 CHAPTERS 5 THROUGH 11 OF THE BOOK OF DUTORONOMY, FROM THE WORLD INGLESH BIBLE. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. THE BOOK OF DUTORONOMY, CHAPTERS 5 THROUGH 11, FROM THE WORLD INGLESH BIBLE. CHAPTER 5 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, Here, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them and observe to do them. Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Yahweh didn't make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire. I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the fire and didn't go up onto the mountain, saying, I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them. For I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third, and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me, and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain. For Yahweh will not hold him guiltless, who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. You shall labor six days, and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates. That your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. You shall not murder. Neither shall you commit adultery. Neither shall you steal. Neither shall you give false testimony against your neighbor. Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me. It happened when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and you said, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God shall tell you, and we will hear it, and do it. Yahweh heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and Yahweh said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken. Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever. Go tell them, return to your tents. But ask for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. You shall observe to do therefore, as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand, or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. That you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your Son, and your Son's Son, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has promised to you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Here, Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one, and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I command you this day shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. It shall be when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and goodly cities which you didn't build, and houses full of all good things which you didn't fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn't dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn't plant, and you shall eat and be full. Then beware lest you forget Yahweh who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall fear Yahweh your God, and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes which he has commanded you. You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken. When your son asks you in time to come saying, what do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean? Then you shall tell your son. We were Pharaoh's bond servants in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders 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 which he swore to our fathers. Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us. Chapter 7 When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Parasite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when Yahweh your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them, then you shall utterly destroy them, you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, neither shall you make marriages with them, your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son, for he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so the anger of Yahweh would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly, but you shall deal with them like this, you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their ashram, and burn their engraved images with fire, for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, as Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face. You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you this day, to do them. It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers, and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples, there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. Yahweh will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, he will put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. If you shall say in your heart, these nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them. You shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eye saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. You shall not be scared of them, for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God. Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you, by little and little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and you will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed. He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky. No man shall be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it, for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a devoted thing. Chapter 8 You shall observe to do all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn't know. Neither did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only. But man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing didn't grow old on you, neither did your foot swell these forty years. You shall consider in your heart, that as a man chasens his son, so Yahweh your God chasens you. You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness. You shall not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you this day, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and lived therein. And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you forth water out of the rock of Flint, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn't know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end. And lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them. I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish, as the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you wouldn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. Chapter 9 Here, Israel, you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? Know therefore this day, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you, as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you, so you shall drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. Don't say in your heart after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness, Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land. Because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations, not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land. But for the wickedness of these nations, Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn't give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember, don't forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. Also in Horeb, you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. When I was gone up onto the mountain to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the Covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. Yahweh delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you, on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly. It came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights that Yahweh gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the Covenant. Yahweh said to me, Arise, get down quickly from here for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten image. Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the sky, and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tables of the Covenant were in my two hands. I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you. I took hold of the two tables and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. At Tabarra, and at Massa, and at Kibroff Hataava, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listened to his voice. You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. I prayed to Yahweh and said, Lord Yahweh, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin, lest the land you brought us out from, say, because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power, and by your outstretched arm. Chapter 10 At that time Yahweh said to me, Cut two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood. I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tables of stone like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tables in my hand. He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and Yahweh gave them to me. I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and there they are as Yahweh commanded me. The children of Israel traveled from Birof Ben-Jayakon to Mosara. There Aaron died, and he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his place. From there they traveled to Gad-Goda, and from Gad-Goda to Jotbafa, a land of brooks of water. At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers. Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him. I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and Yahweh listened to me that time also. Yahweh would not destroy you. Yahweh said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people, and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them. Now Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes which I command you this day for your good. Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is therein. Only Yahweh had to delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples as at this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and lord of lords, the great God, the mighty and the awesome, who doesn't respect persons, nor takes reward. He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing. Therefore, love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear Yahweh your God, you shall serve him, and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons, and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude. Chapter 11 Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments always. Know this day, for I don't speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, and his signs and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Daphne and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. But your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh that he did. Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong and go in and possess the land where you go over to possess it, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land where you go into possess it isn't as the land of Egypt that you came out from, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot as a garden of herbs, but the land where you go over to possess it is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water of the rain of the sky, a land which Yahweh your God cares for. For eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. It shall happen if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. I will give grass in your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit, and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. Therefore you shall lay up these words in my heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. You shall teach them your children, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 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 which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them as the days of the heavens above the earth. For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways and to cling to him, then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soul of your foot shall tread shall be yours. From the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the Hinder Sea shall be your border. No man shall be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on as he has spoken to you. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you this day, and the curse if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which you have not known. It shall happen when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Garizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the Oaks of Mora? For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you and you shall possess it and dwell therein. You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day. The end of chapters 5 through 11 of the Book of Deuteronomy from the World English Bible. Recording by Mark Penfold Chapters 12 through 19 of the Book of Deuteronomy from the World English Bible This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mark Penfold Deuteronomy from the World English Bible Chapters 12 through 19 Chapter 12 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places in which 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 dash in pieces their pillars and burn their ashermen with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods, and you shall destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God, but to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even to his habitation you shall seek, and there you shall come, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd, and of your flock, and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes, for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you dwell in safety, then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your male servants, and your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. Take heed to yourself that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates after all the desire of your soul according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the heart. Only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it out on the earth as water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd, or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand. But you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you and your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. Take heed to yourself that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. When Yahweh your God shall enlarge your border as he has promised you, and you shall say, I want to eat meat because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat after all the desire of your soul. If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock which Yahweh has given you as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates after all the desire of your soul. Even as the gazelle and as the heart is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. Only be sure that you don't eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it, you shall pour it out on the earth as water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh. Only your holy things which you have and your vows you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose, and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God, and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, and you shall eat the flesh. Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their God saying, how do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God, for every abomination to Yahweh which he hates have they done to their gods, for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods, whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do, you shall not add there to, nor diminish from it. Chapter 13 If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give 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, which you have not known, and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. You shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cling to him. That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 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, entice you secretly saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth, even to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him, neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this in the midst of you. If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, saying, certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known. Then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently, and behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain that such abomination is done in the midst of you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and its livestock with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its spoil every wit to Yahweh your God, and it shall be a heap for ever, it shall not be built again. Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers, when you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. Chapter 14 You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. You shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the animals which you may eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the heart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the shammy. Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven, the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, because they chew the cud but don't part the hoof, they are unclean to you. The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn't chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. These you may eat of all that are in the waters, whatever has fins and scales may you eat, and whatever doesn't have fins and scales you shall not eat, it is unclean to you. Of all clean birds you may eat, but these are they of which you shall not eat. The eagle, and the vulture, and the osprey, and the red kite, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, and every raven after its kind, and the ostrich, and the owl, and the seagull, and the hawk after its kind, the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant, and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopo, and the bat. All winged creeping things are unclean to you, they shall not be eaten. Of all clean birds you may eat. You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you 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 Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes forth from the field, year by year. You shall eat before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd, and of your flock, that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always. If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Yahweh your God shall choose to set his name there, when Yahweh your God shall bless you, then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall bestow the money for whatever your soul desires, for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you, and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. The Levite who is within your gates, you shall not forsake him, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. At the end of every three years, you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates, and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. Chapter 15 At the end of every seven years, you shall make a release. This is the way of the release. Every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because Yahweh's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. However, there shall be no poor with you, for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance too possessant. If only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day. For Yahweh your God will bless you as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need which he lacks. Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of release is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. You shall surely give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because that for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land, therefore I command you saying, you shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty, you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine-press, as Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a bond-servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you, therefore I command you this thing today. It shall be, if he tells you, I will not go out from you, because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you. Then you shall take an all, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant for ever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for to the double of the higher of a hireling has he served you six years, and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock, you shall sanctify to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor share the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it before Yahweh your God, year by year, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. If it has any blemish, is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the heart. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground as water. Chapter 16 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night. You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction. For you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days. Neither shall any of the flesh which you sacrifice the first day at evening remain all night until the morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt. You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work. You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number seven weeks. You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand which you shall give according as Yahweh your God blesses you, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. You and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the Levite who is within your gates and the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow who are in the midst of you in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall remember that you were a bond servant in Egypt, and you shall observe and do these statutes. You shall keep the feast of tents seven days. After that you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine-press, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the Levite and the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh shall choose, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose, in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tents, and they shall not appear before Yahweh empty. Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you. You shall make judges and officers in all your gates which Yahweh your God gives you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not rest justice, you shall not respect persons, neither shall you take a bribe, for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous. You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. You shall not plant for yourselves an ashura of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God which you shall make for yourselves, neither shall you set yourself up a pillar which Yahweh your God hates. Chapter 17 You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish or anything evil, for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. If there is found in the midst of you within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky which I have not commanded, and it be told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, then you shall bring forth that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death with stones. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and you shall inquire, and they shall show you the sentence of judgment. You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which Yahweh shall choose, and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you, according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand or to the left. The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die, and you shall put away the evil from Israel. All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me, you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God shall choose, one from among your brothers, you shall set king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he may multiply horses. Because Yahweh has said to you, you shall not go back that way again. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. It shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. That his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left. To the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. Chapter 18 The priests, the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and his inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. This shall be the priests do from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, him and his sons, for ever. If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose, then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony. When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found with you anyone, who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consultant with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh, and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you. You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God. For these nations that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners. But as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so. Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horad in the day of the assembly saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more that I not die. Yahweh said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up 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 shall command him. It shall happen that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken, when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn't follow nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. CHAPTER 19 When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. You shall prepare you the way and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit into three parts that every manslayer may flee there. This is the case of the manslayer that shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares and didn't hate him in time past, as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and lights on his neighbor so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live, lest the Avenger of Blood pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot, and overtake him because the way is long, and strike him mortally, whereas he was not worthy of death, in as much as he didn't hate him in time past. Therefore I command you, saying, you shall set apart three cities for yourselves. If Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers, if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three, that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you. But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the Avenger of Blood that he may die. Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you. You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests, and the judges who shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition, and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you. Your eyes shall not pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. The end of chapters 12 through 19 of the Book of Deuteronomy from the World English Bible Recording by Mark Penfold Chapters 20 through 27 of the Book of Deuteronomy from the World English Bible This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mark Penfold Deuteronomy, chapters 20 through 27 from the World English Bible Chapter 20 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them. For Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. It shall be when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and shall tell them, Here Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Don't let your heart faint, don't be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them. For Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there 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. What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother's heart melt as his heart. It shall be when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people. When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. It shall be if it makes you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you. If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you shall take for a prey to yourself, and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Parasite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. As Yahweh your God has commanded you, that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods. So would you sin against Yahweh your God. When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them, for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you? Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down, and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall. Chapter 21 If one be found slain in the field, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn't known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. The priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. For them, Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh, and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be. All the elders of that city who are nearest to the slain man, 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, neither have our eyes seen it. Forgive Yahweh your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel. The blood shall be forgiven them, so you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh. When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head, and pair her nails, and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. And after that you shall go into her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will. But you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her. If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated, then it shall be in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn. But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and though they chase in him, will not listen to them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place, and they shall tell the elders of his city. This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day. For he who is hanged is a cursed of God, that you don't defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. Chapter 22 You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him. So you shall do with his donkey, and so you shall do with his garment, and so you shall do with every lost thing of your brothers, which he has lost, and you have found. You may not hide yourself. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again. A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God. If a bird's nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days. When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you don't bring blood on your house if any man fall from there. You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together. You shall make yourself fringes on the four borders of your cloak with which you cover yourself. If any man takes a wife and goes into her and hates her, and accuses her of shameful things, and brings up an evil name on her, and says, I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity. Then shall the father of the young lady and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate, and the young lady's father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her, and behold he has accused her of shameful things, saying I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. They shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, and they shall find him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel, and she shall be his wife, and he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel to play the prostitute in her father's house. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the lady because she didn't cry being in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only who lay with her shall die, but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy 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 field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was none to save her. If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt. Chapter 23 He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh. A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh, even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh. An Ammonite, or a Moabite, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh, even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever, because they didn't meet you with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn't listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you. You shall not seek their peace nor 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 lived as a foreigner in his land. The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh. When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing. If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp, but it shall be when evening comes on. He shall bathe himself in water, and when the sun is down he shall come within the camp. You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad, and you shall have a paddle among your weapons, and it shall be when you sit down abroad, you shall dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which comes from you. For Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you. You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you in the midst of you in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him. There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow, for even both these are in abomination to Yahweh your God. You shall not lend on interest to your brother, interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest. To a foreigner you may lend on interest, but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to in the land where you go in to possess it. When you shall vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you, but if you shall forbear to vow it shall be no sin in you. That which has gone out of your lips you shall observe and do according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a free will offering which you have promised with your mouth. When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure, but you shall not put any in your vessel. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. Chapter 24 When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. If the latter husband hate her and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife, her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled. For that is abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not cause the land to sin which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. When a man takes a new wife he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken. No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge, for he takes a life in pledge. If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him, then that thief shall die, so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. Take heed in the plague of leprosy that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you, as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt? When you do lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you. If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you, and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his hire. Neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children. Neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow's clothing in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a bond-servant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive-tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. You shall remember that you were a bond-servant in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing. him. He shall not exceed, lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother would seem vile to you. You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him. And if he stand and say, I don't want to take her, then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. His name shall be called in Israel, the house of him who has his shoe untied. When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets, then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity. You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small. You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are in abomination to Yahweh your God. Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, as you came forth out of Egypt, how he met you by the way, and struck the hind most of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary, and he didn't fear God. Therefore it shall be when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget. It shall be when you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein, that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. And you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to Yahweh your God, that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us. The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God. A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number, and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populace. The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard bondage. And we cried to Yahweh the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression. And Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders. And he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which you Yahweh have given me. You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God. You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you. When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be filled. You shall say before Yahweh your God, I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of it in my morning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. This day, Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways, and keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. And Yahweh has declared you this day to be a people for His own possession, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments, and to make 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 Yahweh your God, as He has spoken. Chapter 27. Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day. It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones and plaster them with plaster, and you shall write on them all the words of this law when you have passed over, that you may go into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has promised you. It shall be when you have passed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones, you shall lift up no iron on them, you shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to Yahweh your God, and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, Keep silence and listen, Israel, this day you have become the people of Yahweh your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day. Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have passed over the Jordan, Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin. These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad and Asher and Zebulun, Dan and Naftali. The Levites shall answer and tell all the men of Israel with a loud voice. Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer and say Amen. Cursed is he who sets light by his father or his mother. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who removes his neighbor's landmark. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who the foreigner, fatherless and widow of justice. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's skirt. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal. 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. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. All the people shall say Amen. Cursed is he who doesn't confirm the words of this law to do them. All the people shall say Amen.