Moses Reminds Israel about God's Laws

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Home -> Major Sections of the Bible -> Deuteronomy 12:1 - Deuteronomy 26:19

Deuteronomy 12:1 - Deuteronomy 26:19

Deuteronomy 12

Laws of the Sanctuary

These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which The LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.

You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

You shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.

You shall not do so to the LORD your God.

But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come.

There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

There you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

You shall not do after all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God gives you.

But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety;

then it shall happen that to the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to The LORD.

You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

Be careful that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the LORD your God's blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.

Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;

but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hand to.

Be careful that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

When the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, "I want to eat meat," because your soul desires to eat meat; you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.

If the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.

Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

Only be sure that you don't eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.

You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in The LORD's eyes.

Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which the LORD shall choose.

You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the LORD your God's altar; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the LORD your God's altar; and you shall eat the meat.

Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the LORD your God's eyes.

When the LORD your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;

be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise."

You shall not do so to the LORD your God; for every abomination to The LORD, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

Deuteronomy 13

No Mercy for Idolaters

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods" (which you have not known) "and let us serve them";

you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cling to him.

That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;

of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;

you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him;

but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.

You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

If you shall hear about one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there, that

certain base fellows have gone out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known;

then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you,

you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all every bit of its plunder, to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.

Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;

when you listen to the LORD your God's voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in the LORD your God's eyes.

Deuteronomy 14

Eating Only Clean Animals; Tithes

You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

You shall not eat any abominable thing.

These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois.

Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat.

Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don't part the hoof, they are unclean to you.

The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn't chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.

These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat.

You shall not eat whatever doesn't have fins and scales. It is unclean to you.

Of all clean birds you may eat.

But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

the red kite, the falcon, the kite after its kind,

every raven after its kind,

the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk after its kind,

the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl,

the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant,

the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten.

Of all clean birds you may eat.

You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year.

You shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place which he chooses, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God shall choose, to set his name there, when the LORD your God shall bless you;

then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose.

You shall trade the money for whatever your soul desires, for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates.

The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Deuteronomy 15

The Seventh Year: Debts to be Cancelled, Servants Freed

At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts.

This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother; because The LORD's release has been proclaimed.

Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release.

However there shall be no poor with you (for the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it)

if only you diligently listen to the LORD your God's voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today.

For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;

but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks.

Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, "The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand"; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin to you.

You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because that for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to.

For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.

If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty.

You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today.

It shall be, if he tells you, "I will not go out from you," because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you;

then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.

It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for he has been double value of a hired hand as he served you six years. the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

You shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, you and your household.

If it has any defect, is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the deer.

Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 16

The Feasts of Passover, Weeks and Tabernacles

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God; for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the meat, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.

You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you;

but at the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt.

You shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents.

Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work.

You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.

You shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as the LORD your God blesses you.

You shall rejoice before the LORD your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.

You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.

You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.

You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.

You shall keep a feast to the LORD your God seven days in the place which the LORD chooses; because the LORD your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.

Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before the LORD empty.

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the LORD your God's blessing which he has given you.

You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.

You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.

You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the LORD your God's altar, which you shall make for yourselves.

Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which the LORD your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17

Appointment of Judges, Courts and Kings

You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a defect, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in the LORD your God's sight, in transgressing his covenant,

and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded;

and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

then you shall bring out that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

You shall come to the priests who are Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict.

You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which the LORD chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

according to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel.

All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

When you have come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me";

you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom the LORD your God chooses. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because the LORD has said to you, "You shall not go back that way again."

He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites.

It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

Offerings for Priests; Spells and Mediums Forbidden

The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire and his portion.

They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. the LORD is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

This shall be the priests' due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the inner parts.

The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.

For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in The LORD's name, him and his sons for ever.

If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which the LORD shall choose;

then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before The LORD.

They shall have like portions to eat, in addition to that which comes from the sale of his family possessions.

When you have come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations.

There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

For whoever does these things is an abomination to The LORD. Because of these abominations, the LORD your God drives them out from before you.

You shall be perfect with the LORD your God.

For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you so to do.

The LORD your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.

This is according to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, "Let me not hear again the LORD my God's voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die."

The LORD said to me, "They have well said that which they have spoken.

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die."

You may say in your heart, "How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?"

When a prophet speaks in The LORD's name, if the thing doesn't follow, nor happen, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge; More than One Witness Required

When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses;

you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess it.

You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there.

This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past;

as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live.

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while his heart is hot and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn't hate him in time past.

Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

If the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three.

This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.

But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;

then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before The LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;

and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you.

Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

Laws of Warfare

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,

and shall tell them, "Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don't let your heart faint! Don't be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

for the LORD your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."

The officers shall speak to the people, saying, "What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit.

What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her."

The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, "What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother's heart melt as his heart."

It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

It shall be, if it makes you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you.

If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it.

When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword;

but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.

Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

But of the cities of these peoples, that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as the LORD your God has commanded you;

that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against the LORD your God.

When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you?

Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

Deuteronomy 21

Atonement for a Murder; Family Relations

If someone is found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn't known who has struck him;

then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.

It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke.

The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in The LORD's name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.

All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

They shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

Forgive, The LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood among your people Israel." The blood shall be forgiven them.

So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in The LORD's eyes.

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,

and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and desire to take her as your wife;

then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.

She shall take the clothing of her captivity off of herself, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated;

then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;

but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them;

then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place.

They shall tell the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard."

All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree;

his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don't defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22

Additional Laws, Morality, Marriage

You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother.

If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him.

So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost, and you have found. You may not hide yourself.

You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.

A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

If you come across a bird's nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young.

You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.

When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don't bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there.

You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard.

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

You shall make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.

If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her,

accuses her of shameful things, and gives her a bad name, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity";

then the young lady's father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.

The young lady's father shall tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her.

Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;' and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him.

They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.

But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady;

then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.

If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her;

then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her, and lies with her; then only the man who lay with her shall die;

but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;

for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her.

If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her, and lies with her, and they are found;

then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.

A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt.

Deuteronomy 23

List of Those Excluded from the Assembly

He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into The LORD's assembly.

A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into The LORD's assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into The LORD's assembly.

An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into The LORD's assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into The LORD's assembly forever;

because they didn't meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Nevertheless the LORD your God wouldn't listen to Balaam; but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you.

You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into The LORD's assembly.

When you go out and camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing.

If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp;

but it shall be, when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water. When the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.

You shall have a place also outside of the camp where you go relieve yourself.

You shall have a trowel among your weapons. It shall be, when you relieve yourself, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover your excrement;

for the LORD your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.

You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you.

He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him.

There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest.

You may lend on interest to a foreigner; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.

When you vow a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not be slack to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.

But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you.

You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to the LORD your God as a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do.

When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your container.

When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Deuteronomy 24

Law of Divorce, Leprosy, Justice and Charity

When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

If the latter husband hates her, and write her a bill of divorce, and puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;

her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before The LORD. You shall not cause the land to sin, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge; for he takes a life in pledge.

If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him; then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

Be careful in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.

Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came out of Egypt.

When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.

You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you.

If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.

You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates.

In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to The LORD, and it be sin to you.

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow's clothing in pledge;

but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

Deuteronomy 25

Laws of Stripes, Oxen, Seed, Modesty, Weights and Measures

If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.

He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more; lest, if he should give more, and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight.

You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.

If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.

If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, "My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me."

Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stands and says, "I don't want to take her";

then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, "So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house."

His name shall be called in Israel, "The house of him who had his shoe removed."

When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and takes him by his private parts,

then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.

You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light.

You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small.

You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt;

how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God.

Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.

Deuteronomy 26

Offering First Fruits and Tithes

It shall be, when you have come in to the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it,

that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, "I profess today to the LORD your God, that I have come to the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us."

The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the LORD your God's altar.

You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, "My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.

The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.

Then we cried to The LORD, the God of our fathers. the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;

and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, The LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.

You shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you.

When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

You shall say before the LORD your God, "I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.

I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to the LORD my God's voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.

Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey."

Today the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.

The LORD has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.

He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, as he has spoken.