1 This is the message Moses gave to all the people of Israel in the desert east of the Jordan River. They were in the desert area near Suph, between Paran and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 (The trip from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the Mount Seir road takes eleven days.)3 Forty years after the Israelites had left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses told the people of Israel everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them.4 This was after the Lord had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon was king of the Amorite people and lived in Heshbon. Og was king of Bashan and lived in Ashteroth and Edrei. 5 Now the Israelites were east of the Jordan River in the land of Moab, and there Moses began to explain what God had commanded. He said: 6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai and said, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain.7 Get ready, and go to the mountain country of the Amorites, and to all the places around there—the Jordan Valley, the mountains, the western hills, the southern area, the seacoast, the land of Canaan, and Lebanon. Go as far as the great river, the Euphrates.8 See, I have given you this land, so go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord promised it to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants." 9 At that time I said, "I am not able to take care of you by myself.10 The Lord your God has made you grow in number so that there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky.11 I pray that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, will give you a thousand times more people and do all the wonderful things he promised.12 But I cannot take care of your problems, your troubles, and your arguments by myself.13 So choose some men from each tribe—wise men who have understanding and experience—and I will make them leaders over you." 14 And you said, "That's a good thing to do." 15 So I took the wise and experienced leaders of your tribes, and I made them your leaders. I appointed commanders over a thousand people, over a hundred people, over fifty people, and over ten people and made them officers over your tribes.16 Then I told your leaders, "Listen to the arguments between your people. Judge fairly between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner.17 When you judge, be fair to everyone; don't act as if one person is more important than another, and don't be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me, and I will judge them."18 At that time I told you everything you must do. 19 Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw, and then we came to Kadesh Barnea.20 I said to you, "You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites, to the land the Lord our God will give us.21 Look, here it is! Go up and take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don't be afraid and don't worry." 22 Then all of you came to me and said, "Let's send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us about the way we should go and the cities we will find." 23 I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe.24 They left and went up to the mountains, and when they came to the Valley of Eshcol they explored it.25 They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it down to us, saying, "It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us." 26 But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God,27 but grumbled in your tents, saying, "The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites, who will destroy us.28 Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid, because they said, 'The people there are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are big, with walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!' " 29 Then I said to you, "Don't be frightened; don't be afraid of those people.30 The Lord your God will go ahead of you and fight for you as he did in Egypt; you saw him do it.
Deuteronomy 2 - New Century
1 Then we turned around, and we traveled on the desert road toward the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me to do. We traveled through the mountains of Edom for many days. 2 Then the Lord said to me,3 "You have traveled through these mountains long enough. Turn north4 and give the people this command: 'You will soon go through the land that belongs to your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Edom. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful.5 Do not go to war against them. I will not give you any of their land—not even a foot of it, because I have given the mountains of Edom to Esau as his own.6 You must pay them in silver for any food you eat or water you drink.' " 7 The Lord your God has blessed everything you have done; he has protected you while you traveled through this great desert. The Lord your God has been with you for the past forty years, and you have had everything you needed. 8 So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who lived in Edom. We turned off the Jordan Valley road that comes from the towns of Elath and Ezion Geber and traveled along the desert road to Moab. 9 Then the Lord said to me, "Don't bother the people of Moab. Don't go to war against them, because I will not give you any of their land as your own; I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their own."10 (The Emites, who lived in Ar before, were strong people, and there were many of them. They were very tall, like the Anakites.11 The Emites were thought to be Rephaites, like the Anakites, but the Moabite people called them Emites.12 The Horites also lived in Edom before, but the descendants of Esau forced them out and destroyed them, taking their place as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their own.) 13 And the Lord said to me, "Now get up and cross the Zered Valley." So we crossed the valley.14 It had been thirty-eight years from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, all the fighting men from that time had died, as the Lord had promised would happen.15 The Lord continued to work against them to remove them from the camp until they were all dead. 16 When the last of those fighting men had died,17 the Lord said to me,18 "Today you will pass by Ar, on the border of Moab.19 When you come near the people of Ammon, don't bother them or go to war against them, because I will not give you any of their land as your own. I have given it to the descendants of Lot for their own." 20 (That land was also thought to be a land of the Rephaites, because those people used to live there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.21 They were strong people, and there were many of them; they were very tall, like the Anakites. The Lord destroyed the Zamzummites, and the Ammonites forced them out of the land and took their place.22 The Lord did the same thing for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Edom, when he destroyed the Horites. The Edomites forced them out of the land and took their place, and they live there to this day.23 The Cretan people came from Crete and destroyed the Avvites, who lived in towns all the way to Gaza; the Cretans destroyed them and took their place.) 24 The Lord said, "Get up and cross the Arnon Ravine. See, I am giving you the power to defeat Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I am giving you his land. So fight against him and begin taking his land.25 Today I will begin to make all the people in the world afraid of you. When they hear reports about you, they will shake with fear, and they will be terrified of you." 26 I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon. They offered him peace, saying,27 "If you let us pass through your country, we will stay on the road and not turn right or left.28 We will pay you in silver for any food we eat or water we drink. We only want to walk through your country.29 The descendants of Esau in Edom let us go through their land, and so did the Moabites in Ar. We want to cross the Jordan River into the land the Lord our God has given us."30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass, because the Lord your God had made him stubborn. The Lord wanted you to defeat Sihon, and now this has happened.
Deuteronomy 3 - New Century
1 When we turned and went up the road toward Bashan, Og king of Bashan and all his army came out to fight us at Edrei.2 The Lord said to me, "Don't be afraid of Og, because I will hand him, his whole army, and his land over to you. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon." 3 So the Lord our God gave us Og king of Bashan and all his army; we defeated them and left no one alive.4 Then we captured all of Og's cities, all sixty of them, and took the whole area of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan.5 All these were strong cities, with high walls and gates with bars. And there were also many small towns with no walls.6 We completely destroyed them, just like the cities of Sihon king of Heshbon. We killed all the men, women, and children,7 but we kept all the cattle and valuable things from the cities for ourselves. 8 So at that time we took the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon Ravine to Mount Hermon, from these two Amorite kings.9 (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonian people, but the Amorites call it Senir.)10 We captured all the cities on the high plain and all of Gilead, and we took all of Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns in Og's kingdom of Bashan.11 (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the few Rephaites. His bed was made of iron, and it was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide! It is still in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.) 12 At that time we took this land to be our own. I gave the people of Reuben and Gad the land from Aroer by the Arnon Ravine, as well as half of the mountain country of Gilead and the cities in it.13 To the people of East Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The area of Argob in Bashan was called the land of the Rephaites.14 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole area of Argob, all the way to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. So that land was named for Jair, and even today Bashan is called the Towns of Jair.)15 I gave Gilead to Makir.16 I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the land that begins at Gilead and goes from the Arnon Ravine (the middle of the Arnon is the border) to the Jabbok River, which is the Ammonite border.17 The border on the west was the Jordan River in the Jordan Valley, and it goes from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea west of Mount Pisgah. 18 At that time I gave you this command: "The Lord your God has given you this land as your own. Now your fighting men must take their weapons, and you must lead the other Israelites across the river.19 Your wives, your young children, and your cattle may stay here. I know you have many cattle, and they may stay here in the cities I have given you,20 until the Lord also gives your Israelite relatives a place to rest. They will receive the land the Lord your God has given them on the other side of the Jordan River. After that, you may each return to the land I have given you." 21 Then I gave this command to Joshua: "You have seen for yourself all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same thing to all the kingdoms where you are going.22 Don't be afraid of them, because the Lord your God will fight for you." 23 Then I begged the Lord:24 "Lord God, you have begun to show me, your servant, how great you are. You have great strength, and no other god in heaven or on earth can do the powerful things you do. There is no other god like you.25 Please let me cross the Jordan River so that I may see the good land by the Jordan. I want to see the beautiful mountains and Lebanon." 26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, "That's enough. Don't talk to me anymore about it.27 Climb to the top of Mount Pisgah and look west, north, south, and east. You can look at the land, but you will not cross the Jordan River.28 Appoint Joshua and help him be brave and strong. He will lead the people across the river and give them the land that they are to inherit, but you can only look at it."29 So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.
Deuteronomy 4 - New Century
1 Now, Israel, listen to the laws and commands I will teach you. Obey them so that you will live and so that you will go over and take the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving to you.2 Don't add to these commands, and don't leave anything out, but obey the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. 3 You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed everyone among you who followed Baal in Peor.4 But all of you who continued following the Lord your God are still alive today. 5 Look, I have taught you the laws and rules the Lord my God commanded me. Now you can obey the laws in the land you are entering, in the land you will take.6 Obey these laws carefully, in order to show the other nations that you have wisdom and understanding. When they hear about these laws, they will say, "This great nation of Israel is wise and understanding."7 No other nation is as great as we are. Their gods do not come near them, but the Lord our God comes near when we pray to him.8 And no other nation has such good teachings and commands as those I am giving to you today. 9 But be careful! Watch out and don't forget the things you have seen. Don't forget them as long as you live, but teach them to your children and grandchildren.10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai. He said to me, "Bring the people together so I can tell them what I have to say. Then they will respect me as long as they live in the land, and they will teach these things to their children."11 When you came and stood at the bottom of the mountain, it blazed with fire that reached to the sky, and black clouds made it very dark.12 The Lord spoke to you from the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see him; there was only a voice.13 The Lord told you about his Agreement, the Ten Commandments. He told you to obey them, and he wrote them on two stone tablets.14 Then the Lord commanded me to teach you the laws and rules that you must obey in the land you will take when you cross the Jordan River. 15 Since the Lord spoke to you from the fire at Mount Sinai, but you did not see him, watch yourselves carefully!16 Don't sin by making idols of any kind, and don't make statues—of men or women,17 of animals on earth or birds that fly in the air,18 of anything that crawls on the ground, or of fish in the water below.19 When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, moon, and stars, and everything in the sky. But don't bow down and worship them, because the Lord your God has made these things for all people everywhere.20 But the Lord brought you out of Egypt, which tested you like a furnace for melting iron, and he made you his very own people, as you are now. 21 The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan River to go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.22 I will die here in this land and not cross the Jordan, but you will soon go across and take that good land.23 Be careful. Don't forget the Agreement of the Lord your God that he made with you, and don't make any idols for yourselves, as the Lord your God has commanded you not to do.24 The Lord your God is a jealous God, like a fire that burns things up. 25 Even after you have lived in the land a long time and have had children and grandchildren, don't do evil things. Don't make any kind of idol, and don't do what the Lord your God says is evil, because that will make him angry.26 If you do, I ask heaven and earth to speak against you this day that you will quickly be removed from this land that you are crossing the Jordan River to take. You will not live there long after that, but you will be completely destroyed.27 The Lord will scatter you among the other nations. Only a few of you will be left alive, and those few will be in other nations where the Lord will send you.28 There you will worship gods made by people, gods made of wood and stone, that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.29 But even there you can look for the Lord your God, and you will find him if you look for him with your whole being.30 It will be hard when all these things happen to you. But after that you will come back to the Lord your God and obey him.
Deuteronomy 5 - New Century
1 Moses called all the people of Israel together and said: Listen, Israel, to the commands and laws I am giving you today. Learn them and obey them carefully.2 The Lord our God made an Agreement with us at Mount Sinai.3 He did not make this Agreement with our ancestors, but he made it with us, with all of us who are alive here today.4 The Lord spoke to you face to face from the fire on the mountain.5 (At that time I stood between you and the Lord in order to tell you what the Lord said; you were afraid of the fire, so you would not go up on the mountain.) The Lord said: 6 "I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves. 7 "You must not have any other gods except me. 8 "You must not make for yourselves any idols or anything to worship that looks like something in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land.9 You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If people sin against me and hate me, I will punish their children, even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.10 But I will be very kind for a thousand lifetimes to those who love me and obey my commands. 11 "You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly, because the Lord will punish anyone who uses his name in this way. 12 "Keep the Sabbath as a holy day, as the Lord your God has commanded you.13 You may work and get everything done during six days each week,14 but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. That way your servants may rest as you do.15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by his great power and strength. So the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day. 16 "Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live a long time, and things will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you. 17 "You must not murder anyone. 18 "You must not be guilty of adultery. 19 "You must not steal. 20 "You must not tell lies about your neighbor. 21 "You must not want to take your neighbor's wife. You must not want to take your neighbor's house or land, his male or female slaves, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." 22 The Lord spoke these commands to all of you on the mountain in a loud voice out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness; he did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets, and he gave them to me. 23 When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. 24 And you said, "The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him.25 But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up, and we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore.26 No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived, but we have.27 Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and obey." 28 The Lord heard what you said to me, and he said to me, "I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good.29 I wish their hearts would always respect me and that they would always obey my commands so that things would go well for them and their children forever! 30 "Go and tell the people to return to their tents.
Deuteronomy 6 - New Century
1 These are the commands, rules, and laws that the Lord your God told me to teach you to obey in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take.2 You, your children, and your grandchildren must respect the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I give you so that you will live a long time.3 Listen, Israel, and carefully obey these laws. Then all will go well for you, and you will become a great nation in a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.6 Always remember these commands I give you today.7 Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.8 Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you,9 and write them on your doors and gates. 10 The Lord your God will bring you into the land he promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will give it to you. The land has large, growing cities you did not build,11 houses full of good things you did not buy, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. You will eat as much as you want.12 But be careful! Do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves. 13 Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name.14 Do not worship other gods as the people around you do,15 because the Lord your God is a jealous God. He is present with you, and if you worship other gods, he will become angry with you and destroy you from the earth.16 Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.17 Be sure to obey the commands of the Lord your God and the rules and laws he has given you.18 Do what the Lord says is good and right so that things will go well for you. Then you may go in and take the good land the Lord promised to your ancestors.19 He will force all your enemies out as you go in, as the Lord has said. 20 In the future when your children ask you, "What is the meaning of the laws, commands, and rules the Lord our God gave us?"21 tell them, "We were slaves to the king of Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power.22 The Lord showed us great and terrible signs and miracles, which he did to Egypt, the king, and his whole family.23 The Lord brought us out of Egypt to lead us here and to give us the land he promised our ancestors.24 The Lord ordered us to obey all these commands and to respect the Lord our God so that we will always do well and stay alive, as we are today.25 The right thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God, as he has commanded."
Deuteronomy 7 - New Century
1 The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are entering and that you will have as your own. As you go in, he will force out these nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations that are stronger than you.2 The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you, and when you defeat them, you must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them or show them any mercy.3 Do not marry any of them, or let your daughters marry their sons, or let your sons marry their daughters.4 If you do, those people will turn your children away from me, to begin serving other gods. Then the Lord will be very angry with you, and he will quickly destroy you.5 This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, cut down their Asherah idols, and burn their idols in the fire.6 You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own. 7 The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you—you are the smallest nation of all.8 But the Lord chose you because he loved you, and he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power and freed you from the land of slavery, from the power of the king of Egypt.9 So know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands.10 But he will pay back those people who hate him. He will destroy them, and he will not be slow to pay back those who hate him.11 So be careful to obey the commands, rules, and laws I give you today. 12 If you pay attention to these laws and obey them carefully, the Lord your God will keep his agreement and show his love to you, as he promised your ancestors.13 He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow; he will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops and will give you grain, new wine, and oil. He will bless your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you.14 You will be blessed more than any other people. Every husband and wife will have children, and all your cattle will have calves.15 The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you.16 You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you. 17 You might say to yourselves, "Because these nations are stronger than we are, we can't force them out."18 But don't be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to all of Egypt and its king.19 You saw for yourselves the troubles, signs, and miracles he did, how the Lord's great power and strength brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will do the same thing to all the nations you now fear.20 The Lord your God will also send terror among them so that even those who are alive and hiding from you will die.21 Don't be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and people are afraid of him.22 When the Lord your God forces those nations out of the land, he will do it little by little ahead of you. You won't be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number.23 But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you, confusing them until they are destroyed.24 The Lord will help you defeat their kings, and the world will forget who they were. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy them all.25 Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold they have, and don't take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it.26 Do not bring one of those hateful things into your house, or you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things; they must be completely destroyed.
Deuteronomy 8 - New Century
1 Carefully obey every command I give you today. Then you will live and grow in number, and you will enter and take the land the Lord promised your ancestors.2 Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these forty years, taking away your pride and testing you, because he wanted to know what was in your heart. He wanted to know if you would obey his commands.3 He took away your pride when he let you get hungry, and then he fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen. This was to teach you that a person does not live on bread alone, but by everything the Lord says.4 During these forty years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell.5 Know in your heart that the Lord your God corrects you as a parent corrects a child. 6 Obey the commands of the Lord your God, living as he has commanded you and respecting him.7 The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with rivers and pools of water, with springs that flow in the valleys and hills,8 a land that has wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey.9 It is a land where you will have plenty of food, where you will have everything you need, where the rocks are iron, and where you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have all you want to eat, then praise the Lord your God for giving you a good land.11 Be careful not to forget the Lord your God so that you fail to obey his commands, laws, and rules that I am giving to you today.12 When you eat all you want and build nice houses and live in them,13 when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase, when you have more of everything,14 then your heart will become proud. You will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.15 He led you through the large and terrible desert that was dry and had no water, and that had poisonous snakes and stinging insects. He gave you water from a solid rock16 and manna to eat in the desert. Manna was something your ancestors had never seen. He did this to take away your pride and to test you, so things would go well for you in the end.17 You might say to yourself, "I am rich because of my own power and strength,"18 but remember the Lord your God! It is he who gives you the power to become rich, keeping the agreement he promised to your ancestors, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship them and bow down to them, I warn you today that you will be destroyed.20 Just as the Lord destroyed the other nations for you, you can be destroyed if you do not obey the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 9 - New Century
1 Listen, Israel. You will soon cross the Jordan River to go in and force out nations that are bigger and stronger than you. They have large cities with walls up to the sky.2 The people there are Anakites, who are strong and tall. You know about them, and you have heard it said: "No one can stop the Anakites."3 But today remember that the Lord your God goes in before you to destroy them like a fire that burns things up. He will defeat them ahead of you, and you will force them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has said. 4 After the Lord your God has forced those nations out ahead of you, don't say to yourself, "The Lord brought me here to take this land because I am so good." No! It is because these nations are evil that the Lord will force them out ahead of you.5 You are going in to take the land, not because you are good and honest, but because these nations are evil. That is why the Lord your God will force them out ahead of you, to keep his promise to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.6 The Lord your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But know this: It is not because you are good; you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember this and do not forget it: You made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You would not obey the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.8 At Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry—angry enough to destroy you.9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water.10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets, which God had written on with his own finger. On them were all the commands that the Lord gave to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day you were gathered there. 11 When the forty days and forty nights were over, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement on them.12 Then the Lord told me, "Get up and go down quickly from here, because the people you brought out from Egypt are ruining themselves. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded and have made an idol for themselves." 13 The Lord said to me, "I have watched these people, and they are very stubborn!14 Get away so that I may destroy them and make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are." 15 So I turned and came down the mountain that was burning with fire, and the two stone tablets with the Agreement were in my hands.16 When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God and had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from what the Lord had told you to do.17 So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down, breaking them into pieces right in front of you. 18 Then I again bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil, and you made him angry.19 I was afraid of the Lord's anger and rage, because he was angry enough with you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me again.20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but then I prayed for Aaron, too.21 I took that sinful calf idol you had made and burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain. 22 You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah. 23 Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea and said, "Go up and take the land I have given you." But you rejected the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him.24 You have refused to obey the Lord as long as I have known you. 25 The Lord had said he would destroy you, so I threw myself down in front of him for those forty days and forty nights.26 I prayed to the Lord and said, "Lord God, do not destroy your people, your own people, whom you freed and brought out of Egypt by your great power and strength.27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't look at how stubborn these people are, and don't look at their sin and evil.28 Otherwise, Egypt will say, 'It was because the Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them, and it was because he hated them that he took them into the desert to kill them.'29 But they are your people, Lord, your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt with your great power and strength."
Deuteronomy 10 - New Century
1 At that time the Lord said to me, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden Ark.2 I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you will put the new tablets in the Ark." 3 So I made the Ark out of acacia wood, and I cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. Then I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord wrote the same things on these tablets he had written before —the Ten Commandments that he had told you on the mountain from the fire, on the day you were gathered there. And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down the mountain; I put the tablets in the Ark I had made, as the Lord had commanded, and they are still there. 6 (The people of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried; his son Eleazar became priest in his place.7 From Moserah they went to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a place with streams of water.8 At that time the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. They were to serve the Lord and to bless the people in his name, which they still do today.9 That is why the Levites did not receive any land of their own; instead, they received the Lord himself as their gift, as the Lord your God told them.) 10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights just like the first time, and the Lord listened to me this time also. He did not want to destroy you.11 The Lord said to me, "Go and lead the people so that they will go in and take the land I promised their ancestors." 12 Now, Israel, this is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being,13 and obey the Lord's commands and laws that I am giving you today for your own good. 14 The Lord owns the world and everything in it—the heavens, even the highest heavens, are his.15 But the Lord cared for and loved your ancestors, and he chose you, their descendants, over all the other nations, just as it is today.16 Give yourselves completely to serving him, and do not be stubborn any longer.17 The Lord your God is God of all gods and Lord of all lords. He is the great God, who is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides, and he will not be talked into doing evil.18 He helps orphans and widows, and he loves foreigners and gives them food and clothes.19 You also must love foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.20 Respect the Lord your God and serve him. Be loyal to him and make your promises in his name.21 He is the one you should praise; he is your God, who has done great and wonderful things for you, which you have seen with your own eyes.22 There were only seventy of your ancestors when they went down to Egypt, and now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.
Deuteronomy 11 - New Century
1 Love the Lord your God and always obey his orders, rules, laws, and commands.2 Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God. They did not see his majesty, his power, his strength,3 or his signs and the things he did in Egypt to the king and his whole country.4 They did not see what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, when he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you. The Lord ruined them forever.5 They did not see what he did for you in the desert until you arrived here.6 They did not see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and everyone who stood with them in Israel.7 It was you who saw all these great things the Lord has done. 8 So obey all the commands I am giving you today so that you will be strong and can go in and take the land you are going to take as your own.9 Then you will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a fertile land.10 The land you are going to take is not like Egypt, where you were. There you had to plant your seed and water it, like a vegetable garden, by using your feet.11 But the land that you will soon cross the Jordan River to take is a land of hills and valleys, a land that drinks rain from heaven.12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for. His eyes are on it continually, and he watches it from the beginning of the year to the end. 13 If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with your whole being,14 then he will send rain on your land at the right time, in the fall and spring, and you will be able to gather your grain, new wine, and oil.15 He will put grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will have plenty to eat. 16 Be careful, or you will be fooled and will turn away to serve and worship other gods.17 If you do, the Lord will become angry with you and will shut the heavens so it will not rain. Then the land will not grow crops, and you will soon die in the good land the Lord is giving you.18 Remember my words with your whole being. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign; tie them on your foreheads to remind you.19 Teach them well to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.20 Write them on your doors and gates21 so that both you and your children will live a long time in the land the Lord promised your ancestors, as long as the skies are above the earth. 22 If you are careful to obey every command I am giving you to follow, and love the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do, and are loyal to him,23 then the Lord will force all those nations out of the land ahead of you, and you will take the land from nations that are bigger and stronger than you.24 Everywhere you step will be yours. Your land will go from the desert to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.25 No one will be able to stop you. The Lord your God will do what he promised and will make the people afraid everywhere you go. 26 See, today I am letting you choose a blessing or a curse.27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.28 But you will be cursed if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God. So do not disobey the commands I am giving you today, and do not worship other gods you do not know.29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you will take as your own, you are to announce the blessings from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal.30 (These mountains are on the other side of the Jordan River, to the west, toward the sunset. They are near the great trees of Moreh in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley opposite Gilgal.)
Deuteronomy 12 - New Century
1 These are the commands and laws you must carefully obey in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Obey them as long as you live in the land.2 When you inherit the lands of these nations, you must completely destroy all the places where they serve their gods, on high mountains and hills and under every green tree.3 Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, and burn their Asherah idols in the fire. Cut down their idols and destroy their names from those places. 4 Don't worship the Lord your God that way,5 but look for the place the Lord your God will choose—a place among your tribes where he is to be worshiped. Go there,6 and bring to that place your burnt offerings and sacrifices; bring a tenth of what you gain and your special gifts; bring what you have promised and the special gifts you want to give the Lord, and bring the first animals born to your herds and flocks. 7 There you will be together with the Lord your God. There you and your families will eat, and you will enjoy all the good things for which you have worked, because the Lord your God has blessed you. 8 Do not worship the way we have been doing today, each person doing what he thinks is right.9 You have not yet come to a resting place, to the land the Lord your God will give you as your own.10 But soon you will cross the Jordan River to live in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, where he will give you rest from all your enemies and you will live in safety.11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. To that place you must bring everything I tell you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your offerings of a tenth of what you gain, your special gifts, and all your best things you promised to the Lord.12 There rejoice before the Lord your God. Everyone should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no land of their own.13 Be careful that you don't sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you please.14 Offer them only in the place the Lord will choose. He will choose a place in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I am commanding you. 15 But you may kill your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were a deer or a gazelle; this is the blessing the Lord your God is giving you. Anyone, clean or unclean, may eat this meat,16 but do not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.17 Do not eat in your own towns what belongs to the Lord: one-tenth of your grain, new wine, or oil; the first animals born to your herds or flocks; whatever you have promised to give; the special gifts you want to give to the Lord, or any other gifts.18 Eat these things when you are together with the Lord your God, in the place the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. Everyone must do this: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns. Rejoice in the Lord your God's presence about the things you have worked for.19 Be careful not to forget the Levites as long as you live in the land. 20 When the Lord your God enlarges your country as he has promised, and you want some meat so you say, "I want some meat," you may eat as much meat as you want.21 If the Lord your God chooses a place where he is to be worshiped that is too far away from you, you may kill animals from your herds and flocks, which the Lord has given to you. I have commanded that you may do this. You may eat as much of them as you want in your own towns,22 as you would eat gazelle or deer meat. Both clean and unclean people may eat this meat,23 but be sure you don't eat the blood, because the life is in the blood. Don't eat the life with the meat.24 Don't eat the blood, but pour it out on the ground like water.25 If you don't eat it, things will go well for you and your children, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right. 26 Take your holy things and the things you have promised to give, and go to the place the Lord will choose.27 Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices should be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.28 Be careful to obey all the rules I am giving you so that things will always go well for you and your children, and you will be doing what the Lord your God says is good and right. 29 You will enter the land and take it away from the nations that the Lord your God will destroy ahead of you. When you force them out and live in their land,30 they will be destroyed for you, but be careful not to be trapped by asking about their gods. Don't say, "How do these nations worship? I will do the same."
Deuteronomy 13 - New Century
1 Prophets or those who tell the future with dreams might come to you and say they will show you a miracle or a sign.2 The miracle or sign might even happen, and then they might say, "Let's serve other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let's worship them."3 But you must not listen to those prophets or dreamers. The Lord your God is testing you, to find out if you love him with your whole being.4 Serve only the Lord your God. Respect him, keep his commands, and obey him. Serve him and be loyal to him.5 The prophets or dreamers must be killed, because they said you should turn against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and saved you from the land where you were slaves. They tried to turn you from doing what the Lord your God commanded you to do. You must get rid of the evil among you. 6 Someone might try to lead you to serve other gods—it might be your brother, your son or daughter, the wife you love, or a close friend. The person might say, "Let's go and worship other gods." (These are gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known,7 gods of the people who live around you, either nearby or far away, from one end of the land to the other.)8 Do not give in to such people. Do not listen or feel sorry for them, and do not let them go free or protect them.9 You must put them to death. You must be the first one to start to kill them, and then everyone else must join in.10 You must throw stones at them until they die, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.11 Then everyone in Israel will hear about this and be afraid, and no one among you will ever do such an evil thing again. 12 The Lord your God is giving you cities in which to live, and you might hear something about one of them. Someone might say13 that evil people have moved in among you. And they might lead the people of that city away from God, saying, "Let's go and worship other gods." (These are gods you have not known.)14 Then you must ask about it, looking into the matter and checking carefully whether it is true. If it is proved that a hateful thing has happened among you,15 you must kill with a sword everyone who lives in that city. Destroy the city completely and kill everyone in it, as well as the animals, with a sword.16 Gather up everything those people owned, and put it in the middle of the city square. Then completely burn the city and everything they owned as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. That city should never be rebuilt; let it be ruined forever.17 Don't keep for yourselves any of the things found in that city, so the Lord will not be angry anymore. He will give you mercy and feel sorry for you, and he will make your nation grow larger, as he promised to your ancestors.18 You will have obeyed the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving to you today, and you will be doing what the Lord says is right.
Deuteronomy 14 - New Century
1 You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness.2 You are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own. 3 Do not eat anything the Lord hates.4 These are the animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats,5 deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep.6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud,7 but you may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they do not have split hoofs, so they are unclean for you.8 Pigs are also unclean for you; they have split hoofs, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies. 9 There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales,10 but do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you. 11 You may eat any clean bird.12 But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures,13 red kites, falcons, any kind of kite,14 any kind of raven,15 horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk,16 little owls, great owls, white owls,17 desert owls, ospreys, cormorants,18 storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes, or bats. 19 All insects with wings are unclean for you; do not eat them.20 Other things with wings are clean, and you may eat them. 21 Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Do not cook a baby goat in its mother's milk. 22 Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year.23 Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There, where you will be together with the Lord, eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Do this so that you will learn to respect the Lord your God always.24 But if the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped is too far away and he has blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth,25 exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose.26 Use the silver to buy anything you wish—cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God.27 Do not forget the Levites in your town, because they have no land of their own among you. 28 At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year's crop and store it in your towns.29 This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns so that all of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.
Deuteronomy 15 - New Century
1 At the end of every seven years, you must tell those who owe you anything that they do not have to pay you back.2 This is how you must do it: Everyone who has loaned money must cancel the loan and not make a neighbor or relative pay it back. This is the Lord's time for canceling what people owe.3 You may make a foreigner pay what is owed to you, but you must not collect what another Israelite owes you.4 But there should be no poor people among you, because the Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own.5 He will bless you if you obey the Lord your God completely, but you must be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today.6 The Lord your God will bless you as he promised, and you will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them. You will rule over many nations, but none will rule over you. 7 If there are poor among you, in one of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be selfish or greedy toward them.8 But give freely to them, and freely lend them whatever they need.9 Beware of evil thoughts. Don't think, "The seventh year is near, the year to cancel what people owe." You might be mean to the needy and not give them anything. Then they will complain to the Lord about you, and he will find you guilty of sin.10 Give freely to the poor person, and do not wish that you didn't have to give. The Lord your God will bless your work and everything you touch.11 There will always be poor people in the land, so I command you to give freely to your neighbors and to the poor and needy in your land. 12 If one of your own people sells himself to you as a slave, whether it is a Hebrew man or woman, that person will serve you for six years. But in the seventh year you must let the slave go free.13 When you let slaves go, don't send them away without anything.14 Give them some of your flock, your grain, and your wine, giving to them as the Lord has given to you.15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you. That is why I am commanding this to you today. 16 But if your slave says to you, "I don't want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you,17 stick an awl through his ear into the door; he will be your slave for life. Also do this to a female slave. 18 Do not think of it as a hard thing when you let your slaves go free. After all, they served you six years and did twice the work of a hired person. The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. 19 Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks. They are for the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen, and do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep.20 Each year you and your family are to eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God, in the place he will choose to be worshiped.21 If an animal is crippled or blind or has something else wrong, do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.22 But you may eat that animal in your own town. Both clean and unclean people may eat it, as they would eat a gazelle or a deer.23 But don't eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 16 - New Century
1 Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib, because it was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night.2 As the sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God, offer an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped.3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of suffering, because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt.4 There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day, and eat all the meat before morning; do not leave it overnight. 5 Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you,6 but offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down, which is when you left Egypt.7 Roast the meat and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents.8 Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God, and do not work that day. 9 Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain,10 and then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring an offering as a special gift to him, giving to him just as he has blessed you.11 Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans, and widows living among you.12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully obey all these laws. 13 Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress.14 Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns.15 Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days at the place he will choose, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all the work you do, and you will be completely happy. 16 All your men must come before the Lord three times a year to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift.17 Each of you must bring a gift that will show how much the Lord your God has blessed you. 18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you; they must judge the people fairly.19 Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions, because that kind of payment makes wise people seem blind, and it changes the words of good people.20 Always do what is right so that you will live and always have the land the Lord your God is giving you. 21 Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God,22 and do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.
Deuteronomy 17 - New Century
1 If an ox or sheep has something wrong with it, do not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. He would hate that. 2 A man or woman in one of the towns the Lord gave you might be found doing something evil and breaking the Agreement.3 That person may have served other gods and bowed down to them or to the sun or moon or stars of the sky, which I have commanded should not be done.4 If someone has told you about it, you must look into the matter carefully. If it is true that such a hateful thing has happened in Israel,5 take the man or woman who has done the evil thing to the city gates and throw stones at that person until he dies.6 There must be two or three witnesses that it is true before the person is put to death; if there is only one witness, the person should not be put to death.7 The witnesses must be the first to throw stones at the person, and then everyone else will follow. You must get rid of the evil among you. 8 Some cases that come before you, such as murder, quarreling, or attack, may be too difficult to judge. Take these cases to the place the Lord your God will choose.9 Go to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who is on duty at that time. Ask them about the case, and they will decide.10 You must follow the decision they give you at the place the Lord your God will choose. Be careful to do everything they tell you.11 Follow the teachings they give you, and do whatever they decide, exactly as they tell you.12 The person who does not show respect for the judge or priest who is there serving the Lord your God must be put to death. You must get rid of that evil from Israel.13 Then everyone will hear about this and will be afraid, and they will not show disrespect anymore. 14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, taking it as your own and living in it, you will say, "Let's appoint a king over us like the nations all around us."15 Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be one of your own people. Do not appoint as your king a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite.16 The king must not have too many horses for himself, and he must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because the Lord has told you, "Don't return that way again."17 The king must not have many wives, or his heart will be led away from God. He must not have too much silver and gold. 18 When he becomes king, he should write a copy of the teachings on a scroll for himself, a copy taken from the priests and Levites.19 He should keep it with him all the time and read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God, and he will obey all the teachings and commands.20 He should not think he is better than his fellow Israelites, and he must not stop obeying the law in any way so that he and his descendants may rule the kingdom for a long time.
Deuteronomy 18 - New Century
1 The priests are from the tribe of Levi, and that tribe will not receive a share of the land with the Israelites. They will eat the offerings made to the Lord by fire, which is their share.2 They will not inherit any of the land like their brothers, but they will inherit the Lord himself, as he has promised them. 3 When you offer a bull or sheep as a sacrifice, you must share with the priests, giving them the shoulder, the cheeks, and the inner organs.4 Give them the first of your grain, new wine, and oil, as well as the first wool you cut from your sheep.5 The Lord your God has chosen the priests and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and serve the Lord always. 6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he lives and comes to the place the Lord will choose, because he wants to serve the Lord there,7 he may serve the Lord his God. He will be like his fellow Levites who serve there before the Lord.8 They all will have an equal share of the food. That is separate from what he has received from the sale of family possessions. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, don't learn to do the hateful things the other nations do.10 Don't let anyone among you offer a son or daughter as a sacrifice in the fire. Don't let anyone use magic or witchcraft, or try to explain the meaning of signs.11 Don't let anyone try to control others with magic, and don't let them be mediums or try to talk with the spirits of dead people.12 The Lord hates anyone who does these things. Because the other nations do these things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land ahead of you.13 But you must be innocent in the presence of the Lord your God. 14 The nations you will force out listen to people who use magic and witchcraft, but the Lord your God will not let you do those things.15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet like me, who is one of your own people. Listen to him.16 This is what you asked the Lord your God to do when you were gathered at Mount Sinai. You said, "Don't make us listen to the voice of the Lord our God again, and don't make us look at this terrible fire anymore, or we will die." 17 So the Lord said to me, "What they have said is good.18 So I will give them a prophet like you, who is one of their own people. I will tell him what to say, and he will tell them everything I command.19 This prophet will speak for me; anyone who does not listen when he speaks will answer to me.20 But if a prophet says something I did not tell him to say as though he were speaking for me, or if a prophet speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must be killed." 21 You might be thinking, "How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?"22 If what a prophet says in the name of the Lord does not happen, it is not the Lord's message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don't be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 19 - New Century
1 When the Lord your God gives you land that belongs to the other nations, nations that he will destroy, you will force them out and live in their cities and houses.2 Then choose three cities in the middle of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.3 Build roads to these cities, and divide the land the Lord is giving you into three parts so that someone who kills another person may run to these cities. 4 This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these cities in order to save his life. But the person must have killed a neighbor without meaning to, not out of hatred.5 For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood and swings an ax to cut down a tree. If the ax head flies off the handle, hitting and killing the neighbor, the one who killed him may run to one of these cities to save his life.6 Otherwise, the dead person's relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer might be angry and chase him. If the city is far away, the relative might catch and kill the person, even though he should not be killed because there was no intent to kill his neighbor.7 This is why I command you to choose these three cities. 8-9 Carefully obey all these laws I'm giving you today. Love the Lord your God, and always do what he wants you to do. Then the Lord your God will enlarge your land as he promised your ancestors, giving you the whole land he promised to them. After that, choose three more cities of safety10 so that innocent people will not be killed in your land, the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your own. By doing this you will not be guilty of allowing the death of innocent people. 11 But if a person hates his neighbor and, after hiding and waiting, attacks and kills him and then runs to one of these cities for safety, 12 the elders of his own city should send for the murderer. They should bring the person back from the city of safety and hand him over to the relative who has the duty of punishing the murderer. 13 Show no mercy. You must remove from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people so that things will go well for you. 14 Do not move the stone that marks the border of your neighbor's land, which people long ago set in place. It marks what you inherit in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own. 15 One witness is not enough to accuse a person of a crime or sin. A case must be proved by two or three witnesses. 16 If a witness lies and accuses a person of a crime,17 the two people who are arguing must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who are on duty.18 The judges must check the matter carefully. The witness who is a liar, lying about a fellow Israelite,19 must be punished. He must be punished in the same way the other person would have been punished. You must get rid of the evil among you.20 The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid, and no one among you will ever do such an evil thing again.21 Show no mercy. A life must be paid for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.
Deuteronomy 20 - New Century
1 When you go to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army that is bigger than yours, don't be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.2 The priest must come and speak to the army before you go into battle.3 He will say, "Listen, Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don't lose your courage or be afraid. Don't panic or be frightened,4 because the Lord your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies and to save you." 5 The officers should say to the army, "Has anyone built a new house but not given it to God? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would get to give his house to God.6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would enjoy his vineyard.7 Is any man engaged to a woman and not yet married to her? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would marry her."8 Then the officers should also say, "Is anyone here afraid? Has anyone lost his courage? He may go home so that he will not cause others to lose their courage, too."9 When the officers finish speaking to the army, they should appoint commanders to lead it. 10 When you march up to attack a city, first make them an offer of peace.11 If they accept your offer and open their gates to you, all the people of that city will become your slaves and work for you.12 But if they do not make peace with you and fight you in battle, you should surround that city.13 The Lord your God will give it to you. Then kill all the men with your swords,14 and you may take everything else in the city for yourselves. Take the women, children, and animals, and you may use these things the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.15 Do this to all the cities that are far away, that do not belong to the nations nearby. 16 But leave nothing alive in the cities of the land the Lord your God is giving you.17 Completely destroy these people: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.18 Otherwise, they will teach you what they do for their gods, and if you do these hateful things, you will sin against the Lord your God. 19 If you surround and attack a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not destroy its trees with an ax. You can eat the fruit from the trees, but do not cut them down. These trees are not the enemy, so don't make war against them.20 But you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build devices to attack the city walls, until the city is captured.
Deuteronomy 21 - New Century
1 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person. 2 Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities. 3 The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke, 4 and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow's neck.5 The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord's name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks. 6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 They should declare: "We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.8 Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don't blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person." And so the murder will be paid for.9 Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right. 10 When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive.11 If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.12 Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails13 and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife.14 But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor. 15 A man might have two wives, one he loves and one he doesn't. Both wives might have sons by him. If the older son belongs to the wife he does not love,16 when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love.17 He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son. 18 If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn't obey them or listen when they correct him, 19 his parents must take him to the elders at the city gate. 20 They will say to the elders, "Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much, and he is always drunk." 21 Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because then all the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid. 22 If someone is guilty of a sin worthy of death, he must be put to death and his body displayed on a tree.23 But don't leave his body hanging on the tree overnight; be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone whose body is displayed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not ruin the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.
Deuteronomy 22 - New Century
1 If you see your fellow Israelite's ox or sheep wandering away, don't ignore it. Take it back to its owner.2 If the owner does not live close to you, or if you do not know who the owner is, take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it; then give it back.3 Do the same thing if you find a donkey or coat or anything someone lost. Don't just ignore it. 4 If you see your fellow Israelite's donkey or ox fallen on the road, don't ignore it. Help the owner get it up. 5 A woman must not wear men's clothes, and a man must not wear women's clothes. The Lord your God hates anyone who does that. 6 If you find a bird's nest by the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on the young birds or eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young birds.7 You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go free. Then things will go well for you, and you will live a long time. 8 When you build a new house, build a low wall around the edge of the roof so you will not be guilty if someone falls off the roof. 9 Don't plant two different kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, both crops will be ruined. 10 Don't plow with an ox and a donkey tied together. 11 Don't wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together. 12 Tie several pieces of thread together; then put these tassels on the four corners of your coat. 13 If a man marries a girl and has sexual relations with her but then decides he does not like her,14 he might talk badly about her and give her a bad name. He might say, "I married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her, I did not find that she was a virgin." 15 Then the girl's parents must bring proof that she was a virgin to the elders at the city gate. 16 The girl's father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her. 17 This man has told lies about my daughter. He has said, 'I did not find your daughter to be a virgin,' but here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin." Then her parents are to show the sheet to the elders of the city, 18 and the elders must take the man and punish him. 19 They must make him pay about two and one-half pounds of silver to the girl's father, because the man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. The girl will continue to be the man's wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if the things the husband said about his wife are true, and there is no proof that she was a virgin,21 the girl must be brought to the door of her father's house. Then the men of the town must put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations before she was married. You must get rid of the evil among you. 22 If a man is found having sexual relations with another man's wife, both the woman and the man who had sexual relations with her must die. Get rid of this evil from Israel. 23 If a man meets a virgin in a city and has sexual relations with her, but she is engaged to another man,24 you must take both of them to the city gate and put them to death by throwing stones at them. Kill the girl, because she was in a city and did not scream for help. And kill the man for having sexual relations with another man's wife. You must get rid of the evil among you. 25 But if a man meets an engaged girl out in the country and forces her to have sexual relations with him, only the man who had sexual relations with her must be put to death.26 Don't do anything to the girl, because she has not done a sin worthy of death. This is like the person who attacks and murders a neighbor;27 the man found the engaged girl in the country and she screamed, but no one was there to save her. 28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged to be married and forces her to have sexual relations with him and people find out about it,29 the man must pay the girl's father about one and one-fourth pounds of silver. He must also marry the girl, because he has dishonored her, and he may never divorce her for as long as he lives. 30 A man must not marry his father's wife; he must not dishonor his father in this way.
Deuteronomy 23 - New Century
1 No man who has had part of his sex organ cut off may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. 2 No one born to parents who were forbidden by law to marry may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. The descendants for ten generations may not come in either. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may come into the meeting to worship the Lord, and none of their descendants for ten generations may come in.4 This is because the Ammonites and Moabites did not give you bread and water when you came out of Egypt. And they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor in Northwest Mesopotamia, to put a curse on you.5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. He turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.6 Don't wish for their peace or success as long as you live. 7 Don't hate Edomites; they are your close relatives. Don't hate Egyptians, because you were foreigners in their country.8 The great-grandchildren of these two peoples may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. 9 When you are camped in time of war, keep away from unclean things.10 If a man becomes unclean during the night, he must go outside the camp and not come back.11 But when evening comes, he must wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into the camp. 12 Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves.13 Carry a tent peg with you, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your dung.14 The Lord your God moves around through your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies for you, so the camp must be holy. He must not see anything unclean among you so that he will not leave you. 15 If an escaped slave comes to you, do not hand over the slave to his master.16 Let the slave live with you anywhere he likes, in any town he chooses. Do not mistreat him. 17 No Israelite man or woman must ever become a temple prostitute.18 Do not bring a male or female prostitute's pay to the Temple of the Lord your God to pay what you have promised to the Lord, because the Lord your God hates prostitution. 19 If you loan your fellow Israelites money or food or anything else, don't make them pay back more than you loaned them.20 You may charge foreigners, but not fellow Israelites. Then the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land you are entering to take as your own. 21 If you make a promise to give something to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, because the Lord your God demands it from you. Do not be guilty of sin.22 But if you do not make the promise, you will not be guilty.23 You must do whatever you say you will do, because you chose to make the promise to the Lord your God. 24 If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, but do not put any grapes into your basket.25 If you go into your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick grain with your hands, but you must not cut down your neighbor's grain with your sickle.
Deuteronomy 24 - New Century
1 A man might marry a woman but later decide she doesn't please him because he has found something bad about her. He writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house.2 After she leaves his house, she goes and marries another man,3 but her second husband does not like her either. So he writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house. Or the second husband might die.4 In either case, her first husband who divorced her must not marry her again, because she has become unclean. The Lord would hate this. Don't bring this sin into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own. 5 A man who has just married must not be sent to war or be given any other duty. He should be free to stay home for a year to make his new wife happy. 6 If someone owes you something, do not take his two stones for grinding grain—not even the upper one—in place of what he owes, because this is how the person makes a living. 7 If someone kidnaps a fellow Israelite, either to make him a slave or sell him, the kidnapper must be killed. You must get rid of the evil among you. 8 Be careful when someone has a skin disease. Do exactly what the priests, the Levites, teach you, being careful to do what I have commanded them.9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt. 10 When you make a loan to your neighbors, don't go into their homes to get something in place of it.11 Stay outside and let them go in and get what they promised you.12 If a poor person gives you a coat to show he will pay the loan back, don't keep it overnight.13 Give the coat back at sunset, because your neighbor needs that coat to sleep in, and he will be grateful to you. And the Lord your God will see that you have done a good thing. 14 Don't cheat hired servants who are poor and needy, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns.15 Pay them each day before sunset, because they are poor and need the money. Otherwise, they may complain to the Lord about you, and you will be guilty of sin. 16 Parents must not be put to death if their children do wrong, and children must not be put to death if their parents do wrong. Each person must die for his own sin. 17 Do not be unfair to a foreigner or an orphan. Don't take a widow's coat to make sure she pays you back.18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this. 19 When you are gathering your harvest in the field and leave behind a bundle of grain, don't go back and get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows so that the Lord your God can bless everything you do.20 When you beat your olive trees to knock the olives off, don't beat the trees a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows.21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don't pick the vines a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows.22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this.
Deuteronomy 25 - New Century
1 If two people have an argument and go to court, the judges will decide the case. They will declare one person right and the other guilty.2 If the guilty person has to be punished with a beating, the judge will make that person lie down and be beaten in front of him. The number of lashes should match the crime.3 But don't hit a person more than forty times, because more than that would disgrace him before others. 4 When an ox is working in the grain, do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating. 5 If two brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry someone outside her husband's family. Her husband's brother must marry her, which is his duty to her as a brother-in-law.6 The first son she has counts as the son of the dead brother so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel. 7 But if a man does not want to marry his brother's widow, she should go to the elders at the town gate. She should say, "My brother-in-law will not carry on his brother's name in Israel. He refuses to do his duty for me." 8 Then the elders of the town must call for the man and talk to him. But if he is stubborn and says, "I don't want to marry her," 9 the woman must go up to him in front of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face and say, "This is for the man who won't continue his brother's family!"10 Then that man's family shall be known in Israel as the Family of the Unsandaled. 11 If two men are fighting and one man's wife comes to save her husband from his attacker, grabbing the attacker by his sex organs,12 you must cut off her hand. Show her no mercy. 13 Don't carry two sets of weights with you, one heavy and one light.14 Don't have two different sets of measures in your house, one large and one small.15 You must have true and honest weights and measures so that you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you.16 The Lord your God hates anyone who is dishonest and uses dishonest measures. 17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you when you came out of Egypt.18 When you were tired and worn out, they met you on the road and attacked all those lagging behind. They were not afraid of God.19 When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you as your own, you shall destroy any memory of the Amalekites on the earth. Do not forget!
Deuteronomy 26 - New Century
1 When you go into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, to take it over and live in it,2 you must take some of the first harvest of crops that grow from the land the Lord your God is giving you. Put the food in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to be worshiped.3 Say to the priest on duty at that time, "Today I declare before the Lord your God that I have come into the land the Lord promised our ancestors that he would give us."4 The priest will take your basket and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.5 Then you shall announce before the Lord your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with only a few people, but they became a great, powerful, and large nation there.6 But the Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and work very hard.7 So we prayed to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us. When he saw our trouble, hard work, and suffering,8 the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his great power and strength, using great terrors, signs, and miracles.9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this fertile land.10 Now I bring part of the first harvest from this land that you, Lord, have given me." Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him.11 Then you and the Levites and foreigners among you should rejoice, because the Lord your God has given good things to you and your family. 12 Bring a tenth of all your harvest the third year (the year to give a tenth of your harvest). Give it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows so that they may eat in your towns and be full.13 Then say to the Lord your God, "I have taken out of my house the part of my harvest that belongs to God, and I have given it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows. I have done everything you commanded me; I have not broken your commands, and I have not forgotten any of them.14 I have not eaten any of the holy part while I was in sorrow. I have not removed any of it while I was unclean, and I have not offered it for dead people. I have obeyed you, the Lord my God, and have done everything you commanded me.15 So look down from heaven, your holy home. Bless your people Israel and bless the land you have given us, which you promised to our ancestors—a fertile land." 16 Today the Lord your God commands you to obey all these rules and laws; be careful to obey them with your whole being.17 Today you have said that the Lord is your God, and you have promised to do what he wants you to do—to keep his rules, commands, and laws. You have said you will obey him.18 And today the Lord has said that you are his very own people, as he has promised you. But you must obey his commands.19 He will make you greater than all the other nations he made. He will give you praise, fame, and honor, and you will be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has said.
Deuteronomy 27 - New Century
1 Then Moses, along with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, "Keep all the commands I have given you today. 2 Soon you will cross the Jordan River to go into the land the Lord your God is giving you. On that day set up some large stones and cover them with plaster.3 When you cross over, write all the words of these teachings on them. Then you may enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised.4 After you have crossed the Jordan River, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and cover them with plaster.5 Build an altar of stones there to the Lord your God, but don't use any iron tool to cut the stones;6 build the altar of the Lord your God with stones from the field. Offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God,7 and offer fellowship offerings there, and eat them and rejoice before the Lord your God.8 Then write clearly all the words of these teachings on the stones." 9 Then Moses and the Levites who were priests spoke to all Israel and said, "Be quiet, Israel. Listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.10 Obey the Lord your God, and keep his commands and laws that I give you today." 11 That day Moses also gave the people this command: 12 When you cross the Jordan River, these tribes must stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin.13 And these tribes must stand on Mount Ebal to announce the curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 The Levites will say to all the people of Israel in a loud voice: 15 "Anyone will be cursed who makes an idol or statue and secretly sets it up, because the Lord hates the idols people make." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 16 "Anyone will be cursed who dishonors his father or mother." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 17 "Anyone will be cursed who moves the stone that marks a neighbor's border." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 18 "Anyone will be cursed who sends a blind person down the wrong road." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 19 "Anyone will be cursed who is unfair to foreigners, orphans, or widows." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 20 "A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his father's wife, because it is a dishonor to his father." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 21 "Anyone will be cursed who has sexual relations with an animal." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 22 "A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his sister, whether she is his father's daughter or his mother's daughter." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 23 "A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 24 "Anyone will be cursed who kills a neighbor secretly." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 25 "Anyone will be cursed who takes money to murder an innocent person." Then all the people will say, "Amen!" 26 "Anyone will be cursed who does not agree with the words of these teachings and does not obey them." Then all the people will say, "Amen!"
Deuteronomy 28 - New Century
1 You must completely obey the Lord your God, and you must carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth.2 Obey the Lord your God so that all these blessings will come and stay with you: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4 Your children will be blessed, as well as your crops; your herds will be blessed with calves and your flocks with lambs. 5 Your basket and your kitchen will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out. 7 The Lord will help you defeat the enemies that come to fight you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run from you in seven directions. 8 The Lord your God will bless you with full barns, and he will bless everything you do. He will bless the land he is giving you. 9 The Lord will make you his holy people, as he promised. But you must obey his commands and do what he wants you to do.10 Then everyone on earth will see that you are the Lord's people, and they will be afraid of you.11 The Lord will make you rich: You will have many children, your animals will have many young, and your land will give good crops. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors he would give to you. 12 The Lord will open up his heavenly storehouse so that the skies send rain on your land at the right time, and he will bless everything you do. You will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them.13 The Lord will make you like the head and not like the tail; you will be on top and not on bottom. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, being careful to keep them.14 Do not disobey anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command, and do not follow other gods or serve them. 15 But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay: 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. 17 Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed. 18 Your children will be cursed, as well as your crops; the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed. 19 You will be cursed when you go in and when you go out. 20 The Lord will send you curses, confusion, and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you left him.21 The Lord will give you terrible diseases and destroy you from the land you are going to take.22 The Lord will punish you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, lack of rain, plant diseases, and mildew until you die. 23 The sky above will be like bronze, and the ground below will be like iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand, which will fall from the skies until you are destroyed. 25 The Lord will help your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth.26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away.27 The Lord will punish you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have bad growths, sores, and itches that can't be cured.28 The Lord will give you madness, blindness, and a confused mind.29 You will have to feel around in the daylight like a blind person. You will fail in everything you do. People will hurt you and steal from you every day, and no one will save you. 30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will force her to have sexual relations with him. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not get its grapes.
Deuteronomy 29 - New Century
1 The Lord commanded Moses to make an agreement with the Israelites in Moab in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Mount Sinai. These are the words of that agreement. 2 Moses called all the Israelites together and said to them: You have seen everything the Lord did before your own eyes to the king of Egypt and to the king's leaders and to the whole country.3 With your own eyes you saw the great troubles, signs, and miracles.4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands; you don't really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears.5 I led you through the desert for forty years, and during that time neither your clothes nor sandals wore out.6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer. This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God. 7 When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight us, but we defeated them.8 We captured their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh to be their own. 9 You must carefully obey everything in this agreement so that you will succeed in everything you do.10 Today you are all standing here before the Lord your God—your leaders and important men, your elders, officers, and all the other men of Israel,11 your wives and children and the foreigners who live among you, who chop your wood and carry your water.12 You are all here to enter into an agreement and a promise with the Lord your God, an agreement the Lord your God is making with you today.13 This will make you today his own people. He will be your God, as he told you and as he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.14 But I am not just making this agreement and its promises with you15 who are standing here before the Lord your God today, but also with those who are not here today. 16 You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries when we came here.17 You saw their hateful idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.18 Make sure no man, woman, family group, or tribe among you leaves the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. They would be to you like a plant that grows bitter, poisonous fruit. 19 These are the kind of people who hear these curses but bless themselves, thinking, "We will be safe even though we continue doing what we want to do." Those people may destroy all of your land, both wet and dry.20 The Lord will not forgive them. His anger will be like a burning fire against those people, and all the curses written in this book will come on them. The Lord will destroy any memory of them on the earth.21 He will separate them from all the tribes of Israel for punishment. All the curses of the Agreement that are written in this Book of the Teachings will happen to them. 22 Your children who will come after you, as well as foreigners from faraway lands, will see the disasters that come to this land and the diseases the Lord will send on it. They will say,23 "The land is nothing but burning cinders and salt. Nothing is planted, nothing grows, and nothing blooms. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed because he was very angry."24 All the other nations will ask, "Why has the Lord done this to the land? Why is he so angry?" 25 And the answer will be, "It is because the people broke the Agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.26 They went and served other gods and bowed down to gods they did not even know. The Lord did not allow that,27 so he became very angry at the land and brought all the curses on it that are written in this book.28 Since the Lord became angry and furious with them, he took them out of their land and put them in another land where they are today." 29 There are some things the Lord our God has kept secret, but there are some things he has let us know. These things belong to us and our children forever so that we will do everything in these teachings.
Deuteronomy 30 - New Century
1 When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things.2 Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.3 Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you.4 He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there,5 back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors.6 The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live.7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you.8 And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today.9 The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors.10 But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being. 11 This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do.12 It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, "Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?"13 It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, "Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?"14 No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. 15 Look, today I offer you life and success, death and destruction.16 I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own. 17 But if you turn away from the Lord and do not obey him, if you are led to bow and serve other gods,18 I tell you today that you will surely be destroyed. And you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and take as your own. 19 Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.20 To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 31 - New Century
1 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all the Israelites:2 "I am now one hundred twenty years old, and I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River;3 the Lord your God will lead you across himself. He will destroy those nations for you, and you will take over their land. Joshua will also lead you across, as the Lord has said.4 The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when he destroyed them and their land.5 The Lord will give those nations to you; do to them everything I told you.6 Be strong and brave. Don't be afraid of them and don't be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you." 7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of the people, "Be strong and brave, because you will lead these people into the land the Lord promised to give their ancestors, and help them take it as their own.8 The Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forget you. Don't be afraid and don't worry." 9 So Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the priests and all the elders of Israel. (The priests are the sons of Levi, who carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.)10-11 Then Moses commanded them: "Read these teachings for all Israel to hear at the end of every seven years, which is the year to cancel what people owe. Do it during the Feast of Shelters, when all the Israelites will come to appear before the Lord your God and stand at the place he will choose.12 Gather all the people: the men, women, children, and foreigners living in your towns so that they can listen and learn to respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law.13 Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it. They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take for your own." 14 The Lord said to Moses, "Soon you will die. Get Joshua and come to the Meeting Tent so that I may command him." So Moses and Joshua went to the Meeting Tent. 15 The Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent in a cloud; the cloud stood over the entrance of the Tent.16 And the Lord said to Moses, "You will soon die. Then these people will not be loyal to me but will worship the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will leave me, breaking the Agreement I made with them.17 Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave them. I will turn away from them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible things will happen to them. Then they will say, 'It is because God is not with us that these terrible things are happening.'18 I will surely turn away from them then, because they have done wrong and have turned to other gods. 19 "Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites. Then have them sing it, because it will be my witness against them.20 When I bring them into the land I promised to their ancestors, a fertile land, they will eat as much as they want and get fat. Then they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will reject me and break my Agreement.21 Then when many troubles and terrible things happen to them, this song will testify against them, because the song will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they plan to do, even before I take them into the land I promised them."22 So Moses wrote down the song that day, and he taught it to the Israelites. 23 Then the Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: "Be strong and brave, because you will lead the people of Israel to the land I promised them, and I will be with you." 24 After Moses finished writing all the words of the teachings in a book,25 he gave a command to the Levites, who carried the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.26 He said, "Take this Book of the Teachings and put it beside the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord your God. It must stay there as a witness against you.27 I know how stubborn and disobedient you are. You have disobeyed the Lord while I am alive and with you, and you will disobey even more after I die! 28 Gather all the elders of your tribes and all your officers to me so that I may say these things for them to hear, and so that I may ask heaven and earth to testify against them. 29 I know that after I die you will become completely evil. You will turn away from the commands I have given you. Terrible things will happen to you in the future when you do what the Lord says is evil, and you will make him angry with the idols you have made." 30 And Moses spoke this whole song for all the people of Israel to hear.
Deuteronomy 32 - New Century
1 Hear, heavens, and I will speak.
Listen, earth, to what I say.
2 My teaching will drop like rain;
my words will fall like dew.
They will be like showers on the grass;
they will pour down like rain on young plants.
3 I will announce the name of the Lord.
Praise God because he is great!
4 He is like a rock; what he does is perfect,
and he is always fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong,
who is right and fair.
5 They have done evil against him.
To their shame they are no longer his children;
they are an evil and lying people.
6 This is not the way to repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people.
He is your Father and Maker,
who made you and formed you.
7 Remember the old days.
Think of the years already passed.
Ask your father and he will tell you;
ask your elders and they will inform you.
8 God Most High gave the nations their lands,
dividing up the human race.
He set up borders for the people
and even numbered the Israelites.
9 The Lord took his people as his share,
the people of Jacob as his very own.
10 He found them in a desert,
a windy, empty land.
He surrounded them and brought them up,
guarding them as those he loved very much.
11 He was like an eagle building its nest
that flutters over its young.
It spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its feathers.
12 The Lord alone led them,
and there was no foreign god helping him.
13 The Lord brought them to the heights of the land
and fed them the fruit of the fields.
He gave them honey from the rocks,
bringing oil from the solid rock.
14 There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock;
there were fat sheep and goats.
There were sheep and goats from Bashan
and the best of the wheat.
You drank the juice of grapes.
15 Israel grew fat and kicked;
they were fat and full and firm.
They left the God who made them
and rejected the Rock who saved them.
16 They made God jealous with foreign gods
and angry with hateful idols.
17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God,
to gods they had never known,
new gods from nearby,
gods your ancestors did not fear.
18 You left God who is the Rock, your Father,
and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them;
his sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, "I will turn away from them
and see what will happen to them.
They are evil people,
unfaithful children.
21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous
and worthless idols to make me angry.
So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous;
I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.
22 My anger has started a fire
that burns down to the place of the dead.
It will burn up the ground and its crops,
and it will set fire to the base of the mountains.
23 "I will pile troubles upon them
and shoot my arrows at them.
24 They will be starved and sick,
destroyed by terrible diseases.
I will send them vicious animals
and gliding, poisonous snakes.
25 In the streets the sword will kill;
in their homes there will be terror.
Young men and women will die,
and so will babies and gray-haired men.
26 I will scatter them as I said,
and no one will remember them.
27 But I didn't want their enemy to brag;
their enemy might misunderstand
and say, 'We have won!
The Lord has done none of this.' "
28 Israel has no sense;
they do not understand.
29 I wish they were wise and understood this;
I wish they could see what will happen to them.
30 One person cannot chase a thousand people,
and two people cannot fight ten thousand
unless their Rock has sold them,
unless the Lord has given them up.
Deuteronomy 33 - New Century
1 Moses, the man of God, gave this blessing to the Israelites before he died.2 He said:
"The Lord came from Mount Sinai
and rose like the sun from Edom;
he showed his greatness from Mount Paran.
He came with thousands of angels
from the southern mountains.
3 The Lord surely loves his people
and takes care of all those who belong to him.
They bow down at his feet,
and they are taught by him.
4 Moses gave us the teachings
that belong to the people of Jacob.
5 The Lord became king of Israel
when the leaders of the people gathered,
when the tribes of Israel came together.
6 "Let the people of Reuben live and not die,
but let the people be few."
7 Moses said this about the people of Judah:
"Lord, listen to Judah's prayer;
bring them back to their people.
They defend themselves with their hands.
Help them fight their enemies!"
8 Moses said this about the people of Levi:
"Lord, your Thummim and Urim belong
to Levi, whom you love.
Lord, you tested him at Massah
and argued with him at the waters of Meribah.
9 He said about his father and mother,
'I don't care about them.'
He did not treat his brothers as favorites
or give special favors to his children,
but he protected your word
and guarded your agreement.
10 He teaches your laws to the people of Jacob
and your teachings to the people of Israel.
He burns incense before you
and makes whole burnt offerings on your altar.
11 Lord, make them strong;
be pleased with the work they do.
Defeat those who attack them,
and don't let their enemies rise up again."
12 Moses said this about the people of Benjamin:
"The Lord's loved ones will lie down in safety,
because he protects them all day long.
The ones he loves rest with him."
13 Moses said this about the people of Joseph:
"May the Lord bless their land with wonderful dew from heaven,
with water from the springs below,
14 with the best fruits that the sun brings,
and with the best fruits that the moon brings.
15 Let the old mountains give the finest crops,
and let the everlasting hills give the best fruits.
16 Let the full earth give the best fruits,
and let the Lord who lived in the burning bush be pleased.
May these blessings rest on the head of Joseph,
on the forehead of the one who was blessed among his brothers.
17 Joseph has the majesty of a firstborn bull;
he is as strong as a wild ox.
He will stab other nations,
even those nations far away.
These are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
and these are the thousands of Manasseh."
18 Moses said this about the people of Zebulun:
"Be happy when you go out, Zebulun,
and be happy in your tents, Issachar.
19 They will call the people to the mountain,
and there they will offer the right sacrifices.
They will do well from all that is in the sea,
and they will do well from the treasures hidden in the sand on the shore."
20 Moses said this about the people of Gad:
"Praise God who gives Gad more land!
Gad lives there like a lion,
who tears off arms and heads.
21 They chose the best land for themselves.
They received a large share, like that given to an officer.
When the leaders of the people gathered,
the people of Gad did what the Lord said was right,
and they judged Israel fairly."
22 Moses said this about the people of Dan:
"Dan is like a lion's cub,
who jumps out of Bashan."
23 Moses said this about the people of Naphtali:
"Naphtali enjoys special kindnesses,
and they are full of the Lord's blessings.
Take as your own the west and south."
24 Moses said this about the people of Asher:
"Asher is the most blessed of the sons;
let him be his brothers' favorite.
Let him bathe his feet in olive oil.
25 Your gates will have locks of iron and bronze,
and you will be strong as long as you live.
26 "There is no one like the God of Israel,
who rides through the skies to help you,
who rides on the clouds in his majesty.
27 The everlasting God is your place of safety,
and his arms will hold you up forever.
He will force your enemy out ahead of you,
saying, 'Destroy the enemy!'
28 The people of Israel will lie down in safety.
Jacob's spring is theirs alone.
Theirs is a land full of grain and new wine,
where the skies drop their dew.
29 Israel, you are blessed!
No one else is like you,
because you are a people saved by the Lord.
He is your shield and helper,
your glorious sword.
Your enemies will be afraid of you,
and you will walk all over their holy places."
Deuteronomy 34 - New Century
1 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Mount Pisgah, across from Jericho. From there the Lord showed him all the land from Gilead to Dan,2 all of Naphtali and the lands of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea,3 as well as the southern desert and the whole Valley of Jericho up to Zoar. (Jericho is called the city of palm trees.)4 Then the Lord said to Moses, "This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said to them, 'I will give this land to your descendants.' I have let you look at it, Moses, but you will not cross over there." 5 Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.6 He buried Moses in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but even today no one knows where his grave is.7 Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not weak, and he was still strong.8 The Israelites cried for Moses for thirty days, staying in the plains of Moab until the time of sadness was over. 9 Joshua son of Nun was then filled with wisdom, because Moses had put his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to Joshua, and they did what the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The Lord knew Moses face to face11 and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt. 12 Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see.
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