Bible in 90 Days

8 “You must obey all the commandments I give you today. If you do, you will not only live, you will multiply and will go in and take over the land promised to your fathers by the Lord. ² Do you remember how the Lord led you through the wilderness for all those forty years, humbling you and testing you to find out how you would respond, and whether or not you would really obey him? ³ Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to both you and your ancestors. He did it to help you realize that food isn’t everything, and that real life comes by obeying every command of God. ⁴ For all these forty years your clothes haven’t grown old, and your feet haven’t been blistered or swollen. ⁵ So you should realize that, as a man punishes his son, the Lord punishes you to help you.

⁶ “Obey the laws of the Lord your God. Walk in his ways and fear him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of brooks, pools, gushing springs, valleys, and hills; ⁸ it is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey; ⁹ it is a land where food is plentiful, and nothing is lacking; it is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. ¹⁰ When you have eaten your fill, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹ “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty^[a] you don’t forget the Lord your God and begin to disobey him. ^12-13 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large, and your silver and gold have multiplied, ¹⁴ that is the time to watch out that you don’t become proud and forget the Lord your God who brought you out of your slavery in the land of Egypt. ¹⁵ Beware that you don’t forget the God who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with the dangerous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! ¹⁶ He fed you with manna in the wilderness (it was a kind of bread unknown before) so that you would become humble and so that your trust in him would grow, and he could do you good. ¹⁷ He did it so that you would never feel that it was your own power and might that made you wealthy. ¹⁸ Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill his promise to your ancestors.

¹⁹ “But if you forget about the Lord your God and worship other gods instead, and follow evil ways, you shall certainly perish, ²⁰ just as the Lord has caused other nations in the past to perish. That will be your fate, too, if you don’t obey the Lord your God.

9 ^1-2 “O Israel, listen! Today you are to cross the Jordan River and begin to dispossess the nations on the other side. Those nations are much greater and more powerful than you are! They live in high walled cities. Among them are the famed Anak giants, against whom none can stand! ³ But the Lord your God will go before you as a devouring fire to destroy them, so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out.

⁴ “Then, when the Lord has done this for you, don’t say to yourselves, ‘The Lord has helped us because we are so good!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is doing it. ⁵ It is not at all because you are such fine, upright people that the Lord will drive them out from before you! I say it again, it is only because of the wickedness of the other nations, and because of his promises to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he will do it. ⁶ I say it yet again: Jehovah your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a wicked, stubborn people.

⁷ “Don’t you remember (oh, never forget it!) how continually angry you made the Lord your God out in the wilderness, from the day you left Egypt until now? For all this time you have constantly rebelled against him.

⁸ “Don’t you remember how angry you made him at Mount Horeb? He was ready to destroy you. ⁹ I was on the mountain at the time, receiving the contract which Jehovah had made with you—the stone tablets with the laws inscribed upon them. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate nothing. I didn’t even take a drink of water. ^10-11 At the end of those forty days and nights the Lord gave me the contract, the tablets on which he had written the commandments he had spoken from the fire-covered mountain while the people had watched below. ¹² He told me to go down quickly because the people I had led out of Egypt had defiled themselves, quickly turning away from the laws of God, and had made an idol from molten metal.

^13-14 “‘Let me alone that I may destroy this evil, stubborn people!’ the Lord told me, ‘and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make a mighty nation of you, mightier and greater than they are.’

¹⁵ “I came down from the burning mountain, holding in my hands the two tablets inscribed with the laws of God. ¹⁶ There below me I could see the calf you had made in your terrible sin against the Lord your God. How quickly you turned away from him! ¹⁷ I lifted the tablets high above my head and dashed them to the ground! I smashed them before your eyes! ¹⁸ Then, for another forty days and nights I lay before the Lord, neither eating bread nor drinking water, for you had done what the Lord hated most, thus provoking him to great anger. ¹⁹ How I feared for you—for the Lord was ready to destroy you. But that time, too, he listened to me. ²⁰ Aaron was in great danger because the Lord was so angry with him; but I prayed, and the Lord spared him. ²¹ I took your sin—the calf you had made—and burned it and ground it into fine dust, and threw it into the stream that cascaded out of the mountain.

²² “Again at Taberah and once again at Massah you angered the Lord, and yet again at Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ At Kadesh-barnea, when the Lord told you to enter the land he had given you, you rebelled and wouldn’t believe that he would help you; you refused to obey him. ²⁴ Yes, you have been rebellious against the Lord from the first day I knew you. ²⁵ That is why I fell down before him for forty days and nights when the Lord was ready to destroy you.

²⁶ “I prayed to him, ‘O Lord God, don’t destroy your own people. They are your inheritance saved from Egypt by your mighty power and glorious strength. ²⁷ Don’t notice the rebellion and stubbornness of these people, but remember instead your promises to your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh, please overlook the awful wickedness and sin of these people. ²⁸ For if you destroy them, the Egyptians will say, “It is because the Lord wasn’t able to bring them to the land he promised them,” or “He destroyed them because he hated them: he brought them into the wilderness to slay them.” ²⁹ They are your people and your inheritance that you brought from Egypt by your great power and your mighty arm.’

10 “At that time the Lord told me to cut two more stone tablets like the first ones, and to make a wooden Ark to keep them in, and to return to God on the mountain. ² He said he would rewrite on the tablets the same commandments that were on the tablets I had smashed, and that I should place them in the Ark. ³ So I made an Ark of acacia wood and hewed out two stone tablets like the first two, and took the tablets up on the mountain to God. ⁴ He again wrote the Ten Commandments on them and gave them to me. (They were the same commandments he had given you from the heart of the fire on the mountain as you all watched below.) ⁵ Then I came down and placed the tablets in the Ark I had made, where they are to this day, just as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ “The people of Israel then journeyed from Beeroth of Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried. His son Eleazar became the next priest.

⁷ “Then they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from there to Jotbathah, a land of brooks and water. ⁸ It was there that Jehovah set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark containing the Ten Commandments of Jehovah, and to stand before the Lord and to do his work and to bless his name, just as is done today. ⁹ (That is why the tribe of Levi does not have a portion of land reserved for it in the Promised Land, as their brother tribes do; for as the Lord told them, he himself is their inheritance.)

¹⁰ “As I said before, I stayed on the mountain before the Lord for forty days and nights the second time, just as I had the first, and the Lord again yielded to my pleas and didn’t destroy you.

¹¹ “But he said to me, ‘Arise and lead the people to the land I promised their fathers. It is time to go in and possess it.’

^12-13 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to listen carefully to all he says to you, and to obey for your own good the commandments I am giving you today, and to love him, and to worship him with all your hearts and souls? ¹⁴ Earth and highest heaven belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁵ And yet he rejoiced in your fathers and loved them so much that he chose you, their children, to be above every other nation, as is evident today. ¹⁶ Therefore, cleanse your sinful hearts and stop your stubbornness.

¹⁷ “Jehovah your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great and mighty God, the God of terror who shows no partiality and takes no bribes. ¹⁸ He gives justice to the fatherless and widows. He loves foreigners and gives them food and clothing. ¹⁹ (You too must love foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.) ²⁰ You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him, and take oaths by his name alone. ²¹ He is your praise and he is your God, the one who has done mighty miracles you yourselves have seen. ²² When your ancestors went down into Egypt there were only seventy of them, but now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky!

11 “You must love the Lord your God and obey every one of his commands. ² Listen! I am not talking now to your children who have never experienced the Lord’s punishments or seen his greatness and his awesome power. ³ They weren’t there to see the miracles he did in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. ⁴ They didn’t see what God did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you, and how the Lord has kept them powerless against you until this very day! ⁵ They didn’t see how the Lord cared for you time and again through all the years you were wandering in the wilderness, until your arrival here. ⁶ They weren’t there when Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, descendants^[b] of Reuben) sinned, and the earth opened up and swallowed them, with their households and tents and all their belongings, as all Israel watched!

⁷ “But you have seen these mighty miracles! ⁸ How carefully, then, you should obey these commandments I am going to give you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land you are about to enter. ⁹ If you obey the commandments, you will have a long and good life in the land the Lord promised to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a wonderful land ‘flowing with milk and honey’! ¹⁰ For the land you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt where you have come from, where irrigation is necessary. ¹¹ It is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain— ¹² a land that the Lord your God personally cares for! His eyes are always upon it, day after day throughout the year!

¹³ “And if you will carefully obey all of his commandments that I am going to give you today, and if you will love the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls and will worship him, ¹⁴ then he will continue to send both the early and late rains that will produce wonderful crops of grain, grapes for your wine, and olive oil. ¹⁵ He will give you lush pastureland for your cattle to graze in, and you yourselves shall have plenty to eat and be fully content.

¹⁶ “But beware that your hearts do not turn from God to worship other gods. ¹⁷ For if you do, the anger of the Lord will be hot against you, and he will shut the heavens—there will be no rain and no harvest, and you will quickly perish from the good land the Lord has given you. ¹⁸ So keep these commandments carefully in mind. Tie them to your hand to remind you to obey them, and tie them to your forehead between your eyes! ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting at home, when you are out walking, at bedtime, and before breakfast! ²⁰ Write them upon the doors of your houses and upon your gates, ²¹ so that as long as there is sky above the earth, you and your children will enjoy the good life awaiting you in the land the Lord has promised you.^[c]

²² “If you carefully obey all the commandments I give you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him, ²³ then the Lord will drive out all the nations in your land, no matter how much greater and stronger than you they might be. ²⁴ Wherever you go, the land is yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the southern Negeb to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will send fear and dread ahead of you wherever you go, just as he has promised.

²⁶ “I am giving you the choice today between God’s blessing or God’s curse! ²⁷ There will be blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, ²⁸ and a curse if you refuse them and worship the gods of these other nations. ²⁹ When the Lord your God brings you into the land to possess it, a blessing shall be proclaimed from Mount Gerizim and a curse from Mount Ebal! ³⁰ (Gerizim and Ebal are mountains west of the Jordan River, where the Canaanites live, in the wasteland near Gilgal, where the oaks of Moreh are.) ³¹ For you are to cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord is giving you. ³² But you must obey all the laws I am giving you today.

12 “These are the laws you must obey when you arrive in the land that Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you forever:

² “You must destroy all the heathen altars wherever you find them—high in the mountains, up in the hills, or under the trees. ³ Break the altars, smash the obelisks, burn the shameful images, cut down the metal idols, and leave nothing even to remind you of them!

^4-5 “You must not make sacrifices to your God just anywhere, as the heathen sacrifice to their gods. Rather, you must build a sanctuary for him at a place he himself will select as his home. ⁶ There you shall bring to the Lord your burnt offerings and other sacrifices—your tithes, your offerings presented by the gesture of waving before the altar, your offerings to fulfill your vows, your freewill offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your flocks and herds. ⁷ There you and your families shall feast before the Lord your God and shall rejoice in all he has done for you.

⁸ “You will no longer go your own way as you do now, everyone doing whatever he thinks is right; ⁹ (for these laws don’t go into effect until you arrive in the place of rest the Lord will give to you). ¹⁰ But when you cross the Jordan River and live in the Promised Land, and the Lord gives you rest and keeps you safe from all your enemies, ¹¹ then you must bring all your burnt sacrifices and other offerings to his sanctuary, the place he will choose as his home. ¹² You shall rejoice there before the Lord with your sons and daughters and servants; and remember to invite the Levites to feast with you, for they have no land of their own.

¹³ “You are not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere; ¹⁴ you may only do so in the place the Lord will choose. He will pick a place in the territory allotted to one of the tribes. Only there may you offer your sacrifices and bring your offerings. ¹⁵ However, the meat you eat may be butchered anywhere, just as you do now with gazelle and deer. Eat as much of this meat as you wish and as often as you are able to obtain it, because the Lord has prospered you. Those who are ceremonially defiled may eat it too. ¹⁶ The only restriction is that you are not to eat the blood—pour it out on the ground, like water.

¹⁷ “But none of the offerings may be eaten at home. Neither the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your flocks and herds, nor anything you have vowed to give the Lord, nor your freewill offerings, nor the offerings to be presented to the Lord by waving them before his altar. ¹⁸ All these must be brought to the central altar where you, your children, and the Levites shall eat them before the Lord your God. He will tell you where this altar must be located. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do. ¹⁹ (By the way, be very careful not to forget about the Levites. Share with them.)

^20-23 “If, when the Lord enlarges your borders, the central altar is too far away from you, then your flocks and herds may be butchered on your own farms, just as you do now with gazelle and deer. And even persons who are ceremonially defiled may eat them. The only restriction is never to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. ^24-25 Instead, pour the blood out upon the earth. If you do, all will be well with you and your children. ^26-27 Only your gifts to the Lord, and the offerings you have promised in your vows, and your burnt offerings need be taken to the central altar. These may only be sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord your God. The blood will be poured out upon the altar, and you will eat the meat.

²⁸ “Be careful to obey all of these commandments. If you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God, all will go well with you and your children forever. ²⁹ When he destroys the nations in the land where you will live, ³⁰ don’t follow their example in worshiping their gods. Do not ask, ‘How do these nations worship their gods?’ and then go and worship as they do! ³¹ You must not insult the Lord your God like that! These nations have done horrible things that he hates, all in the name of their religion. They have even roasted their sons and daughters in front of their gods. ³² Obey all the commandments I give you. Do not add to or subtract from them.

13 “If there is a prophet among you, or one who claims to foretell the future by dreams, ² and if his predictions come true but he says, ‘Come, let us worship the gods of the other nations,’ ³ don’t listen to him. For the Lord is testing you to find out whether or not you really love him with all your heart and soul. ⁴ You must never worship any God but Jehovah; obey only his commands and cling to him.

⁵ “The prophet who tries to lead you astray must be executed, for he has attempted to foment rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt. By executing him you will clear out the evil from among you.

^6-7 “If your nearest relative or closest friend, even a brother, son, daughter, or beloved wife whispers to you to come and worship these foreign gods, ⁸ do not consent or listen, and have no pity: Do not spare that person from the penalty; don’t conceal his horrible suggestion. ⁹ Execute him! Your own hand shall be the first upon him to put him to death, then the hands of all the people. ¹⁰ Stone him to death because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear about his evil deed and will fear such wickedness as this among you.

^12-14 “If you ever hear it said about one of the cities of Israel that some worthless rabble have led their fellow citizens astray with the suggestion that they worship foreign gods, first check the facts to see if the rumor is true. If you find that it is, that it is certain that such a horrible thing is happening among you in one of the cities the Lord has given you, ¹⁵ you must without fail declare war against that city and utterly destroy all of its inhabitants, and even all of the cattle. ¹⁶ Afterwards you must pile all the booty into the middle of the street and burn it, then put the entire city to the torch, as a burnt offering to Jehovah your God. That city shall forever remain a lifeless mound and may never be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Keep none of the booty! Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you, and have compassion upon you, and make you a great nation just as he promised your ancestors.

¹⁸ “Of course, the Lord your God will be merciful only if you have been obedient to him and to his commandments that I am giving you today, and if you have been doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.

14 “Since you are the people of God, never cut yourselves as the heathen do when they worship their idols^[d] nor shave the front halves of your heads for funerals. ² You belong exclusively to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you to be his own possession, more so than any other nation on the face of the earth.

^3-5 “You are not to eat any animal I have declared to be ceremonially defiled. These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁶ “Any animal that has cloven hooves and chews the cud may be eaten, ⁷ but if the animal doesn’t have both, it may not be eaten. So you may not eat the camel, the hare, or the coney. They chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves. ⁸ Pigs may not be eaten because, although they have cloven hooves, they don’t chew the cud. You may not even touch the dead bodies of such animals.

⁹ “Only sea animals with fins and scales may be eaten; ¹⁰ all other kinds are ceremonially defiled.

^11-18 “You may eat any bird except the following: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, the buzzard, the falcon (any variety), the raven (any variety), the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk (any variety), the screech owl, the great owl, the horned owl, the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant, the stork, the heron (any variety), the hoopoe, the bat.

^19-20 “With certain exceptions,^[e] insects are a defilement to you and may not be eaten.

²¹ “Don’t eat anything that has died a natural death. However, a foreigner among you may eat it. You may give it or sell it to him, but don’t eat it yourself, for you are holy to the Lord your God.

“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²² “You must tithe all of your crops every year. ²³ Bring this tithe to eat before the Lord your God at the place he shall choose as his sanctuary; this applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn of your flocks and herds. The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives. ²⁴ If the place the Lord chooses for his sanctuary is so far away that it isn’t convenient to carry your tithes to that place, ²⁵ then you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds and take the money to the Lord’s sanctuary. ²⁶ When you arrive, use the money to buy an ox, a sheep, some wine, or beer, to feast there before the Lord your God, and to rejoice with your household.

²⁷ “Don’t forget to share your income with the Levites in your community, for they have no property or crops as you do.

²⁸ “Every third year you are to use your entire tithe for local welfare programs: ²⁹ Give it to the Levites who have no inheritance among you, or to foreigners, or to widows and orphans within your city, so that they can eat and be satisfied; and then Jehovah your God will bless you and your work.

15 “At the end of every seventh year there is to be a canceling of all debts! ² Every creditor shall write ‘Paid in full’ on any promissory note he holds against a fellow Israelite, for the Lord has released everyone from his obligation. ³ (This release does not apply to foreigners.) ^4-5 No one will become poor because of this, for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you if you obey this command. The only prerequisite for his blessing is that you carefully heed all the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. ⁶ He will bless you as he has promised. You shall lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow! You shall rule many nations, but they shall not rule over you!

⁷ “But if, when you arrive in the land the Lord will give you, there are any among you who are poor, you must not shut your heart or hand against them; ⁸ you must lend them as much as they need. ⁹ Beware! Don’t refuse a loan because the year of debt cancellation is close at hand! If you refuse to make the loan and the needy man cries out to the Lord, it will be counted against you as a sin. ¹⁰ You must lend him what he needs, and don’t moan about it either! For the Lord will prosper you in everything you do because of this! ¹¹ There will always be some among you who are poor; that is why this commandment is necessary. You must lend to them liberally.

¹² “If you buy a Hebrew slave, whether a man or woman, you must free him at the end of the sixth year you have owned him, ¹³ and don’t send him away empty-handed! ¹⁴ Give him a large farewell present from your flock, your olive press, and your winepress. Share with him in proportion as the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God rescued you! That is why I am giving you this command.

¹⁶ “But if your Hebrew slave doesn’t want to leave—if he says he loves you and enjoys your pleasant home and gets along well with you— ¹⁷ then take an awl and pierce his ear into the door, and after that he shall be your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves. ¹⁸ But when you free a slave you must not feel bad, for remember that for six years he has cost you less than half the price of a hired hand! And the Lord your God will prosper all you do because you have released him!

¹⁹ “You shall set aside for God all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks of sheep and goats. ²⁰ Instead, you and your family shall eat these animals before the Lord your God each year at his sanctuary. ²¹ However, if this firstborn animal has any defect such as being lame or blind, or if anything else is wrong with it, you shall not sacrifice it. ²² Instead, use it for food for your family at home. Anyone, even if ceremonially defiled at the time, may eat it, just as anyone may eat a gazelle or deer. ²³ But don’t eat the blood; pour it out upon the ground like water.

16 “Always remember to celebrate the Passover during the month of April,^[f] for that was when Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Your Passover sacrifice shall be either a lamb or an ox, sacrificed to the Lord your God at his sanctuary. ³ Eat the sacrifice with unleavened bread. Eat unleavened bread for seven days as a reminder of the bread you ate as you escaped from Egypt. This is to remind you that you left Egypt in such a hurry that there was no time for the bread to rise.^[g] Remember that day all the rest of your lives! ⁴ For seven days no trace of yeast shall be in your homes, and none of the Passover lamb shall be left until the next morning.

⁵ “The Passover is not to be eaten in your homes. ⁶ It must be eaten at the place the Lord shall choose as his sanctuary. Sacrifice it there on the anniversary evening just as the sun goes down. ⁷ Roast the lamb and eat it, then start back to your homes the next morning. ⁸ For the following six days you shall eat no bread made with yeast. On the seventh day there shall be a quiet gathering of the people of each city before the Lord your God. Don’t do any work that day.

⁹ “Seven weeks after the harvest begins, ¹⁰ there shall be another festival before the Lord your God called the Festival of Weeks. At that time bring to him a freewill offering proportionate in size to his blessing upon you as judged by the amount of your harvest. ¹¹ It is a time to rejoice before the Lord with your family and household. And don’t forget to include the local Levites, foreigners, widows, and orphans. Invite them to accompany you to the celebration at the sanctuary. ¹² Remember! You were a slave in Egypt, so be sure to carry out this command.

¹³ “Another celebration, the Festival of Shelters, must be observed for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain is threshed and the grapes have been pressed. ¹⁴ This will be a happy time of rejoicing together with your family and servants. And don’t forget to include the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows of your town.

¹⁵ “This feast will be held at the sanctuary, which will be located at the place the Lord will designate. It is a time of deep thanksgiving to the Lord for blessing you with a good harvest and in so many other ways; it shall be a time of great joy.

¹⁶ “Every man in Israel shall appear before the Lord your God three times a year at the sanctuary for these festivals:

“On each of these occasions bring a gift to the Lord. ¹⁷ Give as you are able, according as the Lord has blessed you.

¹⁸ “Appoint judges and administrative officials for all the cities the Lord your God is giving you. They will administer justice in every part of the land. ¹⁹ Never twist justice to benefit a rich man, and never accept bribes. For bribes blind the eyes of the wisest and corrupt their decisions. ²⁰ Justice must prevail.

“That is the only way you will be successful in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ “Never, under any circumstances, are you to erect shameful images beside the altar of the Lord your God. ²² And never set up stone pillars to worship them, for the Lord hates them!

17 “Never sacrifice a sick or defective ox or sheep to the Lord your God. He doesn’t feel honored by such gifts!

^2-3 “If anyone, whether man or woman, in any village throughout your land violates your covenant with God by worshiping other gods, the sun, moon, or stars—which I have strictly forbidden— ⁴ first check the rumor very carefully; if there is no doubt it is true, ⁵ then that man or woman shall be taken outside the city and shall be stoned to death. ⁶ However, never put a man to death on the testimony of only one witness; there must be at least two or three. ⁷ The witnesses shall throw the first stones, and then all the people shall join in. In this way you will purge all evil from among you.

⁸ “If a case arises that is too hard for you to decide—for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder when there is insufficient evidence, or whether someone’s rights have been violated—you shall take the case to the sanctuary of the Lord your God, ⁹ to the priests and Levites, and the chief judge on duty at the time will make the decision. ¹⁰ His decision is without appeal and is to be followed to the letter. ¹¹ The sentence he imposes is to be fully executed. ¹² If the defendant refuses to accept the decision of the priest or judge appointed by God for this purpose, the penalty is death. Such sinners must be purged from Israel. ¹³ Then everyone will hear about what happened to the man who refused God’s verdict, and they will be afraid to defy a court’s judgment.

¹⁴ “When you arrive in the land the Lord your God will give you, and have conquered it, and begin to think, ‘We ought to have a king like the other nations around us’— ¹⁵ be sure that you select as king the man the Lord your God shall choose. He must be an Israelite, not a foreigner. ¹⁶ Be sure that he doesn’t build up a large stable of horses for himself, nor send his men to Egypt to raise horses for him there, for the Lord has told you, ‘Never return to Egypt again.’ ¹⁷ He must not have too many wives, lest his heart be turned away from the Lord, neither shall he be excessively rich.

¹⁸ “And when he has been crowned and sits upon his throne as king, then he must copy these laws from the book kept by the Levite-priests. ¹⁹ That copy of the laws shall be his constant companion. He must read from it every day of his life so that he will learn to respect the Lord his God by obeying all of his commands. ²⁰ This regular reading of God’s laws will prevent him from feeling that he is better than his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from God’s laws in the slightest respect and will ensure his having a long, good reign. His sons will then follow him upon the throne.

18 “Remember that the priests and all the other members of the Levite tribe will not be given property like the other tribes. So the priests and Levites are to be supported by the sacrifices brought to the altar of the Lord and by the other offerings the people bring to him. ² They don’t need to own property, for the Lord is their property! That is what he promised them! ³ The shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach of every ox or sheep brought for sacrifice must be given to the priests. ⁴ In addition, the priests shall receive the harvest samples brought in thanksgiving to the Lord—the first of the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and of the fleece at shearing time. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen the tribe of Levi, of all the tribes, to minister to the Lord from generation to generation.

^6-7 “Any Levite, no matter where he lives in the land of Israel, has the right to come to the sanctuary at any time and minister in the name of the Lord, just like his brother Levites who work there regularly. ⁸ He shall be given his share of the sacrifices and offerings as his right, not just if he is in need.

⁹ “When you arrive in the Promised Land you must be very careful lest you be corrupted by the horrible customs of the nations now living there. ¹⁰ For example, any Israeli who presents his child to be burned to death as a sacrifice to heathen gods must be killed.^[h] No Israeli may practice black magic, or call on the evil spirits for aid, or be a fortune-teller, ¹¹ or be a serpent charmer, medium, or wizard, or call forth the spirits of the dead. ¹² Anyone doing these things is an object of horror and disgust to the Lord, and it is because the nations do these things that the Lord your God will displace them. ¹³ You must walk blamelessly before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ The nations you replace all do these evil things, but the Lord your God will not permit you to do such things.

¹⁵ “Instead, he will raise up for you a prophet like me, an Israeli, a man to whom you must listen and whom you must obey. ¹⁶ For this is what you yourselves begged of God at Mount Horeb. There at the foot of the mountain you begged that you might not have to listen to the terrifying voice of God again, or see the awesome fire on the mountain, lest you die.

¹⁷ “‘All right,’ the Lord said to me, ‘I will do as they have requested. ¹⁸ I will raise up from among them a prophet, an Israeli like you. I will tell him what to say, and he shall be my spokesman to the people. ¹⁹ I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to him and heed his messages from me. ²⁰ But any prophet who falsely claims that his message is from me shall die. And any prophet who claims to give a message from other gods must die.’ ²¹ If you wonder, ‘How shall we know whether the prophecy is from the Lord or not?’ ²² this is the way to know: If the thing he prophesies doesn’t happen, it is not the Lord who has given him the message; he has made it up himself. You have nothing to fear from him.

19 “When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations you will displace, and when you are living in their cities and homes, ^2-3 you must set apart three Cities of Refuge so that anyone who accidentally kills someone may flee to safety. Divide the country into three districts, with one of these cities in each district; and keep the roads to these cities in good repair.

⁴ “Here is an example of the purpose of these cities: ⁵ If a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and the axhead flies off the handle and kills the man’s neighbor, he may flee to one of those cities and be safe. ^6-7 Anyone seeking to avenge the death will not be able to. These cities must be scattered so that one of them will be reasonably close to everyone; otherwise the angry avenger might catch and kill the innocent slayer, even though he should not have died since he had not killed deliberately.

⁸ “If the Lord enlarges your boundaries as he promised your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised ⁹ (whether he does this depends on your obedience to all these commandments I am giving you today—loving the Lord your God and walking his paths), then you must designate three additional Cities of Refuge. ¹⁰ In this way you will be able to avoid the death of innocent people, and you will not be held responsible for unjustified bloodshed.

¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and springs out of hiding and kills him, and then flees into one of the Cities of Refuge, ¹² the elders of his hometown shall send for him and shall bring him home and deliver him over to the dead man’s avenger, to kill him. ¹³ Don’t pity him! Purge all murderers from Israel! Only then will all go well with you.

¹⁴ “When you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, remember that you must never steal a man’s land by moving the boundary marker.

¹⁵ “Never convict anyone on the testimony of one witness. There must be at least two, and three is even better. ¹⁶ If anyone gives false witness, claiming he has seen someone do wrong when he hasn’t, ¹⁷ both men shall be brought before the priests and judges on duty before the Lord at the time. ¹⁸ They must be closely questioned, and if the witness is lying, ¹⁹ his penalty shall be the punishment he thought the other man would get. In this way you will purge out evil from among you. ²⁰ Then those who hear about it will be afraid to tell lies on the witness stand. ²¹ You shall not show pity to a false witness. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot; this is your rule in such cases.

20 “When you go to war and see before you vast numbers of horses and chariots, an army far greater than yours, don’t be frightened! The Lord your God is with you—the same God who brought you safely out of Egypt! ² Before you begin the battle, a priest shall stand before the Israeli army and say,

³ “‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Don’t be afraid as you go out to fight today! ⁴ For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you the victory!’

⁵ “Then the officers of the army shall address the men in this manner: ‘Has anyone just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, go home! For you might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate it! ⁶ Has anyone just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, go home! You might die in battle and someone else would eat it! ⁷ Has anyone just become engaged? Well, go home and get married! For you might die in the battle, and someone else would marry your fiancée. ⁸ And now, is anyone afraid? If you are, go home before you frighten the rest of us!’ ⁹ When the officers have finished saying this to their men, they will announce the names of the battalion leaders.

¹⁰ “As you approach a city to fight against it, first offer it a truce. ¹¹ If it accepts the truce and opens its gates to you, then all its people shall become your servants. ¹² But if it refuses and won’t make peace with you, you must besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God has given it to you, kill every male in the city; ¹⁴ but you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, cattle, and booty. ¹⁵ These instructions apply only to distant cities, not to those in the Promised Land itself.^[i]

¹⁶ “For in the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land you are to save no one; destroy every living thing. ¹⁷ Utterly destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This is the commandment of the Lord your God. ¹⁸ The purpose of this command is to prevent the people of the land from luring you into idol worship and into participation in their loathsome customs, thus sinning deeply against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city, don’t destroy the fruit trees. Eat all the fruit you wish; just don’t cut down the trees. They aren’t enemies who need to be slaughtered! ²⁰ But you may cut down trees that aren’t valuable for food. Use them for the siege to make ladders, portable towers, and battering rams.^[j]

21 “If, when you arrive in the Promised Land, a murder victim is found lying in a field and no one has seen the murder, ² the elders and judges shall measure from the body to the nearest city. ³ Then the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has never been yoked, ⁴ and lead it to a valley where there is running water—a valley neither plowed nor sowed—and there break its neck.

⁵ “Then the priests shall come (for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce his blessings and decide lawsuits and punishments), ⁶ and shall wash their hands over the heifer, ⁷ and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. ⁸ O Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and do not charge them with murdering an innocent man. Forgive us the guilt of this man’s blood.’ ⁹ In this way you will put away the guilt from among you by following the Lord’s directions.

¹⁰ “When you go to war and the Lord your God delivers your enemies to you, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful girl you want as your wife, ¹² take her home with you. She must shave her head and pare her nails ¹³ and change her clothing, laying aside that which she was wearing when she was captured, then remain in your home in mourning for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may marry her. ¹⁴ However, if after marrying her you decide you don’t like her, you must let her go free—you may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives but loves one and not the other, and both have borne him children, and the mother of his oldest son is the wife he doesn’t love, ¹⁶ he may not give a larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves. ¹⁷ He must give the customary double portion to his oldest son, who is the beginning of his strength and who owns the rights of a firstborn son, even though he is the son of the wife his father doesn’t love.

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they punish him, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall take him before the elders of the city ²⁰ and declare, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and won’t obey; he is a worthless drunkard.’ ²¹ Then the men of the city shall stone him to death. In this way you shall put away this evil from among you, and all the young men of Israel will hear about what happened and will be afraid.

²² “If a man has committed a crime worthy of death, and is executed and then hanged on a tree, ²³ his body shall not remain on the tree overnight. You must bury him the same day, for anyone hanging on a tree is cursed of God. Don’t defile the land the Lord your God has given you.

22 “If you see someone’s ox or sheep wandering away, don’t pretend you didn’t see it; take it back to its owner. ² If you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your farm and keep it there until the owner comes looking for it, and then give it to him. ³ The same applies to donkeys, clothing, or anything else you find. Keep it for its owner.

⁴ “If you see someone trying to get an ox or donkey onto its feet when it has slipped beneath its load,^[k] don’t look the other way. Go and help!

⁵ “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. This is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If a bird’s nest is lying on the ground, or if you spy one in a tree, and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting in the nest, don’t take the mother with the young. ⁷ Let her go, and take only the young. The Lord will bless you for it.

⁸ “Every new house must have a guardrail around the edge of the flat rooftop to prevent anyone from falling off and bringing guilt to both the house and its owner.

⁹ “Do not sow other crops in the rows of your vineyard. If you do, both the crops and the grapes shall be confiscated by the priests.^[l]

¹⁰ “Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

¹¹ “Don’t wear clothing woven from two kinds of thread: for instance, wool and linen.

¹² “You must sew tassels on the four corners of your cloaks.

^13-14 “If a man marries a girl, then after sleeping with her accuses her of having had premarital intercourse with another man, saying, ‘She was not a virgin when I married her,’ ¹⁵ then the girl’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city judges.

¹⁶ “Her father shall tell them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he despises her ^17-18 and has accused her of shameful things, claiming that she was not a virgin when she married; yet here is the proof.’ And they shall spread before the judges the blood-stained sheet from her marriage bed. The judges shall sentence the man to be whipped, ¹⁹ and fine him one hundred dollars^[m] to be given to the girl’s father, for he has falsely accused a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife and he may never divorce her. ²⁰ But if the man’s accusations are true, and she was not a virgin, ²¹ the judges shall take the girl to the door of her father’s home where the men of the city shall stone her to death. She has defiled Israel by flagrant crime, being a prostitute while living at home with her parents; and such evil must be cleansed from among you.

²² “If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the other man’s wife must be killed; in this way evil will be cleansed from Israel. ^23-24 If a girl who is engaged is seduced within the walls of a city, both she and the man who seduced her shall be taken outside the gates and stoned to death—the girl because she didn’t scream for help, and the man because he has violated the virginity of another man’s fiancée. ^25-27 In this way you will reduce crime among you. But if this deed takes place out in the country, only the man shall die. The girl is as innocent as a murder victim; for it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to hear and rescue her out in the field. ^28-29 If a man rapes a girl who is not engaged and is caught in the act, he must pay a fine^[n] to the girl’s father and marry her; he may never divorce her. ³⁰ A man shall not sleep with his father’s widow^[o] since she belonged to his father.

23 “If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis cut off, he shall not enter the sanctuary. ² A bastard may not enter the sanctuary, nor any of his descendants for ten generations.

³ “No Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the sanctuary, even after the tenth generation. ⁴ The reason for this law is that these nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt; they even tried to hire Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor, Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ But the Lord wouldn’t listen to Balaam; instead, he turned the intended curse into a blessing for you because the Lord loves you. ⁶ You must never, as long as you live, try to help the Ammonites or the Moabites in any way. ⁷ But don’t look down on the Edomites and the Egyptians; the Edomites are your brothers and you lived among the Egyptians. ⁸ The grandchildren of the Egyptians who came with you from Egypt may enter the sanctuary of the Lord.

^9-10 “When you are at war, the men in the camps must stay away from all evil. Any man who becomes ceremonially defiled because of a seminal emission during the night must leave the camp ¹¹ and stay outside until the evening; then he shall bathe himself and return at sunset.