The Sacred Bible: The Book of Deuteronomy
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
{17:1} “You shall not immolate to the Lord your God a sheep or an ox, in which there is a blemish or any defect at all; for this is an abomination to the Lord your God.
{17:2} When there will have been found among you, within one of your gates which the Lord your God will give to you, a man or a woman who is doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and who is transgressing his covenant,
{17:3} so as to go and serve foreign gods and adore them, such as the sun and the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not instructed,
{17:4} and when this will have been reported to you, and, upon hearing it, if you have inquired diligently and have found it to be true, that the abomination is being done in Israel:
{17:5} you shall lead forward the man or the woman who has perpetrated this most wicked thing to the gates of your city, and they shall be stoned to death.
{17:6} By the mouth of two or three witnesses, he who is to be put to death shall perish. Let no one be killed with only one person speaking testimony against him.
{17:7} First, the hands of the witnesses shall be upon him who will be put to death, and lastly, the hands of the remainder of the people shall be sent forth. So may you take away the evil from your midst.
{17:8} If you have perceived that there is among you a difficult and doubtful matter of judgment, between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, and if you will have seen that the words of the judges within your gates vary: rise up and ascend to the place which the Lord your God will choose.
{17:9} And you shall approach the priests of the Levitical stock, and the judge, who shall be among them at that time, and you shall inquire of them, and they will reveal to you the truth of the judgment.
{17:10} And you shall accept whatever they will say, those who preside in the place which the Lord will choose, and whatever they will teach you,
{17:11} in accord with his law, and you shall follow their sentence. Neither shall you turn aside to the right or to the left.
{17:12} But whoever will be arrogant, unwilling to obey the order of the priest who ministers at that time to the Lord your God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die. And so shall you take away the evil from Israel.
{17:13} And when the people hear about this, they shall be afraid, so that no one, from that time on, will swell with pride.
{17:14} When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, and you possess it, and you live in it, and you say, ‘I will appoint a king over me, just as all the surrounding nations have done,’
{17:15} you shall appoint him whom the Lord your God will choose from among the number of your brothers. You cannot make a man of another people king, one who is not your brother.
{17:16} And when he will have been appointed king, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor lead the people back into Egypt, having been exalted by the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord has instructed you never to return along the same way.
{17:17} He shall not have many wives, who might allure his mind, and he shall not have immense weights of silver and gold.
{17:18} Then, after he has been seated upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, using a copy from the priests of the Levitical tribe.
{17:19} And he shall have it with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep his words and ceremonies, which are instructed in the law.
{17:20} And so may his heart not become exalted with arrogance over his brothers, nor turn aside to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons may reign for a long time over Israel.”
{18:1} “The priests and the Levites, and all who are from the same tribe, shall have no portion or inheritance with the rest of Israel. For they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord and his oblations.
{18:2} And they shall receive nothing else from the possession of their brothers. For the Lord himself is their inheritance, just as he said to them.
{18:3} This shall be the recompense for the priests from the people, and from those who offer victims, whether they will immolate an ox or a sheep. They shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast,
{18:4} the first-fruits of grain, wine, and oil, and a portion of the wool from the shearing of the sheep.
{18:5} For the Lord your God himself has chosen him out of all your tribes, so that he may stand and minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons, forever.
{18:6} If a Levite departs from one of the cities, throughout all of Israel, in which he lives, and if he wills and desires to go to the place which the Lord will choose,
{18:7} he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as do all his brothers, the Levites, who will be standing at that time in the sight of the Lord.
{18:8} He shall receive the same portion of food as the rest also receive, besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers.
{18:9} When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations.
{18:10} Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult,
{18:11} nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead.
{18:12} For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival.
{18:13} You shall be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God.
{18:14} These nations, whose land you shall possess, they listen to soothsayers and diviners. But you have been otherwise instructed by the Lord your God.
{18:15} The Lord your God will raise up for you a PROPHET from your nation and from your brothers, similar to me. You shall listen to him,
{18:16} just as you petitioned of the Lord your God at Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and you said: ‘Let me no longer hear the voice of the Lord my God, and let me no longer see this very great fire, lest I die.’
{18:17} And the Lord said to me: ‘They have spoken all these things well.
{18:18} I will raise up a prophet for them, from the midst of their brothers, similar to you. And I will place my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all the things that I will instruct him.
{18:19} But against anyone who is not willing to listen to his words, which he will speak in my name, I will stand forth as the avenger.
{18:20} But if a prophet, having been corrupted by arrogance, chooses to speak, in my name, things which I did not instruct him to say, or to speak in the name of foreign gods, he shall be put to death.
{18:21} But if, in silent thought, you respond: “How will I be able to recognize a word which the Lord has not spoken?”
{18:22} you shall have this sign. If whatever that prophet predicts in the name of the Lord does not happen, then the Lord has not spoken it. Instead, the prophet has formed it through the swelling of his own mind. And for this reason, you shall not fear him.’ ”
{19:1} “When the Lord your God will have destroyed the nations, whose land he will deliver to you, and when you possess it and live in its cities and buildings,
{19:2} you shall separate for yourselves three cities in the midst of the land, which the Lord will give to you as a possession,
{19:3} paving the road carefully. And you shall divide the entire province of your land equally into three parts, so that he who is forced to flee because of manslaughter may have a place nearby to which he may be able to escape.
{19:4} This shall be the law of the killer who flees, whose life is to be saved. Whoever strikes down his neighbor unwillingly, and who has been proven to have had no hatred against him yesterday and the day before,
{19:5} such that he had gone with him into the forest simply to cut wood, and in cutting down the tree, the axe slipped from his hand, or the iron slipped from the handle, and it struck his friend and killed him: he shall flee to one of the cities stated above, and he shall live.
{19:6} Otherwise, perhaps the near relative of him whose blood was shed, impelled by his grief, might pursue and apprehend him, unless the way is too long, and he might strike down the life of him who is not guilty unto death, since he had demonstrated that he had no prior hatred against him who was slain.
{19:7} For this reason, I instruct you to separate three cities at equal distance from one another.
{19:8} And when the Lord your God will have enlarged your borders, just as he swore to your fathers, and when he will have given to you all the land that he has promised to them,
{19:9} (but this is only so if you will keep his commandments and do the things which I instruct to you this day, so that you love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways at all times) you shall add for yourselves three other cities, and so you shall double the number of the three cities stated above.
{19:10} So may innocent blood not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord your God will give you to possess, lest you be guilty of blood.
{19:11} But if anyone, having hatred for his neighbor, will have lain in ambush for his life, and, rising up, will have struck him, and he will have died, and if he will have fled to one of the cities stated above,
{19:12} the elders of his city shall send, and they shall take him from the place of refuge, and they shall deliver him into the hand of the relative of him whose blood was shed, and he shall die.
{19:13} You shall not take pity on him, and so shall you take away the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
{19:14} You shall not take up or move the landmark of your neighbor, which those before you have placed, in your possession that the Lord your God will give to you, in the land you will receive to possess.
{19:15} One witness shall not stand against another, no matter what the sin or outrage may be. For every word shall stand by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
{19:16} If a lying witness will have stood against a man, accusing him of a transgression,
{19:17} both of those whose case it is shall stand before the Lord in the sight of the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.
{19:18} And when, after a very diligent examination, they will have found that the false witness had told a lie against his brother,
{19:19} they shall render to him just as he intended to do to his brother. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.
{19:20} Then the others, upon hearing this, will be afraid, and they will by no means dare to do such things.
{19:21} You shall not take pity on him. Instead, you shall require a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.”
{20:1} “If you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horsemen and chariots, and that the multitude of your adversary’s army is greater than your own, you shall not fear them. For the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, is with you.
{20:2} Then, as the battle now draws near, the priest shall stand before the front ranks, and he shall speak to the people in this manner:
{20:3} ‘Listen, O Israel! Today you engage in a battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart be overwhelmed with fear. Do not be apprehensive. Do not yield. You should have no dread of them.
{20:4} For the Lord your God is in your midst, and he will contend against your enemies on your behalf, so that he may rescue you from peril.’
{20:5} Likewise, the officers shall proclaim, throughout every company, in the hearing of the soldiers: ‘What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may dedicate it.
{20:6} What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not yet caused it to be common, so that all may eat from it? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may carry out his office.
{20:7} What man is there, who has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in battle, and another man may take her.’
{20:8} After these things have been declared, they shall add the remainder, and shall say to the people: ‘What man is there who is overwhelmed by fear and is fainthearted? Let him go, and return to his house, lest he cause the hearts of his brothers to fear, just as he himself has been thoroughly stricken with fear.’
{20:9} And when the officers of the army have become silent, and have completed their speech, each one shall prepare his unit to wage war.
{20:10} When, at any time, you approach a city to fight against it, you shall first offer peace to it.
{20:11} If they receive it, and open the gates to you, then all the people who are in it shall be saved, and they shall serve you by paying tribute.
{20:12} But if they are not willing to enter into an agreement, and they begin to act against you in warfare, then you shall besiege it.
{20:13} And when the Lord your God will have delivered it into your hands, you shall strike down anyone who is in it, of the male gender, with the edge of the sword,
{20:14} but not the women and young children, nor the cattle and the other things that are within the city. And you shall divide all the plunder to the soldiers, and you shall eat the spoils from your enemies, which the Lord your God will give to you.
{20:15} So shall you do to all the cities which are at a great distance from you, those which are not among the cities that you shall receive as a possession.
{20:16} But among those cities which shall be given to you, you shall not permit anyone at all to live.
{20:17} Instead, you shall put them to death with the edge of the sword, specifically: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you.
{20:18} Otherwise, they may teach you to do all the abominations which they have committed for their own gods. And then you would sin against the Lord your God.
{20:19} When you will have besieged a city for a long time, and you will have encircled it with fortifications, so that you may fight against it, you shall not cut down trees from which one is able to eat, neither shall you cause devastation with axes to the surrounding region. For it is a tree, and not a man. It is not able to increase the number of those who are fighting against you.
{20:20} But if there are any trees which are not fruitful, but are wild, and if these are fit for other uses, then cut them down, and make machines, until you have captured the city that is contending against you.”
{21:1} “When there will have been found in the land, which the Lord your God will give to you, the corpse of a man who has been killed, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder,
{21:2} your judges and those greater by birth shall go out and measure, from the place of the corpse, the distance to each of the surrounding cities.
{21:3} And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow.
{21:4} And they shall lead it into a rough and stony valley, one which has never been tilled or sown. And in that place, they shall cut the neck of the calf.
{21:5} And the priests the sons of Levi shall approach, those whom the Lord your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and to decide every controversy by their word, and to judge which things are clean and which are unclean.
{21:6} And those greater by birth of that city, nearest to the one who was slain, shall go and shall wash their hands over the calf that was killed in the valley.
{21:7} And they shall say: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
{21:8} Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not charge them with innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And so the guilt of the blood will be taken away from them.
{21:9} Then you will be free from the blood that was shed against the innocent, when you will have done as the Lord has instructed you.
{21:10} If you have gone out to fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand, and if, as you are leading away the captives,
{21:11} you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her, and you are willing to have her as a wife:
{21:12} then you shall lead her into your house. And she shall shave off her hair, and cut her nails short,
{21:13} and remove the garment in which she was captured. And she shall sit in your house and weep for her father and mother, for one month. And after that, you shall enter to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife.
{21:14} But if afterwards she does not sit well in your mind, you shall set her free. You cannot sell her for money, nor can you oppress her by force. For you have humiliated her.
{21:15} If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have produced children by him, and if the son of the hated wife is the firstborn,
{21:16} and if he wishes to divide his substance among his sons: he cannot make the son of the beloved wife the firstborn, and so prefer him before the son of the hated wife.
{21:17} Instead, he shall acknowledge the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and he shall give to him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first among his children, and the rights of the firstborn are owed to him.
{21:18} If a man produces a disobedient and reckless son, who will not listen to the orders of his father or mother, and, having been corrected, shows contempt for obedience:
{21:19} they shall take him and lead him to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment.
{21:20} And they shall say to them: ‘This our son is reckless and disobedient. He shows contempt when listening to our admonitions. He occupies himself with carousing, and self-indulgence, and feasting.’
{21:21} Then the people of the city shall stone him to death. And he shall die, so that you may take away the evil from your midst. And so may all of Israel, upon hearing it, be very afraid.
{21:22} When a man will have sinned in a matter which is punished by death, and, having been judged unto death, he has been hanged on a gallows:
{21:23} his corpse shall not remain on the tree. Instead, he shall be buried on the same day. For he who hangs from a tree has been cursed by God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God will give to you as a possession.”
{22:1} “If you see your brother’s ox or sheep wander astray, you shall not pass by. Instead, you shall lead them back to your brother.
{22:2} But if your brother is not near, or you do not know him, you shall lead them to your house, and they shall be with you until your brother seeks them and receives them.
{22:3} You shall act in a similar manner with his donkey, and his clothing, and all the belongings of your brother that have been lost. If you find it, you shall not neglect it, as if it belonged to a stranger.
{22:4} If you see that your brother’s donkey or ox has fallen along the way, you shall not disregard it. Instead, you shall lift it up with him.
{22:5} A woman shall not be clothed with manly apparel, nor shall a man make use of feminine apparel. For whoever does these things is abominable with God.
{22:6} If, as you are walking along the way, you find a bird’s nest, in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is nurturing the young or the eggs, you shall not take her with her young.
{22:7} Instead, you shall permit her to go, retaining the young that you have caught, so that it may be well with you, and you may live for a long time.
{22:8} When you build a new house, you shall make a wall around the roof. Otherwise, someone may slip and fall down violently, and so blood would be shed at your house, and you would be guilty.
{22:9} You shall not sow your vineyard with another seed, lest both the seed that you have sown and what springs forth from the vineyard be sanctified together.
{22:10} You shall not till with an ox and a donkey at the same time.
{22:11} You shall not wear a vestment which has been woven from both wool and linen.
{22:12} You shall make strings along the hem, at the four corners of your cloak, which covers you.
{22:13} If a man takes a wife, and afterwards he has hatred for her,
{22:14} and so he seeks opportunities to dismiss her, imputing a very wicked name to her by saying, ‘I received this woman as a wife, and upon entering to her, I found her not to be a virgin,’
{22:15} then her father and mother shall take her, and they shall bring with them the signs of her virginity, to the elders of the city who are at the gate.
{22:16} And the father shall say: ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife. And because he hates her,
{22:17} he accuses her with a very wicked name, by saying: “I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.” But behold, these are the signs of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the clothing before the elders of the city.
{22:18} And the elders of that city shall apprehend that man and beat him.
{22:19} Moreover, they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, which he will give to the father of the girl, because he has committed slander, with a very wicked name, against a virgin of Israel. And he shall have her as a wife, and he cannot dismiss her throughout all the days of his life.
{22:20} But if what he has claimed is true and virginity is not found in the girl,
{22:21} then they shall throw her down, outside the doors of her father’s house, and the men of that city shall stone her to death, and she shall die. For she has acted wickedly in Israel, in that she fornicated in her father’s house. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.
{22:22} If a man sleeps with the wife of another, then they shall both die, that is, the adulterer and the adulteress. And so shall you take away the evil from Israel.
{22:23} If a man has betrothed a girl who is a virgin, and if someone finds her in the city and he lies with her,
{22:24} then you shall lead them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be stoned to death: the girl, because she did not cry out though she was in the city; the man, because he has humiliated the wife of his neighbor. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.
{22:25} But if a man discovers, in the countryside, a girl who has been betrothed, and, apprehending her, he lies with her, then he alone shall die.
{22:26} The girl shall suffer nothing, nor is she guilty unto death. For just as a robber rises up against his brother and slays his life, so also did the girl suffer greatly.
{22:27} She was alone in the field. She cried out, and there was no one nearby, who might deliver her.
{22:28} If a man find a girl who is a virgin, who does not have a betrothal, and, taking her, he lies with her, and the matter is brought to judgment,
{22:29} then he who slept with her shall give to the father of the girl fifty shekels of silver, and he shall have her as a wife, because he has humiliated her. He cannot dismiss her, throughout all the days of his life.
{22:30} No man shall take his father’s wife, nor remove her covering.”
{23:1} “A eunuch, one whose testicles have been debilitated or cut off, or whose penis has been cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord.
{23:2} The offspring of a harlot, that is, one born of a prostitute, shall not enter into the church of the Lord, until the tenth generation.
{23:3} The Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation, shall not enter into the church of the Lord forever,
{23:4} because they were not willing to meet you with bread and water along the way, when you had departed from Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor, from Mesopotamia in Syria, in order to curse you.
{23:5} But the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he turned his cursing into your blessing, because he loves you.
{23:6} You shall not make peace with them, nor shall you seek their prosperity, throughout all the days of your life forever.
{23:7} You shall not abhor anyone from Idumea, for he is your brother, nor the Egyptian, for you were a new arrival in his land.
{23:8} Those who have been born of them, in the third generation, shall enter into the church of the Lord.
{23:9} When you have gone out to war against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from everything that is evil.
{23:10} If there is a man among you who has been defiled by a dream in the night, he shall depart from the camp.
{23:11} And he shall not return before the evening, after he has washed with water, and then, after the sun sets, he shall return to the camp.
{23:12} You shall have a place beyond the camp to which you may go for the necessities of nature,
{23:13} carrying a small shovel at your belt. And when you would sit down, you shall dig around, and then, with the soil that was dug up, you shall cover
{23:14} that from which you were relieved. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, in order to rescue you, and to deliver your enemies to you. And so, let your camp be holy, and let nothing filthy appear within it, lest he abandon you.
{23:15} You shall not deliver a servant who has fled to you to his master.
{23:16} He shall live with you in a place that pleases him, and he shall rest in one of your cities. You shall not grieve him.
{23:17} There shall be no prostitutes among the daughters of Israel, nor anyone among the sons of Israel who visits a prostitute.
{23:18} You shall not offer money from a prostitute, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord your God, no matter what you may have vowed. For both of these are an abomination with the Lord your God.
{23:19} You shall not lend money, or grain, or anything else at all, to your brother at interest,
{23:20} but only to a foreigner. For you shall lend to your brother whatever he needs without interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your works in the land, which you shall enter so as to possess it.
{23:21} When you have made a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be late in paying it. For the Lord your God demands it. And if you delay, it shall be imputed to you as a sin.
{23:22} If you are not willing to make a promise, then it shall be without sin.
{23:23} But as soon as it has departed from your lips, you shall observe and do just as you have promised to the Lord your God and just as you have spoken by your own free will and with your own mouth.
{23:24} Upon entering your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you please. But you may not carry any out with you.
{23:25} If you enter into your friend’s grain field, you may break off the ears, and rub them in your hand, but you may not reap them with a sickle.”
{24:1} “If a man takes a wife, and he has her, and she does not find favor before his eyes because of some vileness, then he shall write a bill of divorce, and he shall give it to her hand, and he shall dismiss her from his house.
{24:2} And when, having departed, she has married another,
{24:3} and if he likewise hates her, and has given her a bill of divorce, and has dismissed her from his house, or if indeed he has died,
{24:4} then the former husband cannot take her back as a wife. For she has been polluted and has become abominable in the sight of the Lord. Otherwise, you may cause your land, which the Lord your God will deliver to you as a possession, to sin.
{24:5} When a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, nor shall any public office be enjoined upon him. Instead, he shall be free at home without guilt, so that for one year he may rejoice with his wife.
{24:6} You shall not accept an upper or lower millstone as collateral. For then he will have placed his life with you.
{24:7} If a man has been caught soliciting his brother among the sons of Israel, and selling him in order to receive a price, then he shall be put to death. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.
{24:8} Observe diligently, lest you incur the wound of leprosy. But you shall do whatever the priests of the Levitical stock shall teach you to do, according to what I have instructed them. And you shall fulfill it carefully.
{24:9} Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam, along the way, as you were departing from Egypt.
{24:10} When you require from your neighbor anything that he owes to you, you shall not enter into his house in order to take away the collateral.
{24:11} Instead, you shall stand outside, and he will carry out to you what he has.
{24:12} But if he is poor, then the collateral shall not remain with you through the night.
{24:13} Instead, you shall return it to him promptly, before the setting of the sun, so that, sleeping in his own garment, he may bless you, and you may have justice in the presence of the Lord your God.
{24:14} You shall not refuse the pay of the indigent and the poor, whether he is your brother, or he is a new arrival who dwells with you in the land and is within your gates.
{24:15} Instead, you shall pay him the price of his labor on the same day, before the setting of the sun. For he is poor, and with it he sustains his life. Otherwise, he may cry out against you to the Lord, and it would be charged to you as a sin.
{24:16} The fathers shall not be put to death on behalf of the sons, nor the sons on behalf of the fathers, but each one shall die for his own sin.
{24:17} You shall not pervert the judgment of the new arrival or the orphan, nor shall you take away the widow’s garment as collateral.
{24:18} Remember that you served in Egypt, and that the Lord your God rescued you from there. Therefore, I am instructing you to act in this way.
{24:19} When you have reaped the grain in your field, and, having forgotten, you leave behind a sheaf, you shall not return to take it away. Instead, you shall permit the new arrival, and the orphan, and the widow to take it away, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands.
{24:20} If you have gathered the fruit of your olive trees, you shall not return in order to gather whatever may remain on the trees. Instead, you shall leave it behind for the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow.
{24:21} If you harvest the vintage of your vineyard, you shall not gather the remaining clusters. Instead, they shall fall to the use of the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.
{24:22} Remember that you also served in Egypt, and so, for this reason, I am instructing you to act in this way.”
{25:1} “If there is a case between persons, and they apply to the judges, they shall give the palm of justice to the one whom they perceive to be just, and they shall condemn of impiety the one who is impious.
{25:2} But if they see that the one who has sinned is worthy of stripes, they shall prostrate him and cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin, so shall the measure of the stripes be.
{25:3} Even so, these shall not exceed the number of forty. Otherwise, your brother may depart, having been wounded shamefully before your eyes.
{25:4} You shall not muzzle an ox as it is treading out your crops in the field.
{25:5} When brothers are living together, and one of them dies without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another. Instead, his brother shall take her, and he shall raise up offspring for his brother.
{25:6} And the first son from her, he shall call by his brother’s name, so that his name will not be abolished from Israel.
{25:7} But if he is not willing to take his brother’s wife, who by law must go to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and she shall call upon those greater by birth, and she shall say: ‘The brother of my husband is not willing to raise up his brother’s name in Israel; nor will he join with me.’
{25:8} And immediately, they shall summon him to be sent, and they shall question him. If he responds, ‘I am not willing to accept her as a wife,’
{25:9} then the woman shall approach him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall say: ‘So shall it be done to the man who was not willing to build up his brother’s house.’
{25:10} And his name shall be called in Israel: The House of the Unshod.
{25:11} If two men have a conflict between themselves, and one begins to do violence to the other, and if the other’s wife, wanting to rescue her husband from the hand of the stronger one, extends her hand and grasps him by his private parts,
{25:12} then you shall cut off her hand. Neither shall you weep over her with any mercy.
{25:13} You shall not have differing weights, greater and lesser, in your bag.
{25:14} Neither shall there be in your house a greater and a lesser measure.
{25:15} You shall have a just and a true weight, and your measure shall be equal and true, so that you may live for a long time upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.
{25:16} For the Lord your God abominates him who does these things, and he loathes all injustice.
{25:17} Remember what Amalek did to you, along the way, when you were departing from Egypt:
{25:18} how he met you and cut down the stragglers of the troops, who were sitting down, exhausted, when you were consumed by hunger and hardship, and how he did not fear God.
{25:19} Therefore, when the Lord your God will give you rest, and you will have subdued all the surrounding nations, in the land which he has promised to you, you shall delete his name from under heaven. Take care not to forget this.”
{26:1} “And when you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you to possess, and when you will have obtained it and are living within it:
{26:2} you shall take the first of all your crops, and place them in a basket, and you shall travel to the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may be invoked there.
{26:3} And you shall approach the priest who will be in those days, and you shall say to him: ‘I profess this day, before the Lord your God, that I have entered into the land about which he swore to our fathers that he would give it to us.’
{26:4} And the priest, taking up the basket from your hand, shall place it before the altar of the Lord your God.
{26:5} And you shall say, in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘The Syrian pursued my father, who descended into Egypt, and he sojourned there in a very small number, and he increased into a great and strong nation and into an innumerable multitude.
{26:6} And the Egyptians afflicted us, and they persecuted us, imposing upon us the most grievous burdens.
{26:7} And we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers. He heard us, and he looked with favor upon our humiliation, and hardship, and distress.
{26:8} And he led us away from Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with a mighty terror, with signs and wonders.
{26:9} And he led us into this place, and he delivered to us the land flowing with milk and honey.
{26:10} And because of this, I now offer the first fruits of the land which the Lord has given to me.’ And you shall leave them in the sight of the Lord your God, and you shall adore the Lord your God.
{26:11} And you shall feast on all the good things which the Lord your God will give to you and to your house: you, and the Levite, and the new arrival who is with you.
{26:12} When you will have completed the tithing of all your crops, in the third year of tithes, you shall give it to the Levite, and to the new arrival, and to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied.
{26:13} And you shall say, in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘I have taken what was sanctified from my house, and I have given it to the Levite, and to the new arrival, and to the orphan and the widow, just as you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten your precepts.
{26:14} I have not eaten from these things in my grief, nor have I separated them due to any kind of uncleanness, nor have I expended any of these things in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and I have done all things just as you have instructed me.
{26:15} Look with favor from your sanctuary and from your lofty habitation amid the heavens, and bless your people Israel and the land which you have given to us, just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’
{26:16} Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.
{26:17} Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.
{26:18} Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,
{26:19} and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”
{27:1} Then Moses and the elders of Israel instructed the people, saying: “Keep each commandment that I instruct to you this day.
{27:2} And when you have crossed over the Jordan, into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, you shall erect immense stones, and you shall coat them with plaster,
{27:3} so that you may be able to write upon them all the words of this law, when you have crossed the Jordan so as to enter into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as he swore to your fathers.
{27:4} Therefore, when you have crossed over the Jordan, erect the stones, just as I instruct you to do this day, on Mount Ebal. And you shall coat them with plaster,
{27:5} and you shall build, in that place, an altar to the Lord your God out of stones which have not been touched by iron,
{27:6} out of stones which have not been hewn or polished. And you shall offer holocausts on it to the Lord your God.
{27:7} And you shall immolate peace victims. And you shall eat and feast in that place, in the sight of the Lord your God.
{27:8} And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law, plainly and clearly.”
{27:9} And Moses and the priests of Levitical stock said to all of Israel: “Attend and listen, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.
{27:10} You shall listen to his voice, and you shall do the commandments and justices, which I am entrusting to you.”
{27:11} And Moses instructed the people in that day, saying:
{27:12} “These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim, as a blessing to the people, when you will have crossed the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
{27:13} And in the opposite region, there shall stand upon Mount Ebal, as a curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
{27:14} And the Levites shall pronounce and declare to all the men of Israel, with an exalted voice:
{27:15} Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten idol, an abomination to the Lord, a work of the hands of its maker, and who puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall respond by saying: Amen.
{27:16} Cursed be he who does not honor his father and mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:17} Cursed be he who removes his neighbor’s landmarks. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:18} Cursed be he who causes the blind to go astray on a journey. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:19} Cursed be he who subverts the judgment of the new arrival, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:20} Cursed be he who lies with his father’s wife, and so exposes the covering of his bed. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:21} Cursed be he who lies with any beast. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:22} Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or of his mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:23} Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:24} Cursed be he who secretly strikes down his neighbor. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:25} Cursed be he who accepts gifts in order to strike down the life of innocent blood. And all the people shall say: Amen.
{27:26} Cursed be he who does not remain in the words of this law, and does not carry them out in deed. And all the people shall say: Amen.”
{28:1} “So then, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all of his commandments, which I instruct to you this day, the Lord your God will cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which exist upon the earth.
{28:2} And all these blessings shall come to you and take hold of you, but only if you listen to his precepts.
{28:3} Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field.
{28:4} Blessed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, the droves of your herds, and the folds of your sheep.
{28:5} Blessed shall be your barns, and blessed your storehouses.
{28:6} Blessed shall you be entering and departing.
{28:7} The Lord will grant that your enemies, who rise up against you, will fall down in your sight. They will come against you by one way, and they will flee from your face by seven ways.
{28:8} The Lord will send forth a blessing upon your cellars, and upon all the works of your hands. And he will bless you in the land that you shall receive.
{28:9} The Lord will raise you up as a holy people for himself, just as he swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways.
{28:10} And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord has been invoked over you, and they shall fear you.
{28:11} The Lord will cause you to be abundant in every good thing: in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, which the Lord swore to your fathers that he would give to you.
{28:12} The Lord will open his excellent treasury, the heavens, so that it may distribute rain in due time. And he will bless all the works of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you yourself will borrow nothing from anyone.
{28:13} And the Lord will appoint you as the head, and not as the tail. And you shall be always above, and not beneath. But only if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I entrust to you this day, and will keep and do them,
{28:14} and will not turn aside from them, neither to the right, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.
{28:15} But if you are not willing to listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I instruct to you this day, all these curses shall come to you, and take hold of you.
{28:16} Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed in the field.
{28:17} Cursed shall be your barn, and cursed your storehouses.
{28:18} Cursed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.
{28:19} Cursed shall you be entering, and cursed departing.
{28:20} The Lord will send famine and hunger upon you, and a rebuke upon all the works that you do, until he quickly crushes and perishes you, because of your very wicked innovations, by which you have forsaken me.
{28:21} May the Lord join a pestilence to you, until he consumes you from the land, which you shall enter so as to possess.
{28:22} May the Lord strike you with destitution, with fever and cold, with burning and heat, and with polluted air and rot, and may he pursue you until you perish.
{28:23} May the heavens which are above you be of brass, and may the ground upon which you tread be of iron.
{28:24} May the Lord give you dust instead of rain upon your land, and may ashes descend from heaven over you, until you have been wiped away.
{28:25} May the Lord hand you over to fall before your enemies. May you go forth against them by one way, and flee by seven ways, and may you be scattered across all the kingdoms of the earth.
{28:26} And may your carcass be food for all the flying things of the air and the wild beasts of the land, and may there be no one to drive them away.
{28:27} May the Lord strike you with the ulcer of Egypt, and may he strike the part of your body, through which the dung goes out, with disease as well as itch, so much so that you are unable to be cured.
{28:28} May the Lord strike you with frenzy and blindness and a madness of the mind.
{28:29} And may you grope at midday, just as a blind man is accustomed to grope in darkness, and may your paths not be straight. And at all times may you suffer slander and be oppressed with violence, and may you have no one who may free you.
{28:30} May you take a wife, though another sleeps with her. May you build a house, but not live within it. May you plant a vineyard, and not gather its vintage.
{28:31} May your ox be immolated before you, though you do not eat from it. May your donkey be seized in your sight, and not restored to you. May your sheep be given to your enemies, and may there be no one who may help you.
{28:32} May your sons and your daughters be handed over to another people, as your eyes watch and languish at the sight of them throughout the day, and may there be no strength in your hand.
{28:33} May a people you do not know eat the fruits of your land and of all your labors. And may you continually suffer from slander and oppression every day.
{28:34} And may you be stupefied at the terror of the things your eyes will see.
{28:35} May the Lord strike you with a very grievous ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and may you be unable to attain health, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.
{28:36} May the Lord lead you and your king, whom you will have appointed over yourself, into a nation which you and your fathers have not known. And there you will serve foreign gods, of wood and of stone.
{28:37} And you will become nothing but a proverb and a fable to all the peoples to whom the Lord will lead you.
{28:38} You will sow much seed upon the ground, but you will harvest little. For the locusts will devour everything.
{28:39} You will dig and plant a vineyard, but you will not drink the wine, nor gather anything at all from it. For it will be devastated by worms.
{28:40} You will have olive trees in all your borders, but you will not be anointed with the oil. For the olives will fall off and perish.
{28:41} You will conceive sons and daughters, and you will not enjoy them. For they will be led into captivity.
{28:42} Rot will consume all the trees, as well as the fruits of your land.
{28:43} The new arrival who lives with you in the land will ascend over you, and be higher. But you will descend, and be lower.
{28:44} He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be as the head, and you will be as the tail.
{28:45} And all these curses shall come to you, and shall pursue you, and shall take hold of you, until you pass away, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and you would not serve his commandments and ceremonies, which he has instructed to you.
{28:46} And there will be the signs and portents with you, and with your offspring, forever.
{28:47} Because you did not serve the Lord your God, with gladness and a joyful heart, over the abundance of all things.
{28:48} You will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send to you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in destitution of all things. And he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has crushed you.
{28:49} The Lord will lead over you a nation from far away, even from the furthest parts of the earth, like an eagle flying with great force, whose language you are not able to understand:
{28:50} a very insolent nation, which will show no deference to elders, nor take pity on little ones.
{28:51} And he will devour the fruit of your cattle, and the fruits of your land, until you have passed away, without leaving behind you wheat, or wine, or oil, or herds of oxen, or flocks of sheep: until he utterly destroys you.
{28:52} And he will crush you in all your cities. And your strong and lofty walls, in which you trusted, will be destroyed throughout all your land. You will be besieged within your gates throughout all your land, which the Lord your God will give to you.
{28:53} And you will eat the fruit of your womb, and the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the Lord your God will give to you, due to the anguish and devastation with which your enemy will oppress you.
{28:54} The man who is pampered and very self-indulgent among you will vie with his own brother, and with the wife who lies at his bosom,
{28:55} lest he give to them from the flesh of his sons, which he will eat. For he has nothing else due to the siege and the destitution, with which your enemies will devastate you within all your gates.
{28:56} The tender and pampered woman, who would not walk upon the soil, nor step firmly with her foot due to her very great softness and tenderness, will vie with her husband, who lies at her bosom, over the flesh of son and of daughter,
{28:57} and over the filth of the afterbirth, which goes forth from between her thighs, and over the children who are born in the same hour. For they will eat them secretly, due to the scarcity of all things during the siege and the devastation, with which your enemy will oppress you within your gates.
{28:58} If you will not keep and do all the words of this law, which have been written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name, that is, the Lord your God,
{28:59} then the Lord will increase your plagues, and the plagues of your offspring, plagues great and long-lasting, infirmities very grievous and continuous.
{28:60} And he will turn back upon you all the afflictions of Egypt, which you fear, and these will cling to you.
{28:61} In addition, the Lord will lead over you all the diseases and plagues that are not written in the volume of this law, until he crushes you.
{28:62} And you will remain few in number, though you were before like the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
{28:63} And just as before, when the Lord rejoiced over you, doing good for you and multiplying you, so shall he rejoice, scattering and overturning you, so as to take you away from the land, which you shall enter in order to possess.
{28:64} The Lord will disperse you among all the peoples, from the heights of the earth to its furthest limits. And there you will serve foreign gods of wood and of stone, which you and your fathers did not know.
{28:65} Similarly, you will not have tranquility, even within those nations, nor will there be any rest for the steps of your feet. For the Lord will give to you in that place a fearful heart, and failing eyes, and a life consumed with grieving.
{28:66} And your life will be as if it were hanging before you. You will be afraid night and day, and you will not have confidence in your own life.
{28:67} In the morning you will say, ‘Who will grant evening to me?’ and at evening, ‘Who will grant morning to me?’ because of the dread of your heart, with which you will be terrified, and because of those things that you will see with your eyes.
{28:68} The Lord will lead you back into Egypt with a fleet of ships, along the way, about which he said to you that you would not see it again. In that place, you will be put up for sale as men and women servants to your enemies, but there will be no one willing to buy you.”
{29:1} These are the words of the covenant which the Lord instructed Moses to form with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, beside that covenant which he struck with them at Horeb.
{29:2} And Moses called all of Israel, and he said to them: “You have seen all the things that the Lord has done in your sight in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to his entire land:
{29:3} the great trials, which your eyes have seen, those immense signs and wonders.
{29:4} But the Lord has not given you an understanding heart, and seeing eyes, and ears that are able to hear, even to this present day.
{29:5} He led you for forty years through the desert. Your garments have not been worn out, nor have the shoes on your feet been consumed by age.
{29:6} You did not eat bread, nor did you drink wine or liquor, so that you would know that I am the Lord your God.
{29:7} And you arrived at this place. And Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, went out to meet us in battle. And we struck them down.
{29:8} And we took their land and delivered it as a possession to Ruben and to Gad, and to half of the tribe of Manasseh.
{29:9} Therefore, keep the words of this covenant, and fulfill them, so that you may understand all that you are doing.
{29:10} Today, you all stand in the sight of the Lord your God: your leaders, and tribes, and those greater by birth, and teachers, all the people of Israel,
{29:11} your children and wives, and the new arrival who dwells with you in the camp, aside from those who cut wood, and those who bring water,
{29:12} so that you may cross into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into the oath which the Lord your God strikes with you today.
{29:13} So shall he raise you up as a people to himself, and so shall he be your God, just as he has spoken to you, and just as he swore to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
{29:14} And I am not forming this covenant and confirm these oaths with you alone,
{29:15} but with all those who are present as well as those who are absent.
{29:16} For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of nations. And when passing through them,
{29:17} you saw their abominations and filth, that is, their idols of wood and of stone, of silver and of gold, which they worshipped,
{29:18} so that there would not be among you man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart has been turned away this day from the Lord our God, so as to go and serve the gods of those nations. For then there would be among you a root springing forth gall and bitterness.
{29:19} And if he were to hear the words of this oath, he would bless himself in his own heart saying: ‘There will be peace for me, and I will walk in the depravity of my heart.’ And so, the one who is inebriated would consume the one who is thirsty.
{29:20} But the Lord would not ignore him. Instead, at that time, his fury and zealousness would be very greatly enflamed against that man, and all the curses which have been written in this volume would settle upon him. And the Lord would abolish his name from under heaven,
{29:21} and consume him unto perdition out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the curses which are contained in the book of this law and in the covenant.
{29:22} And the subsequent generation would speak out, along with the sons who will be born afterward. And the sojourners, who will arrive from far away, will see the plagues of that land and the infirmities with which the Lord will have afflicted it,
{29:23} having burned it with sulphur and molten salt, so that it can no longer be sown. And certainly no greenery would spring up, as in the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overturned with his wrath and fury.
{29:24} And so, all the nations would say: ‘Why has the Lord acted this way toward this land? What is this immense wrath of his fury?’
{29:25} And they will respond: ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, which he formed with their fathers, when he led them away from the land of Egypt.
{29:26} And they have served foreign gods, and adored them, though they did not know them, and though they had not been allotted to them.
{29:27} For this reason, the fury of the Lord was enraged against this land, so as to lead over it all the curses which have been written in this volume.
{29:28} And he has cast them out of their own land, with anger and fury, and with a very great indignation, and he has thrown them into a strange land, just as has been proven this day.’
{29:29} These hidden things of the Lord our God have been revealed to us and to our sons in perpetuity, so that we may accomplish all the words of this law.”
{30:1} “Now when all these things will have fallen over you, the blessing or the curse that I have set forth in your sight, and you will have been led to repentance in your heart among all the nations to which the Lord your God will have dispersed you,
{30:2} and when you will have returned to him, so as to obey his commandments, just as I have instructed you this day, with your sons, with your whole heart and with your whole soul,
{30:3} then the Lord your God will lead you away from your captivity, and he will take pity on you, and he will gather you again from all the nations to which he had dispersed you before.
{30:4} Even if you will have been scattered as far as the poles of the heavens, the Lord your God will retrieve you from there.
{30:5} And he will take you up and lead you into the land which your fathers had possessed, and you shall obtain it. And in blessing you, he will make you greater in number than your fathers ever were.
{30:6} The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, so that you may love the Lord your God with your entire heart and with your entire soul, so that you may be able to live.
{30:7} And he will turn all these curses upon your enemies, and upon those who hate and persecute you.
{30:8} But you shall return, and you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God. And you shall carry out all the commandments which I am entrusting to you this day.
{30:9} And the Lord your God will cause you to abound in all the works of your hands, in the progeny of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, in the fertility of your land, and with an abundance of all things. For the Lord will return, so that he may rejoice over you in all good things, just as he rejoiced in your fathers:
{30:10} but only if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which have been written in this law, and only if you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
{30:11} This commandment, which I entrust to you today, is not high above you, nor has it been placed far away.
{30:12} Nor is it in heaven, so that you would be able to say, ‘Which of us can ascend to heaven, so as to carry it back to us, and so that we may hear it and fulfill it in deed?’
{30:13} Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you would excuse yourself by saying, ‘Which of us is able to cross the sea, and to carry it back to us, so that we may be able to hear and to do what has been instructed?’
{30:14} Instead, the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.
{30:15} Consider what I have set forth in your sight this day, life and good, or, on the opposite side, death and evil,
{30:16} so that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and so that you may live, and he may multiply you and bless you in the land, which you shall enter in order to possess.
{30:17} But if your heart will have been turned aside, so that you are not willing to listen, and, having been deceived by error, you adore strange gods and serve them,
{30:18} then I predict to you this day that you will perish, and you will remain for only a short time in the land, for which you shall cross the Jordan, and which you shall enter in order to possess.
{30:19} I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring may live,
{30:20} and so that you may love the Lord your God, and obey his voice, and cling to him, (for he is your life and the length of your days) and so that you may live in the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them.”
{31:1} And so, Moses went out, and he spoke all these words to all of Israel.
{31:2} And he said to them: “Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to go out and return, especially since the Lord has also said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’
{31:3} Therefore, the Lord your God will go across before you. He himself will abolish all these nations in your sight, and you shall possess them. And this man Joshua shall go across before you, just as the Lord has spoken.
{31:4} And the Lord will do to them just as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, and he will wipe them away.
{31:5} Therefore, when the Lord will have delivered these to you also, you shall act similarly toward them, just as I have instructed you.
{31:6} Act manfully and be strengthened. Do not be afraid, and do not dread at the sight of them. For the Lord your God himself is your commander, and he will neither dismiss nor abandon you.”
{31:7} And Moses called Joshua, and, before all of Israel, he said to him: ‘Be strong and valiant. For you shall lead this people into the land which the Lord swore that he would give to their fathers, and you shall divide it by lot.
{31:8} And the Lord, who is your commander, will himself be with you. He will neither renounce nor abandon you. Do not be afraid, and do not dread.”
{31:9} And so, Moses wrote this law, and he handed it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.
{31:10} And he instructed them, saying: “After seven years, in the year of remission, at the solemnity of the Feast of Tabernacles,
{31:11} when all of Israel has convened in order to appear in the sight of the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord will choose, you shall read the words of this law before all of Israel, in their hearing.
{31:12} And when the people have gathered together, men as well as women and little children, and the new arrivals who are within your gates, they shall listen so that they may learn, and may fear the Lord your God, and may keep and fulfill all the words of this law,
{31:13} and also so that their sons, who are now ignorant, may be able to listen, and may fear the Lord their God all the days that they live in the land to which you will travel, crossing the Jordan in order to obtain it.”
{31:14} And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, the days of your death draw near. Call Joshua, and stand in the tabernacle of the testimony, so that I may instruct him.” Therefore, Moses and Joshua went and stood in the tabernacle of the testimony.
{31:15} And the Lord appeared there, in a pillar of cloud, which stood at the entrance of the tabernacle.
{31:16} And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers, and this people will rise up and will fornicate after foreign gods, in the land which they will enter so that they may live in it. In that place, they will forsake me, and they will make void the covenant that I have formed with them.
{31:17} And my fury will be enraged against them in that day. And I will abandon them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. Every evil and affliction will find them, so much so that they will say in that day: ‘Truly, it is because God is not with me that these evils have found me.’
{31:18} But I will hide myself, and I will conceal my face in that day, because of all the evils that they have done, because they have followed strange gods.
{31:19} And so, write this canticle now, and teach it to the sons of Israel, so that they may retain it in memory, and may chant it by mouth, and so that this verse may be a testimony to me among the sons of Israel.
{31:20} For I will lead them into the land, about which I swore to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. And when they have eaten, and have been satiated and fattened, they will turn aside to foreign gods, and they will serve them. And they will disparage me, and they will nullify my covenant.
{31:21} And after many evils and afflictions have overwhelmed them, this canticle will answer them as a testimony; it shall never pass into oblivion, away from the mouths of their offspring. For I know their thoughts and what they are about to do today, even before I lead them into the land which I have promised to them.”
{31:22} Therefore, Moses wrote the canticle, and he taught it to the sons of Israel.
{31:23} And the Lord instructed Joshua, the son of Nun, and he said: “Be strong and valiant. For you shall lead the sons of Israel into the land which I have promised, and I will be with you.”
{31:24} Therefore, after Moses had written the words of this law in a volume, and had finished it,
{31:25} he instructed the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying:
{31:26} “Take this book, and place it inside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, so that it may be there as a testimony against you.
{31:27} For I know your contentiousness and your very stiff neck. Even while I am still living and entering with you, you have always acted with contention against the Lord. How much more so when I will be dead?
{31:28} Gather to me all those greater by birth throughout your tribes, as well as your teachers, and I will speak these words in their hearing, and I will call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.
{31:29} For I know that, after my death, you will act with iniquity, and you will quickly depart from the way that I have instructed to you. And so, evils will meet you in the end time, when you will have done evil in the sight of the Lord so as to provoke him through the works of your hands.”
{31:30} Thus did Moses speak, in the hearing of the entire assembly of Israel, the words of this canticle, and he completed it to its very end.
{32:1} “Listen, O heavens, to what I am saying. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
{32:2} Let my doctrine accumulate like the rain. Let my eloquence form like the dew, like a mist upon the plants, and like water droplets upon the grass.
{32:3} For I will invoke the name of the Lord. Acknowledge the magnificence of our God!
{32:4} The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments. God is faithful and without any iniquity. He is just and upright.
{32:5} They have sinned against him, and in their filth they are not his sons. They are a depraved and perverse generation.
{32:6} How can this be the return you would offer to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is he himself not your Father, who has possessed you, and made you, and created you?
{32:7} Remember the days of antiquity. Consider each generation. Question your father, and he will declare it to you. Question your elders, and they will tell it to you.
{32:8} When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the limits of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
{32:9} But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob, the lot of his inheritance.
{32:10} He discovered him in a desert land, in a place of horror and a vast wilderness. He led him around and taught him, and he guarded him like the pupil of his eye,
{32:11} just as an eagle encourages its young to fly, and, flying above them, stretches out its wings, and takes them up, and carries them on its shoulders.
{32:12} The Lord alone was his leader, and there was no strange god with him.
{32:13} He stood him upon an exalted land, so that he might eat the fruits of the fields, so that he might eat honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone,
{32:14} butter from the herd, and milk from the sheep, with fat from the lambs, and with rams and goats from the sons of Bashan, with the kernel of the wheat, and so that he might drink the undiluted blood of the grape.
{32:15} The beloved grew fat, and he kicked. Having grown fat and thick and wide, he abandoned God, his Maker, and he withdrew from God, his Savior.
{32:16} They provoked him with strange gods, and they stirred him to anger by their abominations.
{32:17} They immolated to demons and not to God, to gods whom they did not know, who were new and recent arrivals, whom their fathers did not worship.
{32:18} You have forsaken the God who conceived you, and you have forgotten the Lord who created you.
{32:19} The Lord saw, and he was stirred to anger. For his own sons and daughters provoked him.
{32:20} And he said: ‘I will hide my face from them, and I will consider their very end. For this is a perverse generation, and they are unfaithful sons.
{32:21} They have provoked me with that which was not God, and they have angered me with their emptiness. And so, I will provoke them with that which is not a people, and I will anger them with a foolish nation.
{32:22} A fire has been kindled in my fury, and it will burn even to the deepest Hell, and it will devour the earth with its produce, and it will burn the foundations of the mountains.
{32:23} I will heap evils upon them, and I will expend my arrows among them.
{32:24} They will be consumed by famine, and birds with a very bitter bite will devour them. I will send forth the teeth of wild beasts among them, along with the fury of creatures that scurry across the ground, and of serpents.
{32:25} Outside, the sword will devastate them; and inside, there will be dread, as much for the young man as for the maiden, and as much for the newborn as for the old man.
{32:26} I said: Where are they? I will cause their memory to cease from among men.
{32:27} But because of the wrath of the enemies, I have delayed it. Otherwise, perhaps their enemies would be arrogant and would say: “Our exalted hand, and not the Lord, has done all these things.”
{32:28} They are a nation without counsel and without prudence.
{32:29} I wish that they would be wise and understanding, and would provide for the very end.’
{32:30} How is it that one pursues a thousand, and two chases ten thousand? Is it not because their God has sold them, and because the Lord has enclosed them?
{32:31} For our God is not like their gods. And our enemies are judges.
{32:32} Their vines are of the vines of Sodom, but from the suburbs of Gomorrah. Their grapes are the grapes of gall, and their grape clusters are most bitter.
{32:33} Their wine is the gall of snakes, and it is the incurable venom of asps.
{32:34} ‘Have not these things been stored up with me, and sealed up amid my treasures?
{32:35} Vengeance is mine, and I will repay them in due time, so that their foot may slip and fall. The day of perdition is near, and the time rushes to appear.’
{32:36} The Lord will judge his people, and he will take pity on his servants. He will see that their hand has been weakened, and that those who have been enclosed have likewise failed, and that those who have been left behind have been consumed.
{32:37} And he shall say: ‘Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence?
{32:38} They ate the fat of their victims, and they drank the wine of their libations. So let these rise up, and bring relief to you, and protect you in your distress.
{32:39} See that I am alone, and there is no other god beside me. I will kill, and I will cause to live. I will strike, and I will heal. And there is no one who is able to rescue from my hand.
{32:40} I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live in eternity.
{32:41} When I sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand takes hold of judgment, then I will render vengeance to my enemies, and I will repay those who hate me.
{32:42} I will inebriate my arrows with blood, and my sword will devour flesh: from the blood of the slain and from the captive, from the exposed head of the enemies.’
{32:43} You nations, praise his people! For he will avenge the blood of his servants. And he will distribute vengeance to their enemies. And he will be merciful to the land of his people.”
{32:44} Therefore, Moses went and spoke all the words of this canticle to the ears of the people, both he and Joshua, the son of Nun.
{32:45} And he completed all these words, speaking to all of Israel.
{32:46} And he said to them: “Set your hearts upon all the words which I am testifying to you this day. So shall you command your sons, to keep, and to do, and to fulfill all the things that have been written in this law.
{32:47} For these things have not been entrusted to you to no purpose, but so that each one would live by them, and so that, in doing these, you may continue for a long time in the land, which you will enter upon crossing the Jordan in order to possess it.”
{32:48} And the Lord spoke to Moses on the same day, saying:
{32:49} “Ascend this mountain, Abarim, (that is, of crossings) onto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look upon the land of Canaan, which I will deliver to the sons of Israel to obtain it. And you shall die upon the mountain.
{32:50} After climbing it, you will be joined to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and was placed with his people.
{32:51} For you trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, at the Waters of Contradiction, in Kadesh, in the desert of Sin. And you did not sanctify me among the sons of Israel.
{32:52} You shall see the land opposite you, which I will give to the sons of Israel, but you shall not enter into it.”
{33:1} This is the blessing, with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the sons of Israel before his death.
{33:2} And he said: “The Lord went forth from Sinai, and he arose for us from Seir. He appeared from Mount Paran, and thousands of holy ones were with him. The fiery law was in his right hand.
{33:3} He loved the people; all the holy ones are in his hand. And those who approach his feet shall receive from his doctrine.
{33:4} Moses instructed us in the law, the inheritance of the multitude of Jacob.
{33:5} The king shall have great righteousness, at the gathering of the princes of the people with the tribes of Israel.
{33:6} Let Ruben live, and not die, and may he be small in number.”
{33:7} This is the blessing of Judah. “Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and lead him to his people. His hands shall fight for him, and he shall be his helper against his adversaries.”
{33:8} Likewise, to Levi he said: “Your perfection and your doctrine are for your holy man, whom you have proven by temptation, and whom you have judged at the Waters of Contradiction.
{33:9} He has said to his father and to his mother, ‘I do not know you,’ and to his brothers, ‘I will disregard you.’ And they have not known their own sons. Such as these have kept your word and have observed your covenant:
{33:10} your judgments, O Jacob, and your law, O Israel. They shall place incense before your fury and a holocaust upon your altar.
{33:11} O Lord, bless his strength, and receive the works of his hands. Strike the backs of his enemies, and do not let those who hate him rise up.”
{33:12} And to Benjamin he said: “The most beloved of the Lord will live confidently in him. He shall remain all day long, as if in a bridal chamber, and he shall rest amid her arms.”
{33:13} Likewise, to Joseph he said: “His land shall be from the blessing of the Lord, from the fruits of heaven, and from the dew, and from the abyss which lies below,
{33:14} from the fruits of the crops under the sun and the moon,
{33:15} from the heights of the ancient mountains, from the fruits of the everlasting hills,
{33:16} and from the fruits of the earth with all its plenitude. May the blessing of him who appeared in the bush, settle upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of the Nazarite among his brothers.
{33:17} His excellence is like that of a first-born bull. His horns are like the horns of a rhinoceros; he shall brandish these against the Gentiles, even to the ends of the earth. These are the multitudes of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasseh.”
{33:18} And to Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, O Zebulun, in your departure, and Issachar, in your tabernacles.
{33:19} They shall summon the peoples to the mountain. There, they shall immolate the victims of justice, who feed on the flood of the sea, as if on milk, and on the hidden treasures of the sands.”
{33:20} And to Gad he said: “Blessed is Gad in his breadth. He has rested like a lion, and he has seized the arm and the top of the head.
{33:21} And he has seen his own pre-eminence, which his teacher has stored up as his portion. He was with the princes of the people, and he accomplished the justices of the Lord, and his judgment with Israel.”
{33:22} Likewise, to Dan he said: “Dan is a young lion. He shall flow plentifully from Bashan.”
{33:23} And to Naphtali he said: “Naphtali shall enjoy abundance, and he shall be full of the blessings of the Lord. He shall possess the sea and the Meridian.”
{33:24} Likewise, to Asher he said: “Let Asher be blessed with sons. Let him be pleasing to his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.
{33:25} His shoe shall be of iron and of brass. As were the days of your youth, so also shall be your old age.
{33:26} There is no other god like the God of the most righteous one. He who rides upon the heavens is your helper. His magnificence scatters the clouds.
{33:27} His habitation is above, and the everlasting arms are below. He shall cast out the enemy before your face, and he shall say: ‘Be utterly broken!’
{33:28} Israel shall live in confidence and alone, as the eye of Jacob in a land of grain and of wine; and the heavens shall be misty with dew.
{33:29} Blessed are you, O Israel. Who is like you, the people who are saved by the Lord? He is the shield of your assistance and the sword of your glory. Your enemies will refuse to acknowledge you, and so you shall tread upon their necks.”
{34:1} Therefore, Moses ascended from the plains of Moab onto Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. And the Lord revealed to him the entire land of Gilead, as far as Dan,
{34:2} and all of Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and the entire land of Judah, even to the furthest sea,
{34:3} and the southern region, and the breadth of the plain of Jericho, the city of palms, as far as Zoar.
{34:4} And the Lord said to him: “This is the land, about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring. You have seen it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over to it.”
{34:5} And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in that place, in the land of Moab, by order of the Lord.
{34:6} And he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, opposite Peor. And no man knows where his sepulcher is, even to the present day.
{34:7} Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dimmed, nor were his teeth displaced.
{34:8} And the sons of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab for thirty days. And then the days of their wailing, during which they mourned Moses, were completed.
{34:9} Truly, Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the sons of Israel were obedient to him, and they did as the Lord instructed Moses.
{34:10} And no other prophet rose up in Israel like Moses, one whom the Lord knew face to face,
{34:11} one with all the signs and wonders, which he sent through him, to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh, and all his servants, and his entire land,
{34:12} nor one with such a powerful hand and such great miracles as Moses did in the sight of all Israel.