Bible in 90 Days

¹² Choose a place outside the camp where you can go to the toilet. ¹³ Keep a shovel among your tools. When you go to the toilet, dig a hole. Then cover up your waste. ¹⁴ The Lord your God walks around in your camp. He’s there to keep you safe. He’s also there to hand your enemies over to you. So your camp must be holy. Then he won’t see anything among you that is shameful. He won’t turn away from you.

Several Other Laws

¹⁵ If a slave comes to you for safety, don’t hand them over to their master. ¹⁶ Let them live among you anywhere they want to. Let them live in any town they choose. Don’t treat them badly.

¹⁷ A man or woman in Israel must not become a temple prostitute. ¹⁸ The Lord your God hates the money that men and women get for being prostitutes. So don’t take that money into the house of the Lord to pay what you promised to give.

¹⁹ Don’t charge your own people any interest. Don’t charge them when they borrow money, food or anything else. ²⁰ You can charge interest to people from another country. But don’t charge your own people. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. He will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

²¹ Don’t put off giving to the Lord your God everything you promise him. He will certainly require it from you. And you will be guilty of committing a sin. ²² But if you don’t make a promise, you won’t be guilty. ²³ Make sure you do what you promised to do. With your own mouth you made the promise to the Lord your God. No one forced you to do it.

²⁴ When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat all the grapes you want. But don’t put any of them in your basket. ²⁵ When you enter your neighbor’s field, you can pick heads of grain. But don’t cut down their standing grain.

24 Suppose a man marries a woman. But later he decides he doesn’t like her. He finds something shameful about her. So he gives her a letter of divorce and sends her away from his house. ² Then after she leaves his house she becomes another man’s wife. ³ But her second husband doesn’t like her either. So he gives her a letter of divorce and sends her away from his house. Or perhaps he dies. ⁴ Then her first husband isn’t allowed to marry her again. The Lord would hate that. When her first husband divorced her, she became “unclean.” Don’t bring sin on the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

⁵ Suppose a man has just married his wife. Then don’t send him into battle. Don’t give him any other duty either. He’s free to stay home for one year. He needs time to make his new wife happy.

⁶ Someone might borrow money from you and give you two millstones to keep until you are paid back. Don’t keep them. Don’t even keep the upper one. That person needs both millstones to make a living.

⁷ Suppose someone is caught kidnapping another Israelite. And they sell or treat that person as a slave. Then the kidnapper must die. Get rid of that evil person.

⁸ What about skin diseases? Be very careful to do exactly what the priests, who are Levites, tell you to do. You must be careful to obey the commands I’ve given them. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.

¹⁰ Suppose your neighbor borrows something from you. And he offers you something to keep until you get paid back. Then don’t go into their house to get it. ¹¹ Stay outside. Let the neighbor bring it out to you. ¹² The neighbor might be poor. You might be given their coat to keep until you get paid back. Don’t go to sleep while you still have it. ¹³ Return it before the sun goes down. They need it to sleep in and will thank you for returning it. The Lord your God will see it and know that you have done the right thing.

¹⁴ Don’t take advantage of any hired worker who is poor and needy. That applies to your own people. It also applies to outsiders living in one of your towns. ¹⁵ Give them their pay every day. They are poor and are counting on it. If you don’t pay them, they might cry out to the Lord against you. Then you will be guilty of committing a sin.

¹⁶ Parents must not be put to death because of what their children do. And children must not be put to death because of what their parents do. People must die because of their own sins.

¹⁷ Do what is right and fair for outsiders and for children whose fathers have died. Suppose a widow borrows something from you. And she offers to give you her coat until she pays you back. Don’t take it. ¹⁸ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Remember that the Lord your God set you free from there. That’s why I’m commanding you to do those things.

¹⁹ When you are gathering crops in your field, you might leave some grain behind by mistake. Don’t go back to get it. Leave it behind for outsiders and widows. Leave it for children whose fathers have died. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. ²⁰ When you knock olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for outsiders and widows. Leave it for children whose fathers have died. ²¹ When you pick grapes in your vineyard, don’t go back over the vines a second time. Leave what remains for outsiders and widows. Leave it for children whose fathers have died. ²² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That’s why I’m commanding you to do these things.

25 Suppose two people don’t agree about something. Then they must take their case to court. The judges will decide the case. They will let the one who isn’t guilty go free. And they will punish the one who is guilty. ² The guilty one might have done something that’s worthy of a beating. Then the judge will make them lie down and be beaten with a whip right there in court. The number of strokes should fit the crime. ³ But the judge must not give the guilty person more than 40 strokes. If more than that are used, you will have disrespected your Israelite neighbor.

⁴ Don’t stop an ox from eating while you use it to separate grain from straw.

⁵ Suppose two brothers are living near each other. And one of them dies without having a son. Then his widow must not marry anyone outside the family. Her husband’s brother should marry her. That’s what a brother-in-law is supposed to do. ⁶ Her first baby boy will be named after her first husband. Then the dead man’s name will continue in Israel.

⁷ But suppose the man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s wife. Then she will go to the elders at the gate of the town. She will say, “My husband’s brother refuses to keep his brother’s name alive in Israel. He won’t do for me what a brother-in-law is supposed to do.” ⁸ Then the elders in his town will send for him. They will talk to him. But he still might say, “I don’t want to marry her.” ⁹ Then his brother’s widow will go up to him in front of the elders. She’ll pull one of his sandals off his foot. She’ll spit in his face. And she’ll say, “That’s what we do to a man who won’t build up his brother’s family line.” ¹⁰ That man’s family line will be known in Israel as The Family of the Man Whose Sandal Was Pulled Off.

¹¹ Suppose two men are fighting. And the wife of one of them comes to save her husband from his attacker. So she reaches out and grabs hold of his attacker’s private parts. ¹² Then you must cut off her hand. Don’t feel sorry for her.

¹³ Don’t have two different scales. Don’t have scales that cause things to seem heavier or lighter than they really are. ¹⁴ And don’t have two different sets of measures. Don’t have measures that cause things to seem larger or smaller than they really are. ¹⁵ You must use weights and measures that are honest and exact. Then you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶ He hates anyone who cheats.

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way out of Egypt. ¹⁸ You were tired and worn out. They met up with you on your journey. They attacked everyone who was lagging behind. They didn’t have any respect for God. ¹⁹ The Lord your God will give you peace and rest from all the enemies around you. He’ll do this in the land he’s giving you to take over as your very own. No one on earth will mention the Amalekites ever again because you will destroy them. Do not forget!

Give the Lord His Share

26 You will enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own. You will take it over. You will make your homes in the land. ² When you do, get some of the first share of everything your soil produces. Put it in a basket. It’s from the land the Lord your God is giving you. Take your gifts and go to the special place he will choose. He will put his Name there. ³ Speak to the priest in office at that time. Tell him, “I announce today to the Lord your God that I have come to this land. It’s the land he promised to give us. He promised it to our people of long ago.” ⁴ The priest will receive the basket from you. He’ll set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ Then you will speak while the Lord is listening. You will say, “My father Jacob was a wanderer from the land of Aram. He went down into Egypt with a few people. He lived there and became the father of a great nation. It had huge numbers of people. ⁶ But the people of Egypt treated us badly. They made us suffer. They made us work very hard. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord. He is the God of our people who lived long ago. He heard our voice. He saw how much we were suffering. The Egyptians were treating us badly. They were making us work very hard. ⁸ So the Lord used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring us out of Egypt. He did great and terrifying things. He did signs and amazing things. ⁹ He brought us to this place. He gave us this land. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey. ¹⁰ Now, Lord, I’m bringing you the first share of crops from the soil. After all, you have given them to me.” Place the basket in front of the Lord your God. Bow down to him. ¹¹ Then you and the Levites and the outsiders among you will be full of joy. You will enjoy all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your family.

¹² You will set apart a tenth of everything you produce in the third year. That’s the year for giving the tenth to people who have greater needs. You will give it to the Levites, outsiders and widows. You will also give it to children whose fathers have died. Then all of them will have plenty to eat in your towns. ¹³ Speak to the Lord your God. Say to him, “I have taken your sacred share from my house. I have given it to the Levites, outsiders and widows. I have also given it to children whose fathers have died. I’ve done everything you commanded me to do. I haven’t stopped obeying your commands. I haven’t forgotten any of them. ¹⁴ I haven’t eaten any part of your sacred share while I mourned over someone who had died. I haven’t taken any of it from my house while I was ‘unclean.’ And I haven’t offered any of it to the dead. Lord my God, I’ve obeyed you. I’ve done everything you commanded me to do. ¹⁵ Look down from the holy place where you live in heaven. Bless your people Israel. Bless the land you have given us. It’s the land you promised to give to our people of long ago. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey.”

Obey the Lord’s Commands

¹⁶ This day the Lord your God commands you to obey all these rules and laws. Be careful to obey them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷ Today you have announced that the Lord is your God. You have said you would live exactly as he wants you to live. You have agreed to keep his rules, commands and laws. And you have said you would listen to him. ¹⁸ Today the Lord has announced that you are his people. He has said that you are his special treasure. He promised that you would be. He has told you to keep all his commands. ¹⁹ He has announced that he will make you famous. He’ll give you more praise and honor than all the other nations he has made. And he has said that you will be a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. That’s exactly what he promised to do.

The Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses and the elders of Israel gave commands to the people. They said, “Obey all the commands we’re giving you today. ² You will go across the Jordan River. You will enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you do, set up some large stones. Put a coat of plaster on them. ³ Write all the words of this law on them. Do it when you have crossed over into the land the Lord your God is giving you. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey. The Lord is the God of your people of long ago. He promised you that you would enter the land. ⁴ After you have gone across the Jordan, set up those stones on Mount Ebal. Put a coat of plaster on them. We’re commanding you today to do that. ⁵ Build an altar there to honor the Lord your God. Make it out of stones. Don’t use any iron tool on them. ⁶ Use stones you find in the fields to build his altar. Then offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. ⁷ Sacrifice friendship offerings there. Eat them and be filled with joy in the sight of the Lord your God. ⁸ You must write all the words of this law on the stones you have set up. Write the words very clearly.”

Curses for Not Obeying the Lord

⁹ Then Moses and the priests, who are Levites, spoke to all the Israelites. They said, “Israel, be quiet! Listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey him. Obey his commands and rules that we’re giving you today.”

¹¹ Here are the commands Moses gave the people that same day.

¹² You will go across the Jordan River. When you do, six tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people. Those tribes are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. ¹³ The other six tribes will stand on Mount Ebal to announce some curses. Those tribes are Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

¹⁴ The Levites will speak to all the Israelites in a loud voice. The Levites will say,

¹⁵ “May anyone who makes a statue of a god and sets it up in secret be under the Lord’s curse. That statue is made by a skilled worker. And the Lord hates it.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁶ “May anyone who brings shame on their father or mother be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁷ “May anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁸ “May anyone who leads blind people down the wrong road be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁹ “May anyone who treats unfairly outsiders, widows, and children whose fathers have died be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁰ “May anyone who sleeps with his stepmother be under the Lord’s curse. That man brings shame on his father by doing that.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²¹ “May anyone who has sex with animals be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²² “May anyone who sleeps with his sister be under the Lord’s curse. It doesn’t matter whether she is his full sister or his half sister.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²³ “May anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁴ “May anyone who kills their neighbor secretly be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁵ “May anyone who accepts money to kill someone who isn’t guilty of doing anything wrong be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁶ “May anyone who doesn’t honor the words of this law by obeying them be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

Blessings for Obeying the Lord

28 Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to obey all his commands. I’m giving them to you today. If you do these things, the Lord will honor you more than all the other nations on earth. ² If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.

³ You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country.

⁴ Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. The young animals among your livestock will be blessed. That includes your calves and lambs.

⁵ Your baskets and bread pans will be blessed.

⁶ You will be blessed no matter where you go.

⁷ Enemies will rise up against you. But the Lord will help you win the battle over them. They will come at you from one direction. But they’ll run away from you in every direction.

⁸ The Lord your God will bless your barns with plenty of grain and other food. He will bless everything you do. He’ll bless you in the land he’s giving you.

⁹ The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He promised to do this. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live. ¹⁰ All the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you. ¹¹ The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised to give you. He promised this to your people of long ago.

¹² The Lord will open up the heavens. That’s where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He’ll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won’t have to borrow from any of them. ¹³ The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I’m giving you today. Be careful to obey them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom. ¹⁴ Don’t turn away from any of the commands I’m giving you today. Don’t turn to the right or the left. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them.

Curses for Not Obeying the Lord

¹⁵ But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to obey all his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.

¹⁶ You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.

¹⁷ Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.

¹⁸ Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.

¹⁹ You will be cursed no matter where you go.

²⁰ The Lord will send curses on you. You won’t know what’s going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. This will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord. ²¹ He will send all kinds of sicknesses on you. He’ll send them until he has destroyed you. He’ll remove you from the land you are entering to take as your own. ²² The Lord will make you sick and very weak. He will strike you with fever and swelling. He’ll send burning heat. There won’t be any rain. The hot winds will completely dry up your crops. All those things will happen until you die. ²³ The sky above you will be like bronze. The ground beneath you will be like iron. ²⁴ The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

²⁵ The Lord will help your enemies win the battle over you. You will come at them from one direction. But you will run away from them in every direction. All the kingdoms on earth will be completely shocked when they see you. ²⁶ Birds and wild animals will eat up your dead bodies. There won’t be anyone left to scare them away. ²⁷ The Lord will send boils on you, just like the ones he sent on the Egyptians. You will have growths in your bodies and boils on your skin. You will itch all over. No one will be able to heal you. ²⁸ The Lord will make you lose your mind. He will make you blind. You won’t know what’s going on. ²⁹ Even at noon you will have to feel your way around like a blind person in the dark. You won’t have success in anything you do. Day after day you will be robbed and treated badly. No one will be able to save you.

³⁰ You and a woman will promise to marry each other. But another man will take her and rape her. You will build a house. But you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you won’t eat a single grape from it. ³¹ Your ox will be killed right in front of your eyes. But you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you by force. And you will never get it back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. No one will be able to save them. ³² Your children will be given to another nation. Day after day you will watch for them to come back. But you will only wear out your eyes. You won’t be able to help your children. ³³ A nation you don’t know anything about will eat what you work to produce on your land. You will only be treated badly as long as you live. ³⁴ The things you see will make you lose your mind. ³⁵ The Lord will send painful boils on your knees and legs. No one will be able to heal them. They will cover you from head to toe.

³⁶ The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over yourselves. All of you will go to another nation. You and your people of long ago didn’t know anything about them. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone. ³⁷ You will look very bad to all the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will mock you and make fun of you.

³⁸ You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up. ³⁹ You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹ You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners. ⁴² Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.

⁴³ Outsiders who live among you will become your leaders. They will rise higher and higher. But you will sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴ They will lend money to you. But you won’t be able to lend money to them. They will be the leaders. But you will be the followers.

⁴⁵ The Lord your God will send all these curses on you. They will follow you everywhere. They’ll catch up with you. You will be under the Lord’s curse until you are destroyed. That’s because you didn’t obey him. You didn’t keep the commands and rules he gave you. ⁴⁶ These curses will remain as signs and awful judgments against you and your children after you forever. ⁴⁷ You didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness when times were good. ⁴⁸ So he will send enemies against you. You will have to serve them. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be naked and poor. The Lord will put the iron chains of slavery around your necks until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will come from the ends of the earth. It will dive down on you like an eagle. You won’t understand that nation’s language. ⁵⁰ Its people will look mean. They won’t have any respect for old people. They won’t show any kindness to young people. ⁵¹ They will eat up the young animals among your livestock. They’ll eat up the crops on your land. They’ll destroy you. They won’t leave you any grain, olive oil or fresh wine. They won’t leave you any calves or lambs. They’ll destroy you. ⁵² They’ll surround all the cities throughout your whole land. They’ll attack those cities until the high, strong walls you trust in fall down. That’s what will happen to the cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

⁵³ Your enemies will surround you and attack you. They will make you suffer greatly. So you will eat your own children. You will eat the dead bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. ⁵⁴ There may be a gentle and caring man among you. But he will treat his own brother badly. He’ll be just as mean to the wife he loves and to any of his children who are still alive. ⁵⁵ He won’t give to a single one of them any part of the dead bodies of his children that he’s eating. It will be all he has left to eat. That’s how much your enemies will make you suffer when they surround all your cities and attack them. ⁵⁶ There may be a gentle and caring woman among you. She wouldn’t even touch the ground with her feet without first putting her sandals on. But she will not share anything with the husband she loves. She won’t share with her own children either. ⁵⁷ She will eat what comes out of her body after she has a baby. Then she’ll even eat her baby. She won’t share it with anyone in her family. In her great hunger she’ll plan to eat it in secret. There won’t be anything else for her to eat because the city she lives in will be surrounded. That’s an example of how much your enemies will make you suffer when they are attacking your cities.

⁵⁸ Be careful to follow all the words of this law. They are written in this scroll. Have respect for the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. If you don’t, ⁵⁹ he will send terrible plagues on you and your children after you. He’ll send horrible and lasting troubles. He’ll make you very sick for a long time. ⁶⁰ He’ll bring on you all the sicknesses you were afraid of getting when you were in Egypt. You won’t be able to get rid of them. ⁶¹ The Lord will also bring on you all other kinds of sickness and trouble. I haven’t even written those down in this Book of the Law. You will be destroyed. ⁶² At one time you were as many as the stars in the sky. But there will only be a few of you left. That’s because you didn’t obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ It pleased the Lord to give you success and to cause there to be many of you. But it will please him just as much to wipe you out and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.

⁶⁴ Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations. He’ll spread you around from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship statues of gods made out of wood and stone. You and your people of long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you won’t find any peace. There won’t be any place where you can make your home and rest your feet. The Lord will give you minds filled with worry. He’ll give you eyes worn out from looking for help. You won’t have any hope in your hearts. ⁶⁶ Your lives will always be in danger. You will be filled with fear night and day. You will never be sure you are safe. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, “We wish it were evening!” In the evening you will say, “We wish it were morning!” Your hearts will be filled with fear. The things you see will terrify you. ⁶⁸ The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. He’ll send you on a journey I said you should never have to make again. You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves in Egypt. But no one will buy you.

Obey the Terms of the Covenant

29 Here are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab. The terms were added to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Horeb.

² Moses sent for all the Israelites. Here is what he said to them.

With your own eyes you have seen everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh. You have seen what he did to all Pharaoh’s officials and to his whole land. ³ With your own eyes you saw how the Lord really made them suffer. You saw the signs and amazing things he did. ⁴ But to this day the Lord hasn’t given you a mind that understands. He hasn’t given you eyes that see. He hasn’t given you ears that hear. ⁵ Yet the Lord says, “I led you through the desert for 40 years. During that time your clothes didn’t wear out. The sandals on your feet didn’t wear out either. ⁶ You didn’t eat any bread. You didn’t drink any kind of wine. I did all these things because I wanted you to know that I am the Lord your God.”

⁷ When you got here, Sihon and Og came out to fight against us. Sihon was the king of Heshbon. And Og was the king of Bashan. But we won the battle over them. ⁸ We took their land. We gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their share.

⁹ Be careful to obey the terms of this covenant. Then you will have success in everything you do. ¹⁰ Today all of you are standing here in the sight of the Lord your God. Your leaders and chief men are here. Your elders and officials are here. So are all the other men of Israel. ¹¹ Your children and wives are here with you too. So are the outsiders living in your camps. They chop your wood and carry your water. ¹² All of you are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God. He is making the covenant with you today. He’s giving you his word. ¹³ Today he wants to show you that you are his people and that he is your God. That’s what he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴ I’m making this covenant and the promise that goes along with it. I’m making this covenant with you. ¹⁵ You are standing here with us today in front of the Lord our God. And I’m also making this covenant with those who aren’t here today.

¹⁶ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt. You also know how we passed through other countries on the way here. ¹⁷ You saw the statues of their gods made out of wood, stone, silver and gold. The Lord hates those statues. ¹⁸ Make sure there isn’t a man or woman among your families or tribes who turns away from the Lord our God. No one must worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that kind of worship doesn’t spread like bitter poison through your whole community.

¹⁹ Some people who worship those gods will hear the promise that seals the covenant I’m making. They think they can escape trouble by what they’re saying. They say, “We’ll be safe, even though we’re stubborn and go our own way.” But they will bring trouble on the whole land. ²⁰ The Lord will never be willing to forgive those people. His great anger will blaze out against them. All the curses I’ve written down in this book will fall on them. And the Lord will erase any mention of them from the earth. ²¹ He will find those people in all the tribes of Israel and give them nothing but trouble. That will agree with all the curses of the covenant. They are written down in this Book of the Law.

²² Even your children’s children will see the troubles that have fallen on the land. They’ll see the sicknesses the Lord has brought on it. People who come from countries far away will also see those things. ²³ The whole land will be burned up. Nothing but salt and sulfur will be left. Nothing will be planted there. Nothing will grow there. In fact, nothing will even start to grow there. The land will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim after they were destroyed. The Lord wiped out those cities because he was very angry. ²⁴ All the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to the land? What could have made him so very angry?”

²⁵ And they will hear the answer, “It’s because the people living there have broken the covenant of the Lord. He’s the God of their people of long ago. He made that covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶ They went off and worshiped other gods. They bowed down to them. They hadn’t known anything about those gods before. The Lord hadn’t given those gods to them. ²⁷ So the Lord became very angry with this land. He brought on it all the curses written down in this book. ²⁸ The Lord’s anger blazed out against his people. So he pulled them up out of their land. He threw them into another land. And that’s where they are now.”

²⁹ The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.

The Lord Will Bless His People

30 I have told you about all these blessings and curses. The Lord your God will bring them on you. Then you will think carefully about the blessings and curses. You will think about them everywhere the Lord your God scatters you among the nations. ² You and your children will return to the Lord your God. You will obey him with all your heart and with all your soul. That will be according to everything I’m commanding you today. ³ When all that happens, the Lord your God will bless you with great success again. He will be very kind to you. He’ll bring you back from all the nations where he scattered you. ⁴ Suppose you have been forced to go away to the farthest land on earth. The Lord your God will bring you back even from there. ⁵ He will bring you to the land that belonged to your people of long ago. You will take it over. He’ll make you better off than your people were. He’ll cause there to be more of you than there were of them. ⁶ The Lord your God will keep you from being stubborn. He’ll do the same thing for your children and their children. Then you will love him with all your heart and with all your soul. And you will live. ⁷ The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies. They hated you and hunted you down. ⁸ You will obey the Lord again. You will obey all his commands that I’m giving you today. ⁹ Then the Lord your God will give you great success in everything you do. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. The Lord will take delight in you again. He’ll give you success. That’s what he did for your people of long ago. ¹⁰ But you must obey the Lord your God. You must keep his commands and rules. They are written in this Book of the Law. You must turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Choose Life, Not Death

¹¹ What I’m commanding you today is not too hard for you. It isn’t beyond your reach. ¹² It isn’t up in heaven. So you don’t have to ask, “Who will go up into heaven to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?” ¹³ And it isn’t beyond the ocean. So you don’t have to ask, “Who will go across the ocean to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?” ¹⁴ No, the message isn’t far away at all. In fact, it’s really near you. It’s in your mouth and in your heart so that you can obey it.

¹⁵ Today I’m giving you a choice. You can have life and success. Or you can have death and harm. ¹⁶ I’m commanding you today to love the Lord your God. I’m commanding you to live exactly as he wants you to live. You must obey his commands, rules and laws. Then you will live. There will be many of you. The Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

¹⁷ Don’t let your hearts turn away from the Lord. Instead, obey him. Don’t let yourselves be drawn away to other gods. And don’t bow down to them and worship them. ¹⁸ If you do, I announce to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You are about to go across the Jordan River and take over the land. But you won’t live there very long.

¹⁹ I’m calling for the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you this very day. I’m offering you the choice of life or death. You can choose either blessings or curses. But I want you to choose life. Then you and your children will live. ²⁰ And you will love the Lord your God. You will obey him. You will remain true to him. The Lord is your very life. He will give you many years in the land. He promised to give that land to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Joshua Becomes the New Leader

31 Here are the words Moses spoke to all the Israelites. ² He said, “I am now 120 years old. I’m not able to lead you anymore. The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not go across the Jordan River.’ ³ The Lord your God himself will go across ahead of you. He’ll destroy the nations there in order to make room for you. You will take over their land. Joshua will also go across ahead of you, just as the Lord said he would. ⁴ The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og. He destroyed those Amorite kings along with their land. ⁵ The Lord will hand those nations over to you. Then you must do to them everything I’ve commanded you to do. ⁶ Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t be terrified because of them. The Lord your God will go with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you.”

⁷ Then Moses sent for Joshua. Moses spoke to him in front of all the Israelites. He said, “Be strong and brave. You must go with these people. They are going into the land the Lord promised to give to their people of long ago. You must divide it up among them. They will each receive their share. ⁸ The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you. So don’t be afraid. Don’t lose hope.”

The Law Must Be Read to the People

⁹ Moses wrote down this law. He gave it to the priests, who are sons of Levi. They carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He also gave the law to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, “You must read this law at the end of every seven years. Do it in the year when you forgive people what they owe. Read it during the Feast of Booths. ¹¹ That’s when all the Israelites come to appear in front of the Lord your God at the holy tent. It will be at the place he will choose. You must read this law to them. ¹² Gather the people together. Gather the men, women and children. Also bring together the outsiders living in your towns. Then they can listen and learn to have respect for the Lord your God. And they’ll be careful to obey all the words of this law. ¹³ Their children must hear it read too. They don’t know this law yet. They too must learn to have respect for the Lord your God. They must honor him as long as you live in the land. You are about to go across the Jordan River and take that land as your very own.”

The Israelites Will Refuse to Obey the Lord

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “The day when you will die is near. Have Joshua go to the tent of meeting. Join him there. That is where I will appoint him as the new leader.” So Joshua and Moses went to the tent of meeting.

¹⁵ Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud. It stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “You are going to join the members of your family who have already died. The Israelites will not be faithful to me. They will soon join themselves to the false gods that are worshiped in the land they are entering. The people will desert me. They will break the covenant I made with them. ¹⁷ In that day I will become angry with them. I will desert them. I will turn my face away from them. And they will be destroyed. Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. On that day they will say, ‘Trouble has come on us. Our God isn’t with us!’ ¹⁸ I will certainly turn away from them on that day. I will do it because they did a very evil thing when they turned to other gods.

¹⁹ “I want you to write down a song and teach it to the Israelites. Have them sing it. It will be my witness against them. ²⁰ I will bring them into a land that has plenty of milk and honey. I promised the land to their people of long ago. In that land they will eat until they have had enough. They will get fat. When they do, they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will turn their backs on me. They will break my covenant. ²¹ Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. Then the song I am giving you will be a witness against them. That is because the song will not be forgotten by their children and their children’s children. I know what they are likely to do. I know it even before I bring them into the land I promised them.” ²² So that day Moses wrote the song down. And Moses taught it to the Israelites.

²³ The Lord gave a command to Joshua, the son of Nun. He said, “Be strong and brave. You will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them. I myself will be with you.”

²⁴ Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book. He wrote them down from beginning to end. ²⁵ Then he gave a command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Moses said, ²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law. Place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. It will remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷ I know how you refuse to obey the Lord. I know how stubborn you are. You have refused to obey him while I’ve been living among you. So you will certainly refuse to obey him after I’m dead! ²⁸ Gather together all the elders of your tribes and all your officials. Bring them to me. Then I can speak these words to them. I can call for the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against them. ²⁹ I know that after I’m dead you will certainly become very sinful. You will turn away from the path I’ve commanded you to take. In days to come, trouble will fall on you. That’s because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. You will make him very angry because of the statues of gods your hands have made.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰ Moses spoke the words of this song from beginning to end. The whole community of Israel heard them. Here is what he said.

⁴⁴ Moses spoke all the words of this song to the people. Joshua, the son of Nun, was with him. ⁴⁵ Moses finished speaking all these words to all the Israelites. ⁴⁶ Then he said to them, “Think carefully about all the words I have announced to you today. I want you to command your children to be careful to obey all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ They aren’t just useless words for you. They are your very life. If you obey them, you will live in the land for a long time. It’s the land you are going across the Jordan River to take as your own.”

Moses Will Die on Mount Nebo

⁴⁸ On that same day the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁹ “Go up into the Abarim mountains. Go to Mount Nebo in Moab. It is across from Jericho. From there look out over Canaan. It is the land I am giving the Israelites to take as their own. ⁵⁰ You will die there on the mountain you have climbed. You will join the members of your family who have already died. In the same way, your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor. He joined the members of his family who had already died. ⁵¹ You and Aaron disobeyed me in front of the Israelites. It happened at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin. You did not honor me among the Israelites as the holy God. ⁵² So you will see the land, but only from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving to the Israelites.”

Moses Blesses the Tribes

33 Here is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, gave to the Israelites before he died. ² He said,

⁶ Here’s what Moses said about Reuben.

⁷ Here’s what Moses said about Judah.

⁸ Here’s what Moses said about Levi.

¹² Here’s what Moses said about Benjamin.

¹³ Here’s what Moses said about Joseph.

¹⁸ Here’s what Moses said about Zebulun and Issachar.

²⁰ Here’s what Moses said about Gad.

²² Here’s what Moses said about Dan.

²³ Here’s what Moses said about Naphtali.

²⁴ Here’s what Moses said about Asher.

Moses Dies

34 Moses climbed Mount Nebo. He went up from the plains of Moab to the highest slopes of Pisgah. It’s across from Jericho. At Pisgah the Lord showed him the whole land from Gilead all the way to Dan. ² Moses saw the whole land of Naphtali. He saw the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh. The Lord showed him the whole land of Judah all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. ³ Moses saw the Negev Desert. He saw the whole area from the Valley of Jericho all the way to Zoar. Jericho was also known as The City of Palm Trees. ⁴ Then the Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I told them, ‘I will give this land to your children and their children.’ Moses, I have let you see it with your own eyes. But you will not go across the Jordan River to enter it.”

⁵ Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab. It happened just as the Lord had said. ⁶ The Lord buried the body of Moses in Moab. His grave is in the valley across from Beth Peor. But to this day no one knows where his grave is. ⁷ Moses was 120 years old when he died. But his eyesight was still good. He was still very strong. ⁸ The Israelites mourned over Moses on the plains of Moab for 30 days. They did it until their time for weeping and crying was over.

⁹ Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with wisdom. That’s because Moses had placed his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to Joshua. They did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹⁰ Since then, Israel has never had a prophet like Moses. The Lord knew him face to face. ¹¹ Moses did many signs and amazing things. The Lord had sent him to do them in Egypt. Moses did them against Pharaoh, against all his officials and against his whole land. ¹² No one has ever had the mighty power Moses had. No one has ever done the wonderful acts he did in the sight of all the Israelites.