Bible in 90 Days

The Promised Land to Be Taken

8 “Be careful to do all that I am telling you today. Then you will live and have many children, and go in to own the land the Lord promised to give to your fathers. ² You will remember all the way the Lord your God led you in the desert these forty years, so you would not have pride, and how He tested you to know what was in your heart to see if you would obey His Laws or not. ³ He let you be hungry which helped you to not have pride. Then He fed you with bread from heaven which you and your fathers had not known. He did this to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone. But man lives by everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not get sore during these forty years. ⁵ So know in your heart that the Lord your God was punishing you just as a man punishes his son. ⁶ Keep 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, a land of rivers and wells of water, flowing into valleys from hills. ⁸ It is a land of grains, vines, fig trees, fruit, olive oil and honey. ⁹ It is a land where you will have enough food to eat and not have to do without, a land where stones are iron. And you can make brass from what you dig out of its hills. ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are filled, you will honor and thank the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.

¹¹ “Be careful not to forget the Lord your God by not keeping all His Laws which I am telling you today. ¹² When you have eaten and are filled, and have built good houses to live in, ¹³ and when your cattle and flocks become many, and you get much silver and gold, and have many things for your own, ¹⁴ be careful not to become proud. Do not forget the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house where you were servants. ¹⁵ He led you through the big desert that brought fear with its poisonous snakes and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ In the desert He fed you bread from heaven, which your fathers did not know about. He did this so you would not have pride and that He might test you. It was for your good in the end. ¹⁷ Be careful not to say in your heart, ‘My power and strong hand have made me rich.’ ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God. For it is He Who is giving you power to become rich. By this He may keep His agreement which He promised to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ If you ever forget the Lord your God and go to other gods to worship and work for them, I tell you today that you will be destroyed for sure. ²⁰ You will be destroyed like the nations the Lord destroys before you, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel to Remember How They Did Not Obey

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to take the land that belongs to nations greater and stronger than you, with big cities with walls as high as heaven. ² The people there are strong and tall, the sons of Anakim. You know of them and have heard it said, ‘Who can stand in front of the sons of Anak?’ ³ But know today that it is the Lord your God Who is crossing over before you as a fire that destroys everything. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you may drive them out and be quick to destroy them, just as the Lord has told you. ⁴ But after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take this land because I am right and good.’ It is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord is driving them out in front of you. ⁵ It is not because of your being right with God that you are going to take their land. But it is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out in front of you. By this the Lord is proving that He keeps the promise He made to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that it is not because you are right with God that the Lord your God is giving you this good land for your own, for you are a strong-willed people.

⁷ “Remember and do not forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You have gone against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place. ⁸ Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry. The Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ I went up the mountain to receive the pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement which the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ Then the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone written by the finger of God. On them were all the words the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the meeting. ¹¹ At the end of forty days and nights the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Hurry and go down from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have been quick to turn away from what I told them. They have made a false god for themselves.’ ¹³ And the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen these people. See, they are strong-willed. ¹⁴ Let Me alone, so I may destroy them and destroy their name from under heaven. I will make you into a nation that will be greater and stronger than they.’ ¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. The two pieces of stone of the agreement were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that it was true that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a calf out of gold. You had been quick to turn away from what the Lord had told you. ¹⁷ So I took the two pieces of stone and threw them from my hands, and broke them in front of your eyes. ¹⁸ Then again I fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water, because of all the sin you had done. You did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord and made Him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the anger of the Lord which was burning against you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I prayed for Aaron at the same time also. ²¹ Then I took your sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it into pieces until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the river that flowed down from the mountain.

²² “You made the Lord angry again at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ The Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go and take for your own the land I have given you.’ But you went against what the Lord your God told you to do. You did not believe Him or listen to His voice. ²⁴ You have gone against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

²⁵ “So I fell down before the Lord and lay forty days and nights, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have set free by Your power and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not look at the strong will or sin or wrong-doing of these people. ²⁸ Or the land You brought us from may say, “The Lord was not able to bring them into the land He promised them. Because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the desert.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your long arm.’

The Second Pieces of Stone

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two pieces of stone like the other ones. Then come up to Me on the mountain, and make a box of wood. ² I will write on the pieces of stone the words that were on the other pieces of stone which you broke. And you will put them in the box.’ ³ So I made a box of acacia wood and cut out two pieces of stone like the other ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two stone pieces in my hand. ⁴ The Lord wrote the Ten Laws the same as before on the pieces of stone which He had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the meeting. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the stone pieces in the box I had made. There they are, as the Lord told me.”

⁶ (The people of Israel traveled from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried and his son Eleazar took his place as religious leader. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah. And from Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the family of Levi to carry the special box of the Law of the Lord, and to stand before the Lord to work for Him and honor His name to this day. ⁹ So Levi does not have a share of what is given to his brothers. The Lord is his share, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “Once more I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time. And the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord did not destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Travel in front of the people, so they may go in and take the land which I promised to give their fathers.’

What God Wants

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? He wants you to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him. He wants you to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. ¹³ He wants you to keep all the Laws of the Lord which I am telling you today for your good. ¹⁴ See, heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁵ The Lord had joy in loving your fathers more than other nations, and you are still His chosen people to this day. ¹⁶ So then, from now on, obey the Lord. Do not be strong-willed any more. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great and powerful God and is to be honored with fear. He does not show favor, and cannot be bought with money. ¹⁸ He does what is right and fair for the child without parents and the woman whose husband has died. He shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ So show your love for the stranger. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the Lord your God. Work for Him, hold on to Him, and swear by His name. ²¹ He is your praise and He is your God. You have seen the great and powerful things He has done for you. ²² Your fathers went to Egypt, seventy people in all. And now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars of heaven.

Love and Obey the Lord

11 “Love the Lord your God. Always do what He tells you and keep all His Laws. ² I am not speaking to your children. They have not seen how the Lord worked and how great He is. ³ They have not seen the special things you have seen, what He did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land. ⁴ They have not seen what He did to Egypt’s army, the horses and war-wagons. He made the water of the Red Sea flow over them while they were coming after you. He destroyed every one of them. ⁵ They have not seen what He did to you in the desert until you came to this place. ⁶ They do not know what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, those of their house, their tents, and every living thing that followed them among Israel. ⁷ But your own eyes have seen all the great work the Lord has done.

⁸ “So keep every Law which I am telling you today. And you will be strong and go in and take the land which is to be yours. ⁹ You will live long in the land the Lord promised to your fathers and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land you are going in to take is not like the land you came from in Egypt. There you planted your seed and watered it using your feet, like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are about to go into and take for your own is a land of hills and valleys. It drinks water from the rain of heaven. ¹² The Lord your God cares for this land. His eyes watch over it from the beginning to the end of the year.

¹³ “Listen to and obey all the Laws I am telling you today. Love the Lord your God. Work for Him with all your heart and soul. If you do, ¹⁴ He will give the rain for your land at the right times, the early and late rain. So you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. ¹⁵ He will give grass in your fields for your cattle. And you will eat and be filled. ¹⁶ Be careful not to let your hearts be fooled so you turn away and work for other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Or the anger of the Lord will burn against you. He will shut the heavens so there will be no rain and the ground will not give its fruit. Then you will be quick to die from the good land the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Keep these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Tie them as something special to see upon your hand and on your forehead between your eyes. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them beside the door of your house and on your gates. ²¹ And your days and the days of your children will become many in the land the Lord promised to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² Be careful to obey all this Law which I am telling you. Love the Lord your God. Walk in all His ways and hold on to Him. If you do, ²³ the Lord will drive out all these nations in front of you. And you will take for your own what has belonged to nations greater and stronger than you. ²⁴ Every place where your foot steps will be yours. Your land will be from the desert to Lebanon, and from the River Euphrates to the sea in the west. ²⁵ There no man will be able to stand in front of you. The Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land where you walk, as He has promised you.

²⁶ “See, I am putting in front of you today good and a curse. ²⁷ Good will come to you if you listen to the Laws of the Lord your God, which I am telling you today. ²⁸ But a curse will come to you if you do not listen to the Laws of the Lord your God and turn aside from the way I am telling you today, by following other gods you have not known. ²⁹ When the Lord your God brings you into the land which is to be yours, you are to speak on Mount Gerizim about the good and on Mount Ebal the curses. ³⁰ You know they are on the other side of the Jordan, west of the road where the sun goes down. They are in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, beside Gilgal, next to the trees of Moreh. ³¹ You are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take the land the Lord your God is giving you. It will be your land and you will live in it. ³² Be careful to obey all the Laws which I am giving you today.

The One Place for Worship

12 “These are the Laws you should be careful to obey in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you for your own as long as you live on the earth. ² Be sure to destroy all the places of worship of the nations whose place you are taking. Destroy them on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. ³ Break down their altars and crush their pillars of worship. Burn their wooden female gods of worship named Asherim with fire. Cut down the objects made to look like their gods. And destroy their name from that place. ⁴ But do not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵ Look for the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your family groups. There He will make His name known, and make His home there, and there you will come. ⁶ Bring to this place your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, your promises, your free-will gifts, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. ⁷ You and those of your house will eat there before the Lord your God, and have joy in all that you do, in which the Lord your God has brought good to you. ⁸ You will not do at all the things we are doing here today, for every man is doing whatever is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ You will cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you. He will give you rest from all those around you who hate you, so you will be safe. ¹¹ Then bring all I tell you to the place where the Lord your God will choose to make His name known. Bring your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, and all the special gifts that you promised to the Lord. ¹² Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your men and women servants, and the Levite within your town who has no share of their gift. ¹³ Be careful that you do not give your burnt gifts in just any place you see. ¹⁴ But give your burnt gifts in the place which the Lord chooses in the land where your families live. There you should do all that I tell you.

¹⁵ “But you may kill and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you want, as the Lord your God has given you His good gifts. Both the clean and the unclean may eat of it, as you would of the gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶ Only do not eat the blood. You are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You are not allowed to eat within your towns the tenth part of your grain, or new wine, or oil, or the first-born of your cattle or flock, or any of your promised gifts, or your free-will gifts, or the gifts of your hands. ¹⁸ But you should eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, and the Levite who is within your towns. Be full of joy before the Lord your God in everything you do. ¹⁹ Be careful that you do not stop caring for the Levites as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “The Lord your God will give you more land as He has promised you. And when you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you want to eat meat, then you may eat as much meat as you want. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may kill from your cattle or flock which the Lord has given you, as I have told you, and you may eat within your towns whatever you want. ²² You will eat it just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten. Both the clean and unclean may eat of it. ²³ Only be sure not to eat the blood. For the blood is the life. You must not eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴ Do not eat it, but pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so it may go well with you and your children after you. For you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. ²⁶ Take your holy things which you may have and all the special gifts you promised to give to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ Give your burnt gifts, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your gifts will be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God. And you will eat the flesh. ²⁸ Be careful to listen to all these words I am telling you. Then it will go well with you and your children after you forever. For you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Israel to Watch out for False Gods

²⁹ “The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations whose land you will take. You will take their place and live in their land. ³⁰ But be careful that you are not fooled into following them, after they are destroyed before you. Do not ask about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods so that I may do the same?’ ³¹ Do not act this way toward the Lord your God. For they have done for their gods every sinful act which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.

³² “Be careful to do whatever I tell you. Do not add to it or take away from it.

Worshiping False Gods

13 “A man who tells what is going to happen or a dreamer of dreams may come among you. He may give you something special to see or do a powerful work. ² And what he tells you will happen might come true. But if he says to you, ‘Let us follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let us worship them,’ ³ do not listen to the words of that man who tells you what will happen or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is putting you to the test to see if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ Follow the Lord your God and fear Him. Keep His Laws, and listen to His voice. Work for Him, and hold on to Him. ⁵ But that man who tells what is going to happen or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, because he has talked to you about turning away from the Lord your God Who brought you from the land of Egypt and set you free from the land where you were servants. That man tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God told you to walk. You must take the sinful away from you.

⁶ “Your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your friend who is as your own soul, might tempt you in secret. They might say, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (whom you and your fathers have not known. ⁷ They might be gods of the nations who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other). ⁸ Do not agree with him or listen to him. Do not look on him with pity. And do not show him loving-kindness or hide him. ⁹ You must kill him. Your hand should be first against him to put him to death, and then the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ Kill him with stones, because he has tried to turn you away from the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land where you were servants. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear and be afraid. No one will do such a sinful thing among you again.

¹² “You might hear that in one of the cities the Lord your God has given you to live in ¹³ that some men of no worth have gone out from among you to tempt those who live in their city. They might say, ‘Let us go and worship other gods,’ (whom you have not known). ¹⁴ Then you should ask around and try to find out if this is true. If it is true that this sinful thing has been done among you, ¹⁵ you must be sure to go against those of that city with the sword. Destroy all of it, all that is in it, and its cattle, with the sword. ¹⁶ Then gather all that is left into the center of the city. Burn the city and all that is left in it with fire as a whole burnt gift to the Lord your God. It will be destroyed forever. It will never be built again. ¹⁷ Let nothing of the things to be destroyed be kept in your own hand so the Lord may turn from His burning anger and show loving-kindness to you. He will show you loving-pity and make you a nation of many, just as He promised your fathers. ¹⁸ But you must listen to the voice of the Lord your God. Obey all His Laws which I am telling you today. Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Good and Bad Foods

14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or cut the hair from your foreheads because of the dead. ² For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be His own nation out of all the nations on the earth.

³ “Do not eat any hated thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the bull, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat any animal that has a parted foot divided in two and that chews its food again. ⁷ But you must not eat of those that chew their food again or have a divided foot: the camel, the rabbit and the rock badger. For though they eat their food again, they do not have a divided foot. They are unclean to you. ⁸ And do not eat the pig, because it has a divided foot but does not chew its food again. It is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ “Of all that are in the water, you may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But these are the ones you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, every kind of kite, ¹⁴ every kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, every kind of hawk, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the vulture that eats dead flesh, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, every kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all flying bugs are unclean for you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ But you may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “Do not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger in your town, so he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a person from another land. For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God.

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

The Law of the Tenth Part

²² “Be sure to give a tenth part to the Lord of all you plant that comes from your field every year. ²³ Before the Lord your God, at the place He chooses to put His name, you may eat the tenth part of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. Then you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far away for you to bring the tenth part of all the good things you have received, ²⁵ you should trade it for money. Then tie the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your heart may desire, for bulls, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And there you and those of your house may eat before the Lord and be full of joy. ²⁷ Do not stop caring for the Levite who is in your town for he has no share of what is given to you.

²⁸ “At the end of every third year you should bring the tenth part of that year’s grain into your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite who has no share of what is given to you, and the stranger, and the child without parents, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns, may come and eat and be filled. Then the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the work done by your hands.

The Seventh Year

15 “At the end of every seven years you must do away with debts that are owed. ² This is the way you are to do it: Every man who has loaned money must forget the debt. He cannot make his neighbor and his brother pay it because the Lord has said that all should be forgotten. ³ You may make a stranger pay what he owes, but not your brother. ⁴ Yet there will be no poor among you for the Lord will be sure to bring good to you in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own. ⁵ But you must listen and obey the voice of the Lord your God. Be careful to do all the Law which I am telling you today. ⁶ The Lord your God will bring good to you as He has promised. You will let many nations use what belongs to you but you will not use what belongs to them. You will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.

⁷ “In any of the towns in your land the Lord your God is giving you, if there is anyone poor among you, do not let your heart be hard and not be willing to help him. ⁸ Be free to give to him. Let him use what is yours of anything he needs. ⁹ Be careful that there is no sinful thought in your heart, saying, ‘It is almost the seventh year, the time to do away with the debt owed to me,’ so you look on your brother with hate and give him nothing. Then he may cry to the Lord against you and you may be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give much to him, without being sorry that you do. Because the Lord your God will bring good to you for this, in all your work and in everything you do. ¹¹ The poor will always be in the land. So I tell you to be free in giving to your brother, to those in need, and to the poor in your land.

¹² “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he will work for you six years. But you must set him free in the seventh year. ¹³ When you set him free, do not send him away with nothing. ¹⁴ Give him much from your flock, from your grain, and from your wine. Give to him as the Lord your God has given to you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were servants in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God set you free. And so I am telling you today to do this. ¹⁶ But he may say to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and those of your house and gets along well with you. ¹⁷ Then take a sharp tool and put it through his ear into the door. And he will be your servant forever. Do the same with your woman servant. ¹⁸ It should not be hard for you to set him free for he has worked for you six years. He has been worth twice as much as a man paid to work for you. The Lord your God will bring good to you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ “Set apart for the Lord your God all the first-born males among your cattle and your flock. Do no work with the first-born of your cattle. Do not cut the wool from the first-born of your flock. ²⁰ You and those of your house will eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place the Lord chooses. ²¹ But do not kill it and give it to the Lord your God if it is not perfect, such as not being able to walk or see, or anything else wrong with it. ²² Eat it within your towns. Both the clean and the unclean may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or deer. ²³ But do not eat its blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16 “Remember the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib. ² Give the Passover gift to the Lord your God from the flock and the cattle, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³ Do not eat bread made with yeast. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of sorrow, because you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. So all the days of your life you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴ For seven days there is to be no yeast around in all your land. And none of the flesh you give in worship on the evening of the first day will be kept through the night until morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to give the Passover gift in any of your towns the Lord your God gives you. ⁶ But give it at the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. You must kill the Passover gift in the evening when the sun goes down, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷ Make it ready and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses. Then return to your tents in the morning. ⁸ For six days eat bread made without yeast. On the seventh day there will be a holy meeting to the Lord your God. Do no work on this day.

The Supper of Weeks

⁹ “Number seven weeks. Begin to number seven weeks from the time you begin to cut the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then keep the Special Supper of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a free-will gift. Give as the Lord your God has given to you. ¹¹ Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite who is in your town, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died. Be full of joy in the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. ¹² Remember that you were servants in Egypt. And be careful to obey these Laws.

¹³ “Keep the Special Supper of Tents seven days after you have gathered your grain and wine. ¹⁴ Be full of joy during your special supper, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns. ¹⁵ Seven days you will have a special supper to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. You will be full of joy because the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the food you grow and in all the work you do. ¹⁶ All your males must show themselves before the Lord your God three times a year in the place He chooses, at the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast, the Special Supper of the First Fruits of the Land, and the Special Supper of Tents. They must not show themselves before the Lord with nothing in their hands. ¹⁷ Every man should give as he is able, as the Lord your God has given to you.

Those Who Judge

¹⁸ “Choose judges and other leaders for all your towns the Lord your God is giving you, among each of your family groups. They must be wise in judging the people. ¹⁹ Be fair and do not show favor. Do not take pay in secret for doing wrong. Such pay blinds the eyes of the wise and causes them to change the words of a good man. ²⁰ Follow what is right, and only what is right. Then you will live and receive the land the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ “When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden god like the false goddess Asherah. ²² Do not set up for yourself a pillar for worship that the Lord your God hates.

17 “Do not give to the Lord your God a bull or a sheep which is not perfect. For that is a hated thing to the Lord your God.

² “You may find among you, within any of your towns the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who does what is sinful in the eyes of the Lord your God by sinning against the Lord’s agreement. ³ If he has served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon or the stars, which I have told him not to worship, ⁴ and if someone told you about this, then you should do your best to find out if it is true. If it is true that this hated thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then bring that man or woman who has done this sinful act to your gates, and kill the man or woman with stones. ⁶ If two or three people tell what they know against this person, he who is to die must be put to death. But he should not be put to death if only one person speaks against him. ⁷ Those who speak against him should be first to put him to death. And then all the people should join them. You must get rid of all sin from among you.

⁸ “There may be a problem too hard for you to decide, between two kinds of killing, between two kinds of questions about the law, between two kinds of hurting, problems argued about in your courts. Then get up and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ Go to the Levite religious leader or the judge who is at work at that time. Ask them, and they will tell you what they decide. ¹⁰ Then do what should be done by what they tell you they have decided at that place which the Lord chooses. Be careful to do all they tell you. ¹¹ Do what they teach you about the Law and about what they decide. Do not turn aside from what they tell you to do, to the right or to the left. ¹² The man must die who does foolish things and will not listen to the judge or the religious leader who serves the Lord your God. You must get rid of sin from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid. They will not act in a foolish way again.

A King

¹⁴ “When you go into the land the Lord your God gives you, and own it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will have a king rule over me like all the nations around me,’ ¹⁵ then you will set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. Set a king over you from among your brothers. Do not give a stranger power over you if he is not your brother. ¹⁶ He must not take many horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get many horses. Because the Lord has told you, ‘You must never again return that way.’ ¹⁷ He must not take many wives for himself or his heart may turn away. And he must not gather much silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “When he sits on the throne of his nation, he should write this Law for himself in a book in front of the Levite religious leaders. ¹⁹ It should be kept with him and he should read it all the days of his life. Then he will learn to fear the Lord his God, by being careful to obey all the words of these Laws. ²⁰ And he will not think he is better than his brothers. He will not turn aside from the Law, to the right or to the left, so that he and his children may live long in his nation in Israel.

What the Religious Leaders and Levites Are to Receive

18 “The Levite religious leaders of the family group of Levi will have no share of the land given to Israel. They will live on the gifts given to the Lord by fire. ² They will have no share of the land among their brothers. The Lord is their share, as He promised them.

³ “When the people bring their gifts, a bull or a sheep, the religious leader is to be given the shoulder, the parts of the face, and the stomach. ⁴ Give him the first of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the first wool of your sheep. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your families, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶ “If a Levite comes whenever he desires from any of the towns in Israel to the place the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he may work in the name of the Lord his God, like all his brother Levites who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They will all eat the same share of food, except what they receive from what is sold of their fathers’ lands.

Stay Away from What Is Sinful

⁹ “When you go into the land the Lord your God gives you, do not learn to follow the hated and sinful ways of those nations. ¹⁰ There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or uses secret ways, or does witchcraft, or tells the meaning of special things, or is a witch, ¹¹ or uses secret power on people, or helps people talk to spirits, or talks to spirits himself, or talks with the dead. ¹² For the Lord hates whoever does these things. And because of these hated things, the Lord your God will drive them out from in front of you. ¹³ You must be without blame before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations that you are about to take listen to those who do witchcraft and use secret ways. But the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

A Man Who Speaks for God

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will give you a man who speaks for God like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. ¹⁶ This is what you asked of the Lord your God at Sinai on the day of the meeting, when you said, ‘Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God again. Do not let me see this fire any more, or I will die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. ¹⁸ I will give them a man who speaks for God like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth. And he will make known to them all that I tell him. ¹⁹ He will speak in My name. And I will punish whoever will not listen to him. ²⁰ But that man of God will die who is not careful and speaks in My name what I did not tell him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods.’ ²¹ You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know which words the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² When a man who speaks for God speaks in the name of the Lord, and what he says does not come true, that word is not from the Lord. The man has spoken on his own. Do not be afraid of him.

The Cities to Be a Safe Place

19 “The Lord your God will destroy the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you. You will take their place and live in their cities and in their houses. At that time ² you should set apart three cities for yourself in the land the Lord your God gives you for your own. ³ Make the roads good that lead to these cities. Divide into three parts the land the Lord your God gives you for your own. Any man who kills another may run to a city and be safe.

⁴ “This is the law of the person who kills another and runs to a city to save his life. He might have killed his friend without meaning to, a friend he did not hate in the past. ⁵ He could have gone among the trees with his friend to cut wood. As he was using his ax to cut down a tree, the ax head could have come off the stick and hit his friend, killing him. Then he may run to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Or else the one who is angry will want to punish him for the killing, and will catch him and kill him. But the killer should not be put to death, because he had not hated the man in the past. ⁷ So I tell you, ‘Set apart three cities for yourself.’ ⁸ The Lord your God will give you even more land, as He has promised your fathers. He will give you all the land which He promised to give your fathers, ⁹ if you are careful to obey all the Laws I tell you today. Love the Lord your God. Walk in His ways always. Then you will add three other cities to these three. ¹⁰ So the person without guilt will not be put to death in the land the Lord your God gives you as a gift. And you will not be guilty of blood.

¹¹ “But there might be a man who hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, goes against him, and hurts him so that he dies. After this he might run to one of these cities. ¹² Then the leaders of his city should send men to take him from there and bring him to the one who wants to punish him for the killing that he may die. ¹³ Do not pity him. In Israel be free from the blood of those that are not guilty. Then it will go well with you.

¹⁴ “Do not move your neighbor’s land-mark which the fathers of long ago have set in the land the Lord your God gives you for your own.

¹⁵ “One person will not prove the guilt of a sin another man may have done. It will take two or three people who know about the sin to prove the man’s guilt. ¹⁶ If an angry person speaks against a man, saying that he did something wrong, ¹⁷ then both men who are arguing should stand before the Lord, in front of the religious leaders and the judges who are at work at that time. ¹⁸ The judges will choose careful questions to ask about the problem. If the man lied who said his brother is guilty, ¹⁹ then you should do to him just what he wanted to do to his brother. In this way you will get rid of the sin among you. ²⁰ The rest of the people will hear and be afraid. They will never do such a sinful thing among you again. ²¹ Do not pity him. It will be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

About Battles

20 “When you go to battle against those who hate you and see more horses and war-wagons and soldiers than you have, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God, Who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are coming near the battle, the religious leader will come near and speak to the people. ³ He will say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel. Today you are going into battle against those who hate you. Do not let your hearts become weak. Do not be afraid and shake in fear before them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will fight for you against those who hate you. And He will save you.’ ⁵ The leaders will speak to the people also, saying, ‘Is there anyone among you who has built a new house and has not given it to God? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in battle and another man will give it to God. ⁶ Is there anyone who has planted grape vines and has not begun to eat their fruit? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man will begin to eat the fruit. ⁷ Is there a man who is promised in marriage to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man marry her.’ ⁸ Then the leaders will say to the people, ‘Is there a man here who is afraid and is weak in heart? Let him go and return to his house so he will not make his brothers’ hearts afraid like his heart.’ ⁹ When the leaders have finished speaking to the people, they will choose heads of the army to lead the people.

¹⁰ “When you come near a city to fight against it, ask the people of the city if they would rather have peace. ¹¹ If they agree to make peace with you and open their gates to you, all the people who are found there will be made to work for you and serve you. ¹² But if they do not make peace with you and fight against you, you must take the city in battle. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives the city to you, you must kill all the men in it with the sword. ¹⁴ Take for yourselves what is left, the women, the children, all the animals, and all that is in the city. Use what is left of those who fought against you, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are very far from you and are not of the cities of the nations that are near. ¹⁶ But in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is giving you for your own, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Destroy everything and everyone in them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has told you. ¹⁸ Then they will not teach you to do all the hated and sinful things they have done for their gods, and make you sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you stay around a city a long time, to make war against it and take it, do not destroy its trees with the ax. You may eat from them but do not cut them down. For are trees of the field men that they should be killed? ²⁰ You may destroy and cut down only the trees you know are not fruit trees. Then you may build walls with the trees to help you fight against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

About Killing Someone

21 “If a person has been killed and is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own and it is not known who killed him, ² then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man. ³ The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled a plow. ⁴ The leaders of that city will bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water, which has not been plowed or planted. They will break the cow’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the religious leaders, the sons of Levi, will come near for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bring good in the name of the Lord. Every question about what is right and every fight will be decided upon by them. ⁶ All the leaders of that city nearest to the dead man will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ Then they will say, ‘Our hands have not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it. ⁸ O Lord, forgive Your people Israel whom You have set free. Do not put the guilt of killing a man who did no wrong on Your people Israel.’ And they will be forgiven from the guilt of the man’s death. ⁹ So you must take away the guilt of taking the life of a good man by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Woman Taken in Battle

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against those who hate you, and the Lord your God gives them to you, and you make them go with you, ¹¹ and you see a beautiful woman and have a desire for her as a wife, ¹² bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails. ¹³ She will change the clothes she wore when you took her away, and stay in your house. She will have sorrow for her father and mother for one month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, you should let her go wherever she wants. But do not sell her for money or act as if she were a servant because you have put her to shame.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other not loved, and both the loved and the one not loved have borne him sons, and if the first-born son belongs to the wife who is not loved, ¹⁶ on the day when the man divides what he has for his sons, he cannot make the first-born of his loved wife the first-born before the son of the wife who is not loved, who is the first-born. ¹⁷ He must respect the first-born, the son of the wife who is not loved, by giving him twice the share of all he has. He is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born belongs to him.

¹⁸ “If a man has a strong-willed son who goes against him and does not obey his father or mother and when they punish him he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother will take hold of him and bring him to the leaders of his city at the gate of his city. ²⁰ They will say to the leaders of his city, ‘This son of ours is strong-willed and goes against us. He will not obey us. He eats and drinks too much.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city will kill him with stones. You must get rid of the sin from among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

²² “If a man has sinned and should be put to death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, ²³ his body must not hang all night on the tree. You should be sure to bury him on the same day (for he who hangs is cursed by God). So do not make your land unclean which the Lord your God is giving you.

22 “If you see your brother’s bull or sheep walking away, do not pretend that you do not see them. Be sure to return them to your brother. ² If your brother is not home, or if you do not know who he is, then bring the animal to your house. Keep it there until your brother looks for it. Then return it to him. ³ Do the same with his donkey, or his coat, or anything lost by your brother. If you find what he has lost, you must help him. ⁴ If you see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the road, do not pretend that you do not see them. Be sure to help him lift them up again.

⁵ “A woman must not wear men’s clothing. And a man must not put on women’s clothing. For the Lord your God hates whoever does these things.

⁶ “You might find a bird’s nest by the road, in a tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs. If you find the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. ⁷ Be sure to let the mother go. But you may take the young for yourself. Then it will go well with you, and you will live long.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you should put a short wall around your roof. Then no one will fall from it and bring the guilt of blood upon your house.

⁹ “Do not plant among your vines another kind of seed. All that grows from what you have planted will be unclean. ¹⁰ Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together. ¹¹ Do not wear clothing made of both wool and linen together.

¹² “Make tassels to put on the four corners of the clothing you use to cover yourself.

Law of Those Who Are Not Faithful in Marriage

¹³ “If a man takes a wife and goes in to her and decides he does not like her, ¹⁴ and says that she did sinful acts and puts her to shame before others and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I found that she had been with another man,’ ¹⁵ then the girl’s father and mother should bring what is needed to prove she has not been with another man to the leaders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶ The girl’s father will say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife. But he turned against her. ¹⁷ He said she has done sinful acts, saying, “I found that your daughter has been with another man.” But I brought what will prove that my daughter has not been with another man.’ And they will spread the clothing in front of the leaders of the city. ¹⁸ Then the leaders of that city will take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They will make him pay a hundred pieces of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he has put to shame the name of an Israelite girl who has not had a man. She will still be his wife. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ But if it is true that the girl was found to have had another man, ²¹ then they will bring the girl to the door of her father’s house. There the men of her city will kill her with stones, because she has done a foolish act in Israel by acting in her father’s house like a woman who sells the use of her body. So you will get rid of the sin from among you.

²² “If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them must die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you will get rid of the sin from Israel.

²³ “If a girl who has never had a man is promised in marriage to a man, another man might find her in the city and lie with her. ²⁴ Then you must bring them both to the gate of that city and kill them with stones. Put the girl to death because she did not cry for help in the city, and the man because he has sinned against his neighbor’s wife. So you will get rid of the sin from among you. ²⁵ But if the man finds a girl in the field who is promised in marriage, and makes her lie with him, then only the man who lies with her will die. ²⁶ Do nothing to the girl. There is no sin in the girl bad enough for her to be put to death. It is as if a man goes against his neighbor and kills him. ²⁷ When he found her in the field, the girl promised in marriage cried out. But there was no one to save her.

²⁸ “If a man finds a girl who has never had a man and is not promised in marriage, and takes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹ then the man who lay with her must give fifty pieces of silver to the girl’s father. And she will become his wife, because he has put her to shame. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰ “A man must not take his father’s wife. He must not take the clothes off the woman who belongs to his father.

Those Who Cannot Go into the Meeting of the Lord

23 “No man who has his sex part crushed or cut off will go into the meeting of the Lord. ² No one who was born to parents who were not married will go into the meeting of the Lord. And none of his children will go into the meeting of the Lord, even to the children’s children of ten families in the future. ³ No Ammonite or Moabite will go into the meeting of the Lord. None of their children will go into the meeting of the Lord, even to the children’s children of ten families of the future, ⁴ because they did not meet you with food and water on your way from Egypt, and they paid Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. ⁵ But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead He changed the curse into good for you, because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶ Do nothing for their peace or their well-being all your days.

⁷ “Do not hate an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not hate an Egyptian. For you were a stranger in his land. ⁸ Their great-grandchildren may go into the meeting of the Lord.

The Camp Is to Be Clean

⁹ “When you go as an army against those who hate you, keep yourself away from every sinful thing. ¹⁰ If there is any man among you who is unclean because he had a flow from his body during the night, he must go away from the tents. He must not come among the tents. ¹¹ When evening comes he must wash his body with water. And when the sun goes down he may return to the tents.