shall add to yourself three more cities besides these three. And innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land, which YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance, and blood be upon you. But if anyone comes to hate his neighbor, and he lies in wait for him and rises against him and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, and you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. You shall not move a border of your neighbor, which the men of old have set in your inheritance that you will inherit in the land that YHWH your God is giving you to possess. The Testimony of Two or Three Witnesses (Matthew 18:15–20) One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity, or any sin, in any sin that he commits. Upon the mouth of two witnesses or upon the mouth of three witnesses, a matter shall be established.19.15 Cited in Matthew 18:16 and 2 Corinthians 13:1 If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, both the men between whom is the controversy shall stand before the face of YHWH, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. And the judges shall make inquiry thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness—he has testified a falsehood against his brother— then you⁺ shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother, and you shall put away the evil from among you.19.19 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 And those who remain shall hear and fear, and they shall add not to do this evil thing anymore among you. And your eye shall not pity: Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. 19.21 Cited in Matthew 5:38 Laws of Warfare When you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horses and chariots—people more numerous than you—do not be afraid of them, for YHWH your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall come to pass, in your⁺ drawing near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and he shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel, you⁺ are drawing near today to battle against your⁺ enemies. Do not let your⁺ hearts be faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble, and do not be terrified at their presence. For YHWH your⁺ God is He who goes with you⁺ to fight for you⁺ against your⁺ enemies, to save you⁺.” And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, “Who is the man who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. And who is the man who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.” And the officers shall add to speak to the people and say, “Who is the man fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers shall not melt like his heart.” And it shall come to pass, the officers having finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people. When you go near to a city to fight against it, then you shall call out to it for peace. And it shall come to pass that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people found in it shall be unto you in tribute, and they will serve you. And if it does not make peace with you and makes war against you, then you shall lay siege against it. And YHWH your God has delivered it into your hands, and you shall strike every male in it with the mouth of the sword. But the women, and the children, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself. And you shall devour the plunder of your enemies, which YHWH your God gives to you. Thus you shall do to all the cities very far from you, which are not from the cities of these nations. But from the cities of these peoples that YHWH your God gives to you as an inheritance, you shall not keep alive anything that breathes. But you must devote them to complete destruction20.17 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.—the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite—as YHWH your God has commanded you, so that they will not teach you⁺ to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and cause you⁺ to sin against YHWH your⁺ God. When you lay siege to a city many days while making war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. And if you can eat of them, then do not cut them down, for is the tree of the field a man, coming from your face to besiege? Only the trees that you know that are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut down and build siege works against the city that is making war with you, until it is subdued. Atonement for an Unsolved Murder If one slain is found in the land that YHWH your God is giving you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure to the cities that are surrounding the slain one. And it shall be that the city nearest to the slain man, the elders of that city will take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked in it and which has not pulled with a yoke, and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to an enduring valley, which neither is plowed nor sown, and they shall break the neck there of the heifer in the valley. And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near; for YHWH your God has chosen them to serve and to bless in the name of YHWH, and by their mouth shall be settled every controversy and every assault. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain one shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Receive atonement for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, O YHWH, and lay not innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.” And for the blood atonement shall be provided to them. And you shall remove the innocent blood from among you when you do right in the eyes of YHWH. Marrying a Captive Woman When you go out to war against your enemies, and YHWH your God delivers them into your hand, and you have taken captive its captivity, and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in appearance, and you have delighted in her and would take her as your wife, you shall bring her into the midst of your household, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails, and she shall remove the clothes of her captivity from her and remain in your house and mourn her father and her mother a full month. And after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be to you wife. And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, that you send her away at her desire. And surely you shall not sell her for silver, nor shall you treat her brutally, upon that you have humbled her. Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn If a man has two wives, one loved and one hated, and they have borne to him sons, the loved and the hated, and the firstborn son is to the hated one, then it shall come to pass on the day he assigns his inheritance to his sons that are to him, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife over the face of the son of the hated one, the firstborn. But the firstborn son of the hated wife he shall acknowledge by giving him a double portion of all that is found to him, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him is the right of the firstborn. A Rebellious Son (Luke 15:11–32) If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and they have disciplined him and he will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his city, and they shall say to the elders of his city, “Our son, this one, is stubborn and rebellious; he will not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.” And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones to death; and you shall put away the evil from among you,21.21 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 and all Israel shall listen and fear. Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree And if a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,21.22 Or impale his body on a pole; similarly in verse 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the day—for cursed of God is he who is hanged on a tree—so that you do not defile the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance. 21.23 LXX; Hebrew does not include on a tree; cited in Galatians 3:13 Various Laws You shall not see the ox of your brother or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself22.1 Or you must not hide yourself from them; you shall surely turn them back to your brother. And if your brother is not near to you, or if you do not know him, you shall bring it to the middle of your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it—and you shall restore it to him. And so shall you do with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with any lost thing of your brother that is lost by him and you have found it. You must not hide yourself. You shall not see the donkey of your brother or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely raise them up with him. Anything that pertains to a man shall not be upon a woman, and a man shall not put on the garment of a woman; for an abomination to YHWH your God is anyone doing these things. If the nest of a bird is encountered to your face along the way in any tree or on the ground, with chicks or eggs, and with the mother sitting on the chicks or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the sons; you shall surely send away the mother, and the young take for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring blood on your house if anyone falls down from it. You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed that you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.22.9 Or will be forfeited to the sanctuary You shall not plow with an ox and with a donkey together. You shall not wear mixed material, wool and linen mixed together. You shall make tassels for yourself on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself. Marriage Violations If any man takes a wife, and he goes in to her and detests her, and he charges her with shameful conduct and brings on her a bad name and says, “This woman I took, and I came to her, and I found her not a virgin,” the father and the young woman—and mother—shall take and bring out the tokens of virginity of the young woman to the elders of the city at the gate. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he detests her. And behold, he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter a virgin,’ and these are the tokens of the virginity of my daughter.” And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him. And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver22.19 100 shekels is approximately 2.5 pounds or 1.1 kilograms of silver. and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be wife to him; he may not divorce her all his days. But if this thing is true and tokens of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones to death, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel to play the prostitute in the house of her father. And you shall put away the evil from among you.22.21 Here and in verse 24; cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall die, even the two of them, the man that lay with the woman and the woman. And you shall put away the evil from Israel. If there is a young woman, a virgin, betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you⁺ shall bring out the two of them to the gate of that city, and you⁺ shall stone them with stones to death—the young woman on account of the matter, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man upon this thing, because he humbled the wife of his neighbor. And you shall put away the evil from among you. But if in the countryside the man finds a young woman betrothed, and the man forces her and lies with her, only the man who lay with her shall die. And to the young woman you shall not do anything; in the young woman there is no sin of death. For as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the countryside and cried out the young woman betrothed, and there was no one to save her. If a man finds a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver,22.29 50 shekels is approximately 1.26 pounds or 569.8 grams of silver. and to him she shall be wife upon that he has humbled her. He shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days. A man shall not take the wife of his father, and he shall not uncover the skirt of his father.22.30 Or uncover the marriage bed of his father Exclusion from the Congregation One bruised by crushing or severing the genitals shall not enter into the assembly of YHWH. One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of YHWH—even to the tenth generation none shall enter of his seed into the assembly of YHWH. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of YHWH; even to the tenth generation none shall enter the assembly of YHWH, even to the age, on account of the matter that they did not meet you⁺ with the bread and with the water on the road when you⁺ came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim, to curse you. 23.4 That is, Mesopotamia; Aram-naharaim means Aram of the two rivers, likely the region between the Euphrates and Balih Rivers in northwestern Mesopotamia. And YHWH your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, and YHWH your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because YHWH your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days, forever. You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. The sons who are begotten to them, the third generation, may enter into the assembly of YHWH. Uncleanness in the Camp (Leviticus 15:1–12) When a camp goes out against your enemies, keep yourself from every wicked thing. If there is any man among you who is not clean by some occurrence in the night, he shall go to the outside of the camp; he shall not come in to the midst of the camp. And it shall come to pass at the turning of the evening that he shall wash with the water, and at the going in of the sun he may come in to the midst of the camp. And a place shall be for you outside of the camp, and you may go there outside. And an implement shall be unto you among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover up your filth. For YHWH your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give over your enemies to your faces, and your camp shall be holy, that He may see in you no unclean thing and turn away from you. Miscellaneous Laws You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped to you from his master. He will dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he chooses, within one of your gates, where it is pleasing to him. You shall not oppress him. There shall not be a prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall there be a shrine prostitute from the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wage of a prostitute or the price of a dog23.18 Or of a male prostitute into the house of YHWH your God for any vowed offering; for both of them are indeed an abomination to YHWH your God. Do not lend in usury to your brother—usury of silver, usury of food, usury of anything that is lent on usury. To a foreigner you may lend in usury, and to your brother you may not lend in usury, so that YHWH your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land that you are entering to possess. When you make a vow to YHWH your God, you shall not delay to pay it. For YHWH your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you. But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin in you. That which has gone out of your lips you shall keep and perform, as you vowed to YHWH your God voluntarily what you have spoken with your mouth. When you come to the vineyard of your neighbor, you may eat grapes according to your desire, your sufficiency. And into your vessel you shall not put any. When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, you may pluck the heads with your hand, and a sickle you shall not use on the standing grain of your neighbor. Marriage and Divorce Laws (Matthew 5:31–32; Luke 16:18) When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found in her some uncleanness, and he writes to her a certificate of divorce24.1 Cited in Matthew 5:31; see also Mark 10:4. and puts it into her hand and sends her out of his house, and she has departed from his house and goes and becomes to another man, and the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be wife to him after that she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the face of YHWH, and you shall not bring sin upon the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with anything. He shall be free at home one year, and bring joy to his wife whom he has taken. Additional Laws No one shall take in pledge the lower or the upper millstone, for it is a life for a pledge. If a man is found kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he mistreats him or sells him, that thief shall die. And you shall put away the evil from among you.24.7 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13 Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy24.8 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13. that you observe carefully and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you⁺. As I commanded them, you⁺ shall be careful to do. Remember what YHWH your God did to Miriam on the way, when you⁺ came out of Egypt. When you lend your brother a loan of anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend it shall bring out to you the pledge outside. And if the man is poor, you shall not lie asleep with his pledge. You shall surely return the pledge to him when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you, and to you it shall be righteousness before the face of YHWH your God. You shall not oppress a hireling who is poor and needy, one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who is in your land within your gates. Each day you shall give him his wage, and let the sun not go down on it—for he is poor, and on it he lifts up his heart—lest he cry out against you to YHWH, and it be sin in you. Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, and neither shall sons be put to death for fathers. A man shall be put to death for his own sin. 24.16 Cited in 2 Kings 14:6 and 2 Chronicles 25:4 You shall not pervert justice due the sojourner or the fatherless, nor take as a pledge the garment of a widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH your God redeemed you from there. Upon thus I command you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. To the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be, that YHWH your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again. To the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean after yourself; to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Upon thus I command you to do this thing. Fairness and Mercy If there is a dispute between men, and they come to the court, they are to be judged, and the righteous shall be declared righteous, and the wicked condemned. And it shall come to pass, if a son—the wicked man—deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and to be struck in his presence according to his wrongdoing, by number. Forty times he shall strike him—no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him above these with many blows, and your brother be humiliated in your eyes. You shall not muzzle an ox in its threshing. 25.4 Cited in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18 Widowhood and Marriage If brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son to him, the widow of the dead man shall not be outside to a sojourner. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of her husband's brother. 25.5 Cited in Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19, and Luke 20:28 And it shall come to pass that the firstborn son that she bears will rise up upon the name of the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not want to take his brother’s widow, let his brother’s widow go up to the gate to the elders and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my brother-in-law.” And the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, “I do not want to take her,” his brother’s widow shall come to him before the eyes of the elders, and remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face, and answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who will not build up the house of his brother.” And his name shall be called in Israel, “The house of the removed sandal.” If men fight with each other, a man and his brother, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and she puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall not pity her. Standard Weights and Measures (Proverbs 11:1–3; Ezekiel 45:10–12) You shall not have in your bag a stone and a stone, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house an ephah and an ephah, a large and a small. And you shall have a complete and just stone, and you shall have a complete and just ephah, so that your days may be prolonged in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you. For an abomination to YHWH your God is anyone doing these things—anyone doing iniquity. Revenge on the Amalekites Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, as you⁺ were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear; and you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God. And it will come to pass, when YHWH your God has given rest to you from your enemies all around, in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget. Offering Firstfruits and Tithes (Leviticus 27:30–34; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Nehemiah 13:10–14) And it shall come to pass, when you come into the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that YHWH your God is giving you, and you shall put it in the basket and go to the place where YHWH your God chooses for His Name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in those days and say to him, “I declare today to YHWH your God that I have come to the land that YHWH swore to our fathers to give to us.” And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the face of the altar of YHWH your God. And you shall answer and say before the face of YHWH your God, “My father was a perishing Aramaean, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there with men few in number, and he became there a nation great, mighty, and numerous. And the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us and laid on us hard labor. And we cried out to YHWH, God of our fathers, and YHWH heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our toil and our oppression. And YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs and wonders. And He has brought us to this place and has given to us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which You have given to me, O YHWH.” And you shall set it before the face of YHWH your God and bow down before the face of YHWH your God; and you shall rejoice in every good thing that YHWH your God has given to you and to your house—you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. When you have finished laying aside to tithe all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied, then you shall say before the face of YHWH your God, “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and also have given it to the Levite, and to the sojourner, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments that You have commanded me. I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten. I have not eaten any of it in my affliction, nor have I removed of it for uncleanness, nor have I given of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of YHWH my God, and I have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, the heavens, and bless Your people Israel and the land that You have given to us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Obey Yahweh’s Commands This day YHWH your God commands you to observe these statutes and ordinances. And you shall keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have proclaimed YHWH today to be your God, that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes and His commands and His judgments, and listen to His voice. And YHWH has proclaimed you today to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised to you, and that you should keep all His commandments, that He will set you high above all nations that He has made, in praise and in name and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to YHWH your God, as He has spoken. The Altar on Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30–35) And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments that I command to you⁺ today. And it shall come to pass on the day when you⁺ pass over the Jordan to the land that YHWH your God is giving to you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law in your passing over, so that you may enter into the land that YHWH your God is giving to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, God of your fathers, has spoken to you. And it shall come to pass in your⁺ passing over the Jordan that you⁺ shall set up these stones, which I command to you⁺ today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. And you shall build there an altar to YHWH your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wave over them iron. With uncut stones you shall build the altar of YHWH your God, and offer on it burnt offerings to YHWH your God. And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and you shall eat there and rejoice before the face of YHWH your God. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law, making them plainly, well engraved.” And Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel; this day you have become the people of YHWH your God. And you shall obey the voice of YHWH your God and do His commandments and His statutes that I am commanding you today.” Curses Pronounced from Ebal And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying, “These shall stand to bless the people on Mount Gerizim when you⁺ have passed over the Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand to curse on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall speak and say to every man of Israel in a loud voice: ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved or molten image, an abomination to YHWH, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who moves a border of his neighbor.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who causes a blind man to err in the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the fatherless, the foreigner, or the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with the wife of his father, because he has uncovered the skirt of his father.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 27.20 Or uncovered the marriage bed of his father ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to slay a soul of innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing it.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 27.26 LXX Cursed is every man who does not continue in all the words of this law; cited in Galatians 3:10 The Blessings of Obedience (Leviticus 25:18–22) “ And it shall come to pass, if you will listen carefully to the voice of YHWH your God, to observe carefully to do all His commandments that I command you today, that YHWH your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of YHWH your God. Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field. Blessed is the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, and the increase of your herd, the increase of your cattle, and the increase of your flock. Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed are you in your coming in, and blessed are you in your going out. YHWH will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; in one way they shall come out against you, and in seven ways they shall flee before you. YHWH will command with you the blessing in your barns and in every putting forth of your hand, and He will bless you in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you. YHWH will establish you to Himself as a holy people, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of YHWH your God and walk in His ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of YHWH is called upon you, and they shall be afraid of you. And YHWH will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land that YHWH swore to your fathers to give to you. YHWH will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow. And YHWH will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall be only above, and be not beneath, if you listen to the commandments of YHWH your God, which I am commanding you today to keep and do. And you shall not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you⁺ this day, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. The Curses of Disobedience (Leviticus 20:1–9; Leviticus 26:14–39) And it shall come to pass, if you do not listen to the voice of YHWH your God, to observe carefully to do all His commandments and His statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field. Cursed is your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed is the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. Cursed are you in your coming in, and cursed are you in your going out. YHWH will send on you the cursing, the confusion, and the rebuke, in every putting forth of your hand that you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. YHWH will make cling to you the plague, until He has consumed you from the land that you are going in to possess. YHWH will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with severe burning fever, and with the sword,28.22 Or drought and with scorching, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens that are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron. YHWH will give the rain of your land to be dust and powder; from the heavens it shall come down on you, until you are destroyed. YHWH will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; one way you shall go out against him, and seven ways you shall flee before his face, and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your carcass shall be food for all the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. YHWH will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, from which you are not able to be healed. YHWH will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and plundered all of the days, and no one shall save you. You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house and you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard and you shall not gather its grapes. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be seized from before your face and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes are looking and wasting away toward them all the day, and there is no power in your hand. A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and of all your toil, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days. And you shall be driven mad because of the sight of your eyes that you see. YHWH will strike you with severe boils in the knees and on the legs, which are not able to be healed, from the sole of your foot and to the top of your head. YHWH shall bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations to which YHWH will drive you. Much Seed you shall carry out into the field, and little gather in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and tend them, and of the wine you shall not drink and not gather, for the worms shall consume it. Olive trees shall be unto you throughout all your territory, and with the oil you shall not anoint, for your olives shall drop off. You shall bear sons and daughters, and they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. The locust shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. The foreigner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, and you shall descend lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. And all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of YHWH your God to keep His commandments and His statutes that He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your seed, even to forever. Because that you did not serve YHWH your God with joy and gladness of heart from the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom YHWH will send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. YHWH will bring against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies, a nation whose tongue you have not heard, a nation fierce of face, which does not respect the face of the aged, and does not show favor to the young. And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed—which will leave to you no grain, or new wine, or oil, or offspring of your cattle, or increase of your flock, until they have destroyed you. And they shall lay siege to you in all your gates until your walls, high and fortified, in which you trust, come down in all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates in all your land that YHWH your God has given to you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom YHWH your God has given you, in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you. The tender man among you and very refined—his eye shall do evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons whom he leaves behind, so that he will not give to one of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because there remains nothing at all for him in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you at all your gates.28.55 Or within all your cities; similarly in verse 57 The tender and delicate woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness—her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter, and against her afterbirth that comes from between her feet, and against her children whom she bears. For she will eat them in secret for lack of anything in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. If you are not careful to do all the words of this law written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—YHWH your God— then YHWH will bring extraordinary plagues and the plagues of your seed, great and prolonged plagues, and evil and prolonged sicknesses. And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, the presence of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the Book of this Law, YHWH will bring upon you until you are destroyed. And you⁺ shall be left few men, instead of which you⁺ were as stars of the heavens in multitude, because you would not listen to the voice of YHWH your God. And it shall come to pass that as YHWH rejoiced over you⁺ to do good to you⁺ and multiply you⁺, so YHWH will rejoice over you⁺ to destroy you⁺ and bring you⁺ to nothing, and you⁺ shall be plucked from off the land that you are going there to possess. And YHWH will scatter you among all the peoples, from the end of the earth and to the end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods—which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. And among those nations you shall not find rest, nor shall you have a resting place for the sole of your foot. And there YHWH will give to you a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and anguish of soul. And your life shall be hanging in doubt before you, and you shall dread night and day, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that evening be granted!’ And at the evening you shall say, ‘Would that morning be granted!’ Because of the dread of your heart that you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes that you see. And YHWH will take you back to Egypt in ships by the way of which I said to you, never will you add again to see it, and you⁺ will sell yourselves there to your enemies for menservants and for maidservants, and no one will buy you.” The Covenant in Moab These are the words of the covenant that YHWH commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that He made with them in Horeb.29.1 That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai And Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “You⁺ have seen all that YHWH did before your⁺ eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land— the great trials that your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. And YHWH has not given to you⁺ a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this day. And I have led you⁺ forty years in the wilderness; your⁺ garments have not worn out from you⁺, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. Bread you⁺ have not eaten, and wine and strong drink you⁺ have not drunk, so that you⁺ may know that I am YHWH your⁺ God. And you⁺ came to this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. And we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenite, and to the Gadite, and to the half-tribe of the Manassite. And you⁺ shall keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that in all that you⁺ do you⁺ may prosper. You⁺ stand today, all of you⁺, before the face of YHWH your⁺ God—your⁺ leaders of your⁺ tribes, and your⁺ elders, and your⁺ officers—all the men of Israel, 29.10 LXX and Syriac; Hebrew your leaders, your tribes your⁺ little ones, and your⁺ wives, and the sojourner who is in the midst of your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— that you may enter into the covenant of YHWH your God and into His oath, which YHWH your God makes with you today, so that He may establish you today as a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto you God, as He has spoken to you and as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And not with you⁺ alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath, but with those who are here with us today standing before the face of YHWH our God, and with him who is not here with us today. For you⁺ know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed over in the midst of the nations that you⁺ passed over. And you⁺ saw their abominations, and their idols—wood and stone and silver and gold—that were among them, lest there be among you⁺ man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from YHWH our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations, lest there be among you⁺ a root bearing gall and wormwood, 29.18 See Hebrews 12:15 and it will come to pass in his hearing the words of this oath,29.19 Or curse that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,’ so that the wet are swept away with the dry. YHWH will not spare him, for then the anger of YHWH and His jealousy would burn against that man, and upon him will rest every oath written in this book, and YHWH will blot out his name from under the heavens. And YHWH will separate him for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the oaths of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. And the latter generation of your⁺ sons who rise up after you⁺, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, will say when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses that YHWH has laid on it: Of sulfur and salt is all the land burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there—like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which YHWH overthrew in His anger and His wrath. And all the nations will say, ‘What has YHWH done to this land upon thus? Why the heat of this great anger?’ And they will say, ‘Upon that they have forsaken the covenant of YHWH, God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. For they went and served other gods and worshiped them—gods that they did not know, that He had not apportioned to them— and the anger of YHWH was kindled against that land, to bring on it every curse written in this book. And YHWH uprooted them from their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and He cast them into another land, as it is this day.’ The things hidden are of YHWH our God, and the things revealed are to us and to our sons even to forever, that we may do all the words of this law. The Promise of Restoration (Nehemiah 1:1–11) “ And it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which YHWH your God has driven you away, and you return to YHWH your God and listen to His voice according to all that I command you today—you and your sons—with all your heart and with all your soul, then YHWH your God will turn back your captivity,30.3 Or restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and turn back and gather you from all the nations to which YHWH your God has scattered you there. If it comes to pass that you are cast out into the extremity of the heavens,30.4 Or to the farthest horizon from there YHWH your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.30.4 Cited in Nehemiah 1:8–9 And YHWH your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And YHWH your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. And YHWH your God will put all these oaths on your enemies and on those who hate you, who pursued you. And you will turn back and listen to the voice of YHWH and do all His commandments that I command you today. And YHWH your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your land, for good. For YHWH will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you listen to the voice of YHWH your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes written in the Book of this Law, and if you turn to YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Choice of Life or Death For this commandment that I command you today is not too wonderful for you, and it is not far off. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend for us into the heavens and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 30.12 Cited in Romans 10:6 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go for us to beyond the sea and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 30.13 See Romans 10:7. But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 30.14 Cited in Romans 10:8 See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, that you may live and multiply, that YHWH your God will bless you in the land that you are going there to possess. But if your heart turns away, so that you do not listen, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you⁺ today that you⁺ will surely perish; you⁺ will not prolong your days in the land that you are passing over the Jordan to go in there to possess it. I call as witnesses against you⁺ today the heavens and the earth that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that you may live—you and your seed, and that you may love YHWH your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.” Joshua to Succeed Moses (Numbers 27:18–23) And Moses had finished speaking31.1 DSS and LXX; MT And Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel, and he said to them, “I am a son of a hundred and twenty years today; I cannot anymore go out and come in, and YHWH has said to me, ‘You shall not pass over this Jordan.’ YHWH your God—He will pass over before your faces. He will destroy these nations from before your faces, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua—he will pass over before your faces as YHWH has spoken. And YHWH will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorite, and to their land, when He destroyed them. And YHWH will give them over to you⁺, that you⁺ may do to them according to every commandment that I have commanded you⁺. Be strong and be of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them, for YHWH your God is He who is going with you. He will not fail you and He will not forsake you.” 31.6 Cited in Hebrews 13:5; here and in verse 8 And Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the eyes of all Israel, “Be strong and be of good courage, for you—you must go with this people to the land that YHWH has sworn to their fathers to give to them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And YHWH is He who is going before you; He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Fear not, nor be dismayed.” The Reading of the Law (Nehemiah 8:1–8) And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, in the Feast of the Booths,31.10 That is, Sukkot, the autumn feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; also translated as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Shelters and originally called the Feast of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:16 and Exodus 34:22). when all Israel comes to appear before the face of YHWH your God in the place that He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their ears. Gather together the people, the men, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and so that they may learn and fear YHWH your⁺ God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear YHWH your⁺ God all the days that you⁺ are living in the land that you⁺ are passing over the Jordan to possess.” God Commissions Joshua And YHWH said to Moses, “Behold, the day has drawn near when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. And YHWH appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tent. And YHWH said to Moses, “Behold, you are lying down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and play the prostitute with the gods of the foreigners of the land which he is entering, there in the midst; and he will forsake Me and break My covenant that I have made with him. And My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because that my God is not in my midst that these evils have found me?’ And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods. And now write down for yourselves this song, and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel. When I have brought them to the land that I have sworn to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will spurn Me and break My covenant. And it shall come to pass when many evils and distresses have come upon him, that this song will testify to his face as a witness, for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of his seed. For I know the inclination that he is doing today, even before I bring him to the land of which I have sworn.” And Moses wrote this song in that day, and he taught it to the sons of Israel. And He commanded Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and be of good courage, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land that I swore to them, and I will be with you.” The Law Placed in the Ark And it came to pass, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book until it was complete, that Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH, saying, “Take this Book of the Law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of YHWH your⁺ God, that it may be there as a witness against you. For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, in my being yet alive with you⁺ this day, you⁺ have been rebellious against YHWH; how much more surely after my death! Gather to me all the elders of your⁺ tribes, and your⁺ officers, that I may speak in their ears these words and call to witness against them the heavens and the earth. For I know that after my death, you⁺ will become utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you⁺, and evil will meet you⁺ in the latter days, because you⁺ will do evil in the eyes of YHWH to provoke Him to anger through the work of your⁺ hands.” Moses Begins His Song And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended: The Song of Moses (Revelation 15:1–4) Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop like rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For the name of YHWH I proclaim; ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock—perfect His work is, for all His ways are just; a God of truth and without injustice, righteous and upright is He. They have corrupted themselves; because of their blemish they are not His sons, a generation perverse and crooked. 32.5 Cited in Philippians 2:15 Is it even to YHWH that you⁺ would act this way, O people foolish and unwise? Is not He your Father who created you, He who made you and established you? Remember the days of old, consider the years of generation upon generation. Ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples by the number of the sons of God. 32.8 DSS; LXX according to the number of the angels of God; MT according to the number of the sons of Israel For YHWH's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the pupil32.10 Or the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up his nest, he hovers over his young, he spreads his wings, he takes him, he carries him upon his pinions,32.11 Pinions are the outer parts of a bird’s wings, including the flight feathers. YHWH alone led him, and no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the earth, that he might eat the fruits of the field. And He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock, curds of the herd and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the sons of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and of the blood of the grape you drank wine. And Jeshurun32.15 Jeshurun means the upright one, a term of endearment for Israel. grew fat and kicked— you grew fat, you grew thick, you gorged— and he forsook God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known. New ones—from the vicinity they came— that your⁺ fathers did not fear. The Rock who brought you forth you neglected, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. And YHWH saw it, and He spurned them, from the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said, “I will hide My face from them, I shall see what is their end; for a perverse generation are they, sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. And I will provoke them to jealousy by those not a people; by a foolish nation I will anger them.32.21 Or not a nation; see also LXX. 32.21 Cited in Romans 10:19 For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, and it shall consume the earth and its yield, and scorch the foundations of the mountains. I will heap upon them disasters; My arrows I will spend on them: Wasted by famine and devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send against them, with the poison of fearful things of the dust. Outside the sword will bereave, and inside shall be terror for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. I said I would dash them in pieces, I would remove their memory from among men, if I had not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is high, and it is not YHWH who has done all this.’” For they are a nation void of counsel, and in them there is no understanding. If only they were wise, that they understood this, they would consider their latter end! How does one pursue a thousand, and two put to flight a myriad, if not that their Rock had sold them and YHWH had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, and our enemies themselves are judges.32.31 Hebrew; LXX but our enemies are void of understanding For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. The poison of serpents is their wine, and the cruel venom of cobras. “Is not this laid up with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In time their foot shall slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come upon them hurry.” 32.35 LXX; Hebrew Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; cited in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30 For YHWH will judge His people, and on His servants have compassion, when He sees that the power is gone, and there is no one, slave or free. 32.36 Or will vindicate His people; see also LXX; cited in Hebrews 10:30 And He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, that ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise and help you⁺ and be for you⁺ a shelter. See now that I— I am He—and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal, and from My hand none can deliver. For I lift up My hand to the heavens and say, as I live forever, if I have sharpened the brightness of My sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will turn back vengeance to My enemies and those who hate Me I will repay. I will make drunk My arrows with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people;32.43 See DSS and LXX; MT lacks Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Cited in Hebrews 1:6 for the blood of His children32.43 Cited in Romans 15:10 He will avenge, and vengeance He will return on His adversaries and He will repay those who hate Him,32.43 DSS and LXX; MT servants and He will provide atonement for His land—His people. 32.43 LXX and Vulgate; MT lacks and He will repay those who hate Him And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people—he and Joshua32.44 LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea, a variant of Joshua son of Nun. And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, and He said to them, “Set your⁺ hearts on all the words that I testify among you⁺ today, which you⁺ shall command your⁺ sons to be careful to do—all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you⁺, because it is your⁺ life, and by this word you⁺ shall prolong days in the land that there you⁺ are passing over the Jordan to possess it.” Moses’ Death Foretold And YHWH spoke to Moses this same day, saying, “Go up into this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel as a possession. And die on the mountain that you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, upon that you⁺ trespassed against Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribath-Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, upon that you⁺ did not sanctify Me in the midst of the sons of Israel. Yet from a distance you shall see the land, and there you shall not go into the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel.” Moses Blesses the Twelve Tribes And this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before the face of his death, and he said: “YHWH came from Sinai and dawned upon us33.2 LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; Hebrew upon them from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire from His right hand for them.33.2 Or with myriads of holy ones from the south, from His mountain slopes Yes, He loves the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet;33.3 Or they follow in Your steps each receives Your words. Moses commanded a law for us, a possession for the assembly of Jacob. And He was King in Jeshurun,33.5 Jeshurun means the upright one, a term of endearment for Israel; also in verse 26. when were gathered the leaders of the people together with the tribes of Israel. Let Reuben live and not die, and let his men be numerable.” And this is for Judah; and he said, “Hear, O YHWH, the voice of Judah, and to his people bring him; let his hands be sufficient for him, and may You be a help against his enemies.” And of Levi he said, “Your Thummim are unto Levi33.8 DSS and LXX; MT does not include are unto Levi; literally Let Your Perfections and Your Lights be to Your godly one. and Your Urim unto Your godly man, whom You tested at Massah,33.8 Massah means testing; see Exodus 17:7. and with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah,33.8 Meribah means quarreling; see Exodus 17:7. who says of his father and mother, ‘I have not seen them,’ and his brothers he did not acknowledge, and his own sons he did not know; for they have kept33.9 Hebrew they have kept most likely refers to Levi in the plural; similarly twice in verse 10 Your word, and Your covenant they keep. They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob and Your law to Israel; they shall put incense before You and a whole burnt offering on Your altar. Bless, O YHWH, his substance, and the work of his hands accept. Smash the loins of those who rise against him, and of those who hate him, that they rise not again.” Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of YHWH shall dwell in safety in Him, covering him all the day, and between His shoulders He rests.” And of Joseph he said, “Blessed of YHWH is his land with the precious things of the heavens, by dew, and the deep crouching beneath, and with the precious fruits of the sun, and with the precious produce of the months, and with the best things of the ancient mountains, and with the precious things of the everlasting hills, and from the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of Him who is dwelling in the bush. Let it rest on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of the prince of his brothers. Honor unto him is a firstling of his ox and the horns of the wild ox are his horns; with them he shall push the peoples together to the ends of the earth. And they are the myriads of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” And of Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents. They shall call the peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness. For they suckle the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hidden in the sand.” And of Gad he said, “Blessed is he who enlarges Gad; as a lion He dwells; and he tears the arm and the crown of the head. And he provided the first for himself because there was reserved a portion of the lawgiver, and He came with the heads of the people. The justice of YHWH He administered, and His ordinances with Israel.” And of Dan he said, “Dan is a whelp of a lion; He shall leap from Bashan.” And of Naphtali he said, “Naphtali is satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of YHWH, of the sea and the south33.23 Or the west he shall take possession.” And of Asher he said, “Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him dip his foot in the oil. Iron and bronze are your gates, and as your days is your strength.” “None is like the God of Jeshurun, riding the heavens to help you, and in His majesty on the clouds. A habitation is the eternal God and underneath are the arms everlasting. And He will thrust out from before you the enemy and will say, ‘Destroy.’ And Israel shall dwell in safety, alone as the fountain of Jacob in a land of grain and new wine; also His heavens drip down dew. Blessed are you, O Israel; who is like you, a people saved by YHWH, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your majesty! And Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread upon their high places.” The Death of Moses And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And YHWH showed him all the land of Gilead, as far as Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, as far as the Western Sea,34.2 That is, the Mediterranean Sea, also called the Great Sea and the Negev, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms), as far as Zoar. And YHWH said to him, “This is the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed I will give it.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, and there you shall not pass over.” And Moses the servant of YHWH died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of YHWH. And He buried34.6 SP and some LXX manuscripts they buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; no man knows his grave to this day. And Moses was a son of a hundred and twenty years when he died; his eyes were not dim, nor had his vigor fled. And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. And Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. And the sons of Israel listened to him and did as YHWH had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen since that time a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom YHWH knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders that YHWH sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, and before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all the mighty power and all the great terror,34.12 Or awesome deeds which Moses performed in the eyes of all Israel.