This book contains the account of Moses’ final speeches to the Israeli people. We call this book

Deuteronomy

1

Introduction to Moses’ first speech

1In this book is written what Moses/I said to the Israeli people. He/I told them these things when they/we were in the desert, on the east side of the Jordan River. They/We had set up our tents near a place named Suph, between Paran town on the one side of the river and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab towns on the other side of the river. 2To walk from Sinai Mountain to the Kadesh-Barnea oasis, people usually travel for only eleven days, going by way of the hilly area named Edom.

3Forty years after ◄the Israelis/we► left Egypt, in the middle of January, Moses/I told the Israeli people everything that Yahweh had commanded him/me to tell them. 4This was after they/we had defeated Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lived in Heshbon city, and Og, the king of the Bashan region who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei towns.

5Moses/I told them these things while the people were in the Moab region, on the east side of the Jordan River. He/I ◄explained to them/enabled them to understand► God’s laws. This is what he/I said to them:

6“Yahweh our God said to us when we were at Sinai Mountain, ‘You have stayed for a very long time at the bottom of this mountain. 7So now continue traveling. Go to the hilly area where the Amor people-group lives and to the nearby areas—to the Jordan River Valley, to the hilly region, to the western ◄foothills/hills at the bottom of the mountains►, to the desert area to the south, to the Mediterranean Seacoast, to all of Canaan land, to the Lebanon Mountains, and northeast to the great Euphrates River. 8Note that I will give that land to you. I, Yahweh, promised to your ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that I would give it to them and to their descendants. So now go and occupy it.’”

Moses reminded them that he had appointed leaders

9Moses/I also said to the people, “When we were still at Sinai Mountain, I told your ancestors ‘It is a very big burden/responsibility for me to govern all of you. So I cannot do it by myself. 10Yahweh our God has caused us Israelis to now become as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11And I hope/desire that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, will cause us to become 1,000 times as numerous as we are now and that he will bless us just like he promised to do. 12But I certainly cannot [RHQ] ◄solve/deal with► all of your complaints/problems. 13So choose some men from your tribes who are wise and who have good sense and who are respected. Then I will appoint them to be your leaders.’

14Your ancestors replied, ‘What you have suggested is good for us to do.’

15So I took the wise and respected men that your ancestors chose from your tribes, and I appointed them to be your leaders. I appointed some to ◄rule/have authority► over 1,000 people, some to have authority over 100 people, some to have authority over 50 people, and some to have authority over ten people. I also appointed other officers from throughout your tribes. 16I instructed/told your leaders, ‘Listen to the disputes that occur among your people. Judge each dispute, including disputes between close relatives and quarrels between your people and people from other countries who live among you. 17You must ◄be impartial/not favor one person more than another►; you must treat poor people and important people equally. You must not worry about what anyone will think about how you decide matters, because you will decide matters as God wants you to. If any quarrel/dispute is very difficult and you are unable to decide it, bring it to me, and I will decide.’ 18At that time I also told you other things that you should do.”

Moses reminded them about sending the spies

19“Then, just like Yahweh our God commanded us, we left Sinai Mountain and went through that huge desert that was very ◄dangerous/difficult to travel through►, on the road to the hilly area where the Amor people-group live. We arrived at Kadesh-Barnea. 20I said to your ancestors, ‘We have now come to the hilly area where the Amor people-group live. This is part of the area that Yahweh our God, the one whom our ancestors worshiped, is giving to us. 21Note that Yahweh our God is giving this land to us. So go and occupy it as he commanded. Do not be ◄at all/even a little bit► afraid.’

22But all of your ancestors came to me and said, ‘Before we go, we should first send some men there to explore the land, in order that they can return and tell us which will be the best road to go there and what kind of towns are there.’

23I thought that it would be good to do that, so I chose twelve men, one man from each tribe. 24They went up into the hilly area as far as Eshcol Valley, and they explored all that area. 25They picked some of the fruit that they found there and brought it to us. They reported that the land that Yahweh our God was giving to us is very good/fertile.”

Moses reminded them how God punished them when they refused to go

26“But your ancestors refused to go and conquer that land. They rebelled against what Yahweh our God had commanded them to do, and they would not go into that land. 27Your ancestors stayed in their tents and complained saying ‘Yahweh hates us. So he has brought us here from Egypt just to allow the Amor people-group to destroy us. 28◄Why should we go there?/We do not want to go there.► [RHQ] The men whom we sent there have caused us to become very discouraged/afraid. They have told us that the people there are much stronger and taller than we are and that there are extremely high [HYP] walls around their towns. Also they reported that they saw giants there that are descendants of Anak.’

29Then I said to your ancestors, ‘Do not be afraid ◄at all/even a little bit► [DOU] of those people! 30Yahweh our God will go ahead of you, and he will fight for you, just like you saw him do for you in Egypt 31and in the desert. You saw how he brought you safely here, like a man would carry his son. [SIM]’

32-33I reminded them that he always went ahead of them while they traveled in the desert. He directed them by a pillar of fire during the night and a pillar of cloud during the day. He showed them places to set up their tents. But in spite of what I said, your ancestors would not trust Yahweh our God.

34Yahweh heard what they said, and he became angry. He solemnly declared, 35-36‘Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, will enter the land. He has obeyed me completely. So I will give to him and to his descendants some of the land that he explored. He is the only one of all you people who will enter that land. None of these evil people will ever see that good land which I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors.’

37But because of what your ancestors did, Yahweh was also angry with me. He said to me, ‘You also will not enter that land. 38Joshua, the son of Nun, who is your helper, will enter it. Encourage him, because he is the one who will enable you Israeli people to occupy that land.’

39Then Yahweh said to all of us, ‘You said that your children would be captured by your enemies. Because they are very young, they do not yet know what is good and what is evil. But they are the ones to whom I will give that land, and they will enter it and occupy it. 40But as for you, turn around and go back into the desert, toward the ◄Red Sea/Gulf of Aqaba►.’

41Then your ancestors replied, ‘We have sinned; we have disobeyed Yahweh. So we will go and attack the people who live in that land, just like Yahweh our God commanded us to do.’ And each of their men put on his weapons, and they thought that it would be easy to invade the hilly region.

42But Yahweh said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up there and attack those people, because I will not go with you. If you go, your enemies will defeat you.”’

43So I told that to your ancestors, but they would not heed what I said. They again rebelled against what Yahweh commanded them to do. Their soldiers proudly/arrogantly marched up into that hilly region. 44Then the men of the Amor people-group who lived in that region came out of their towns and attacked those soldiers. They pursued your ancestors’ soldiers like a swarm of bees pursues people, and they pursued them south from the Edom area and defeated them at Hormah city. 45So your ancestors went back to Kadesh-Barnea and cried out to request Yahweh to help them, but he did not heed them. He did not pay any attention to them [DOU]. 46So we stayed there at Kadesh-Barnea for a long time.”

2

Moses reminded them of their wandering in the desert

1“Then we turned around and went through the desert toward the ◄Red Sea/Gulf of Aqaba►, as Yahweh told us to do, and we wandered in the Edom area for many years.

2Then Yahweh said to me, 3‘You have been wandering around this hilly area for a long enough time. Now turn and travel toward the north. 4And tell the people that they are about to travel near the land that belongs to the descendants of Esau, who are also descendants of Isaac. They live in the hilly Edom region. They will be afraid of you, 5but do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you even a tiny bit [HYP] of their land. I have given that land to the descendants of Esau. 6When you travel near their land, buy food and water from them.’

7Do not forget that Yahweh our God has blessed you in everything that you [SYN] have done. He knows what has happened to you while you have wandered in this huge desert. But he has been with you during those 40 years, and as a result you have had everything that you needed [LIT].

8So we continued to travel. We avoided going through the hilly area where the descendants of Esau live. We stayed away from the road through the Jordan River Valley past Ezion-Geber and Elath towns, and we turned and traveled northeast toward the desert area where the Moab people-group lives.

9Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not bother/harass the people of Moab, and do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you any of their land. Do not forget that they are descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot, and I have given to them Ar city, their capital, and the other areas in that country.’ ”

10A large group of giants called Emim formerly lived there. They were strong and numerous, and as tall as the giants who were descendants of Anak. 11They and the descendants of Anak are also called the Repha giants, but the people of Moab call them Emim. 12The Hor people-group also formerly lived in the Edom area, but the descendants of Esau chased them out. They defeated and killed them and ◄settled in/occupied► their land, just as the Israeli people later expelled their enemies from the land that Yahweh gave to them.

13I also said to the Israeli people, “Then we crossed the Zered Gorge, as Yahweh told us to do. 14It had been thirty-eight years from the time we first left Kadesh-Barnea until we crossed the Zered Gorge. During those years, all the Israeli ◄fighting men/soldiers► of that generation had died, as Yahweh had vowed would happen. 15They died because Yahweh opposed them, until he had gotten rid of all of them.

16After all the men who had been old enough to fight in wars had died [DOU], 17Yahweh said to me, 18‘Today you all must cross the border into the Moab region, near Ar, their capital city. 19When you come near the border of the land where the Ammon people-group live, do not bother/harass them or start to fight against them. They are also descendants of Lot, so I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given to them.’ ”

Other groups that lived near Canaan

20That region is also called the land of the Repha giants, who formerly lived there. The Ammon people-group call them the Zamzum group. 21They were a large and powerful group, who were as tall as the descendants of Anak. But Yahweh got rid of them, and the Ammon people-group expelled them and took their land away from them and started to live there. 22Yahweh had done the same thing for the descendants of Esau who live in the hilly area of Edom. He got rid of the Hor people-group, with the result that the Edom people-group took their land from them and started to live there. They still live there. 23People who came from Crete Island got rid of the Av group who previously lived in the land close to the Mediterranean Sea, as far south as Gaza. They took their land from them and started to live there.

Moses reminded them of crossing the Arnon River

24“After we had gone through the Moab region, Yahweh said to us, ‘Now cross the Arnon River. I will help you to defeat [IDM] the army of Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lives in Heshbon city. So attack their army and start to take their land from them. 25Today I will begin to cause everyone, everywhere, to be afraid of you. Everyone who hears about you will tremble and be terrified.’

26Then I sent messengers to go from the desert to King Sihon at Heshbon. I told them to give this peaceful message to the king: 27‘Please allow us to travel through your land. We promise that we will stay on the road; we will not turn off to the right or to the left. 28We will pay for any food or water that you allow us to buy. We want only to walk through your country, 29until we cross the Jordan River into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us. Do for us just as the descendants of Esau who live in the Edom area and the Moab people-group did for us when they allowed us to go through their areas.’ 30But King Sihon would not allow us to go through his country. That was because Yahweh our God caused him to be stubborn [IDM]. The result was that Yahweh enabled us to defeat his army and take his land [IDM], which we still live in.

31Yahweh said to me, ‘Listen! I am about to allow you to defeat Sihon’s army and to take the people’s land from them. So start to occupy it!’

32Then Sihon came out of the city with all his army to fight against us at Jahaz town. 33But God enabled us to defeat [DOU] them, and we killed Sihon and his sons and all his soldiers. 34We captured all their cities and destroyed them all. We killed all the men and women and children; we did not allow any of them to remain alive. 35We took the valuable things that were in the cities that we captured and also their cattle. 36Yahweh our God enabled us to capture [IDM] all their towns from Aroer in the south, which is at the edge of the Arnon River Valley, to the Gilead region in the north. Some of their cities had walls around them, but we were able to climb over them. 37But we did not go near the area where the Ammon people-group live, or the banks of the Jabbok riverbed, or the towns in the hilly area, or any other place where Yahweh our God told us not to go.”

3

Moses reminded them of the defeat of King Og

1“Then we turned north and went toward the Bashan region. Og, the king of that area, and all his soldiers marched south to fight against us at Edrei town. 2Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not be afraid of him, because I will enable your army to defeat [MTY] him and all his army and to capture all their land. Do to him what you did to Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who ruled in Heshbon city.’

3So Yahweh enabled us to defeat [IDM] King Og and all his army. We killed them all; we did not allow any of them to remain alive. 4There were 60 cities in that region near Argob, in King Og’s kingdom of Bashan. But we captured all of them 5All those cities had high walls around them with gates and bars. We also captured many villages that did not have walls around them. 6We completely destroyed everything, just as we had done in the area that King Sihon ruled. We killed all the men, women, and children. 7But from those cities we took for ourselves all the livestock and other valuable things.

8So at that time we took from those two kings of the Amor people-group all the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon River gorge in the south to Hermon Mountain in the north.” 9(That mountain is called Sirion by the people of Sidon city and is called Senir by the Amor people-group.) 10“We captured all the towns on the ◄plateau/high level land►, and all the Gilead region, and all the Bashan region as far east as Edrei and Salecah towns, which also belonged to Og’s kingdom.” 11(Og was the last king who was a descendant of the Repha giants. His bed was made of iron. It was almost ◄14 feet/4 meters► long and ◄6 feet/2 meters► wide. It is still [RHQ] in Rabbah city in the Ammon area.)

Moses reminded them of dividing the land east of the Jordan

12“From the land that we captured at that time, I allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the land north of Aroer town near the Arnon River, and some of the hilly area of the Gilead region, along with the nearby towns. 13The other part of the Gilead region and all of the Bashan region, which was the Argob region that King Og had ruled, I allotted to half of the tribe of Manasseh.” (The entire Bashan region is called the land of the Repha giants.) 14“Jair, from the tribe of Manasseh, conquered all the Bashan area as far north as the border of the Geshur and Maacah territories. He gave his own name to the villages there, and they are still called the villages of Jair.

15The northern part of the Gilead region I allotted to the Machir clan, who are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh. 16I allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the southern part of the Gilead region, extending south to the Arnon River. The middle of the river is the southern boundary. The northern boundary is the Jabbok River, which is part of the border of the Ammon area. 17To the west their territory extended to the Jordan River Valley, from Galilee Lake in the north to the Dead Sea in the south and to the slopes of Pisgah Mountain to the east.

18At that time, I told you three tribes, ‘Yahweh our God is giving you this land east of the Jordan River, for you to occupy/capture. So now, give your soldiers weapons, and send them across the Jordan River ahead of the men from the other Israeli tribes to help them to conquer/capture the land that has been allotted to them. 19But your wives and children and your very numerous cattle must stay in the towns that I have allotted to you. 20Your men must help your fellow Israelis until Yahweh enables them to live there peacefully after they capture all the land that Yahweh our God is giving to them on the west side of the Jordan River, just like he did for you here on the east side of the river. After that, you all may return to this land that I have allotted to you.’

21And I told Joshua, ‘You [SYN] have seen everything that Yahweh our God did to those two kings, Sihon and Og. He will do the same thing to the people who are now in the land that you will be entering. 22Do not be afraid of those people, because Yahweh our God is the one who will fight for you all.’”

Moses reminded them that he was not allowed to enter Canaan

23“At that time, I earnestly prayed, saying 24‘Yahweh our Lord, you have merely begun to show me that you are very great and to show me the powerful things that you can do [MTY]. There is certainly no [RHQ] god in heaven or on earth who can do the powerful things/deeds that you have done. 25So please allow me to cross the Jordan River and to see the good/fertile land on the east side, the beautiful hilly area and the mountains in Lebanon.’

26But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your ancestors had made me do, so he would not pay attention to me. Instead, he said, ‘That is enough talk from you! Do not talk to me about that again! 27Climb up to the top of Pisgah Mountain and look toward the west and to the east, toward the north and to the south. Look at [MTY] it all carefully, because you will not cross the Jordan River to see the land from there. 28But tell Joshua what he must do and encourage him to be strong, because he is the one who will lead the people across the river in order that they can occupy/capture the land that you will see from the top of the mountain.’

29So we remained in the Jordan River Valley close to Beth-Peor town.”

4

Moses urged the people to obey God’s laws

1“Now, you Israeli people, obey all the rules and regulations [DOU] that I will teach you. If you do that, you will remain alive and you will enter and occupy/capture the land that Yahweh, the God whom your ancestors worshiped, is giving to you. 2Do not add anything to what I command you, and do not take anything away from what I tell you. Obey all the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you.

3You have seen what Yahweh did at Baal-Peor Mountain. He got rid of all the people who worshiped the god Baal there, 4but you who faithfully continued to worship Yahweh our God are still alive today.

5Note that I have taught you all the rules and regulations, just like Yahweh our God told me to do. He wants you to obey them when you are living in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6Obey them faithfully because, if you do that, you will show the people of other nations that you are very wise. When they hear about all these laws, they will say, ‘The people of this great nation of Israel are certainly very wise [DOU]!’ 7Even if other nations are great, there is none [RHQ] of them that has a god who is as near to them as Yahweh our God is to us! Whenever we call out to him to help us, he answers/helps us8And there is no [RHQ] other nation, even if it is a great nation, that has laws that are as just/fair as the laws that I am telling to you today.

9But be very careful! [DOU, IDM] Do not forget what you [SYN] have seen God do. Remember those things as long as you are alive. Tell them to your children and your grandchildren. 10Tell them about the day that your ancestors stood in the presence of Yahweh our God at Sinai Mountain, when he said to me, ‘Gather the people together, in order that they can hear what I say. I want them to learn to have an awesome respect for me as long as they are alive, and I want them to teach their children to do that also.’ 11Tell them that your ancestors came near the bottom of the mountain, while the mountain burned with a fire that went up to the sky, and the mountain was covered with dark clouds and black smoke. 12Then Yahweh spoke to your ancestors out of the middle of the fire. Your ancestors heard him speak, but they did not see him. They only heard his voice. 13And he declared to them his agreement. That agreement contained the Ten Commandments that he wants you to obey. He wrote those on two stone tablets. 14Yahweh commanded me to teach all the rules and regulations to you, in order that you would obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.”

Moses warned them about worshiping idols

15“On the day that Yahweh spoke to your ancestors at Sinai Mountain, he was invisible. So, be careful 16that you do not sin by making for yourselves any idol of something that can be seen! Do not make an idol that resembles any person, either a man or a woman, 17or that resembles any animal or any bird 18or any ◄reptile/creature that crawls along the ground► or any fish in the deep ocean. 19And be careful to not look up toward the sky and be tempted to worship anything that you see there—the sun or the moon or the stars. Yahweh our God has given those to be a blessing to all people everywhere, but you must not worship them. 20Yahweh has brought your ancestors out of Egypt, where they were suffering as though they were in a blazing furnace, in order that they would be people who belong to him, which is what you are today.

21But Yahweh was angry with me because of what your ancestors made me do. He vowed that I would not cross the Jordan River to enter the good/fertile land that he is giving to you. 22He said that I must die here in this land and never cross the Jordan River. But you will go across it, and you will occupy that land. 23Be sure that you do not forget the agreement that Yahweh our God made with you. He commanded you to not make any kind of idol, because he has forbidden that. 24You must not do that because Yahweh your God will destroy anyone who worships idols, like [MET] a fire completely destroys things. He wants people to worship only him; he ◄cannot accept/will punish► people who worship anyone or anything else.

25When you have been in the land of Canaan for a long time and you have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making an idol that represents anything at all, because Yahweh says that is evil, and if you do that, you will cause him to become angry with you and punish you. 26Today I am requesting everyone who is in heaven and everyone who is on the earth [MTY] to watch what you are doing. If you disobey what I am telling you, you will soon all die in the land that you will be crossing the Jordan River to occupy. You will not live very long there; Yahweh will completely get rid of many [HYP] of you. 27And the rest of you, Yahweh will force you to go and live among the people of many other nations. Only a few of you will ◄survive/remain alive► there. 28When you are in those nations, you will worship gods that are made of wood and stone, gods made by humans, gods that cannot see anything or hear anything or eat anything or smell anything. 29But while you are there, if you will try to know Yahweh your God, and if you try with your entire inner being to know him, he will ◄answer/reveal himself to► you. 30In the future, after you have been mistreated there and all those bad things happen to you, you will again worship only Yahweh and obey him. 31Yahweh is a God who acts mercifully. If you continue to obey him, he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the agreement that he solemnly made with your ancestors.”

Only Yahweh is God

32“Now think about the past, about the time before you were born, about all the time since God first created people here on the earth. You could search everywhere, in heaven and on the earth. ◄Has anything like this ever happened that is as great as what Yahweh did for the Israeli people?/Certainly nothing has ever happened that is as great as what Yahweh did for the Israeli people. ► [RHQ] ◄Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?/Certainly no one has ever heard of anything like this.► [RHQ] 33◄Has any group ever remained alive after they heard a god speak to them from the middle of a fire, like we did?/Certainly no group has ever remained alive after they heard a god speak to them from the middle of a fire, like we did.► [RHQ] 34Certainly no other god has ever tried to take a huge group of people from one nation to another location, like he did for us when he brought us out of Egypt. We saw Yahweh our God use great power [MTY, DOU] when he performed many kinds of [DOU] miracles, and sent plagues, and did many other very terrifying things, and rescued us when the army of Egypt tried to fight against us.

35Yahweh showed all these things to you, in order that you would know that only he is truly God, and that there is no other God. 36He allowed your ancestors to hear him speak from heaven in order that he could discipline them. Here on the earth he allowed them to see his great fire on Sinai Mountain, and he spoke to them from the middle of the fire. 37Because he loved our ancestors, he chose you Israelis who are their descendants, and by his great power he brought your ancestors out of Egypt. 38As they advanced, he expelled the people of nations that were greater and more powerful than they were, in order that he could allow them to capture their land and cause it to become yours, which is what is happening now.

39So today you should ◄meditate on/think about► the fact that Yahweh is God, that he is/rules in heaven and also on the earth, and that there is no other god. 40Obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today, in order that things will go well for you and for your descendants, and that you will live a long time in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, to belong to you forever.”

The cities of refuge

41Then Moses/I set apart three cities that are on the east side of the Jordan River. 42If someone accidentally killed another person, a person who had not been his enemy previously, he could escape to one of those cities. He would be safe/protected in one of those cities because the people there would protect him. 43For the tribe of Reuben, Moses/I set apart Bezer city in the ◄plateau/high level► area. For the tribe of Gad, Moses/I set apart Ramoth city in the Gilead area. For the tribe of Manasseh, Moses/I set apart Golan city in the Bashan region.

Where Moses gave them God’s laws

44Moses/I gave God’s laws to the Israeli people. 45They included all the rules and instructions and commands that Moses/I gave to them, after they/we had come out of Egypt, 46when they/we were in the valley east of the Jordan River. They/We were across from Beth-Peor town, in the land that previously was ruled by Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lived in Heshbon city. Moses/I and the other Israelis had defeated his army when they/we came out of Egypt. 47They/We captured Sihon’s land and the land that Og, the king of the Bashan region, ruled. They were the two kings who ruled the Amor people-group in the area east of the Jordan River. 48Their land extended from Aroer town in the south along the Arnon River, as far north as Sirion Mountain, which most people call Hermon Mountain. 49It also included all the area east of the Jordan River Valley, all the way south to the Dead Sea and east to the slopes of Pisgah Mountain.

5

Moses repeated for them the Ten Commandments

1Moses/I summoned all the people of Israel and said to them,

“You Israeli people, listen to all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. Learn them and be sure to obey them. 2When we were at Sinai Mountain, Yahweh our God made an agreement with us. 3But this agreement was not only for our ancestors. He made it also for us who are alive now. 4Yahweh spoke with us face-to-face on that mountain, from the middle of the fire. 5On that day, I stood between your ancestors and Yahweh to tell them what he said, because they were afraid of the fire, and they did not climb up the mountain. This is what Yahweh said:

6‘I am Yahweh your God, the one you worship. I am the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I am the one who freed you from being slaves there.

7You must worship only me; you must not worship any other god.

8You must not carve/make for yourselves any idol that represents anything in the sky or anything that is on the ground or anything that swims in the water.

9You must not bow down to any idol and worship it, because I am Yahweh God, and I ◄am very jealous/want you to worship me only►. I punish those who sin and hate me. I punish not only them, but I will punish ◄their descendants, down to the third and fourth generation/their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren►. 10But I will steadfastly love ◄thousands of generations/all the descendants► of those who love me and obey my commandments (OR, I will love for thousands of generations).

11Do not use/speak my name carelessly (OR, for wrong/evil purposes), because I am Yahweh God, the one whom you should worship, and I will certainly punish those who use/speak my name for wrong/evil purposes [LIT].

12Do not forget that the seventh day of every week is mine. Dedicate those days to me just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you.

13There are six days each week for you to do all your work, 14but the seventh day is a rest day, a day dedicated to me, Yahweh your God. On that day you must not do any work. You and your sons and daughters and your male and female slaves must not work. You must not even force your livestock to work, and you must not tell foreigners to work, those who are living in your country. You must allow your slaves to rest on that day just like you do. 15Do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt, and that I, Yahweh your God, brought you out from there by my very great power. [DOU, MTY] That is the reason that I am commanding that all of you must rest on the seventh/Sabbath day each week.

16Honor/Respect your fathers and your mothers, just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you, in order that you may live a long time in the land that I, Yahweh your God, will give you, and in order that things will go well for you there.

17Do not murder anyone.

18Do not ◄commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse►.

19Do not steal anything.

20Do not tell lies about anyone when you are speaking in a court.

21Do not ◄covet/desire to have► someone else’s wife, someone else’s house, someone else’s fields, someone else’s male slave or female slave, someone else’s livestock, someone else’s donkeys, or anything else that another person owns.’

22Those are the commandments that Yahweh spoke to your ancestors. When they were gathered there at the bottom of the mountain, he spoke with a very loud voice from the middle of the fire, and there were dark clouds surrounding the mountain. He spoke only those ten commandments, no more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

23After your ancestors heard Yahweh’s voice when he spoke to them out of the darkness, while there was a big fire burning on the mountain, their leaders and elders came to me, 24and one of them said, ‘Listen to us! Yahweh our God showed us that he is very great and glorious when we heard him speak [MTY] from the fire. Today we have realized that it is possible for us humans to continue to live even though God has spoken to us. 25But we are afraid that we will die [RHQ] if we hear Yahweh our God speak [MTY] to us again; his terrible fire will destroy/kill us. 26◄Who has/Certainly no human has► remained alive after hearing the all-powerful God speak [MTY] to them from a fire. 27So Moses, you go up the mountain and listen to everything that Yahweh our God will say. Then come back and tell us everything that he has said, and we will listen to what he has said and obey it.’

28Yahweh heard your leaders say that, so when I went back up the mountain, Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard what your leaders have said, and what they have said is right/correct. 29I surely wish that they would always think like that and revere me and obey all my commandments, in order that things may go well for them and for their descendants forever.

30So go down and tell them to return to their tents. 31But then you come back up here and stand near me, and I will give to you all the rules and regulations that I want them to obey. Then you can teach them to the people, in order that they will obey them when they are in the land that I am giving to them.’

32So I went back down to the people, and I said to them, ‘Be sure that you do everything that Yahweh our God has commanded us to do. Do not disobey any of his laws. 33Conduct your lives as Yahweh our God has commanded us to do, in order that you may live a long time, and in order that things will go well for you when you are living in the land that you will occupy.’ ”

6

The commandment to love God

1“These are the commandments and rules and regulations that Yahweh our God commanded me to teach to you. He wants you to obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 2He wants you to revere him, and he wants you and your descendants to always obey all these rules and regulations that I am giving to you, in order that you may live for a long time. 3So, you Israeli people, listen to them carefully and obey them. If you do that, things will go well with you, and you will become a nation wit a very large population when you are living in that very fertile [IDM] land. That is what Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, promised would happen.

4You Israeli people, listen! Only Yahweh is our God. 5You must love him with all your inner being and with all that you feel and with all that you do. 6Never forget [IDM] these commands that I am giving to you today. 7Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them all the time: When you are in your houses and when you are walking outside; talk about them when you are lying down and when you are doing things. 8Write them on tiny scrolls and fasten them to your arms/wrists, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads to help you to remember them. 9Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses.

10Yahweh our God vowed to your ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that he will give you a land that already has in it large and prosperous cities that you did not build. 11He said that the houses in those cities will already be full of many good things that others put there; you did not put them there. There will be wells that oters have dug. There will be vineyards and olive trees that others planted. So when Yahweh brings you into that land, and you have all that you want to eat, 12be sure that you do not forget Yahweh who rescued you from being slaves in Egypt and gave all these things to you.

13You must revere Yahweh our God, and you must serve only him and say that he should [MTY] punish you if you do not do what you have promised. 14You must not worship any other gods, the gods that the people-groups who will live near you worship. 15Yahweh our God, who lives among you, ◄will not accept/will punish► people who worship anyone or anything else. So if you worship any other god, Yahweh will be very angry with you, and he will get rid of you completely. 16Do not do sinful things to find out if you can do them without Yahweh our God punishing you, like your ancestors did at Massah. 17Be sure that you always obey all the laws, the commandments, the rules, and the regulations that he has given to you. 18Do what Yahweh says is right and good. If you do that, things will go well with you. You will be able to enter and occupy the good/fertile land that Yahweh vowed to give to our ancestors. 19He will do that by expelling your enemies from that land, just like he promised to do.

20In the future, when your children ask you, ‘Why did Yahweh our God command us to obey all these rules and regulations?’ 21tell them, ‘Our ancestors were slaves of the king in Egypt, but Yahweh brought them out of Egypt by his great power [MTY]. 22They saw him do many kinds of miracles [DOU] and do terrifying things to the people of Egypt and to the king and his officials. 23He rescued our ancestors from Egypt and brought them here to give them this land, just like he vowed that he would do. 24And he commanded us to obey all these laws and to revere him, for our own good and in order that he would protect our nation and enable us to prosper, as he is doing now. 25Yahweh our God will ◄approve of us/consider us to be righteous► if we carefully obey everything that he has commanded us to do.’ ”

7

The blessings of worshiping God only

1“Yahweh our God will bring you to the land that you will soon enter and occupy. As you advance, he will expel from that land seven people-groups that are more powerful and more numerous than you are. He will expel the Heth people-group, the Girgash people-group, the Amor people-group, the Canaan people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group. 2When Yahweh our God enables you to defeat [DOU] them, you must kill all of them. You must not make ◄an alliance/a peace treaty► with any of them. You must not act mercifully toward them. 3You must not marry any of them. You must not allow your daughters to marry any of their sons or allow your sons to marry any of their daughters. 4Because, if you did that, those people would cause your children to stop worshiping Yahweh and to worship other gods. If that happens, Yahweh will be very angry with you and he will get rid of you immediately. 5This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their ◄altars/places for sacrificing animals►, break apart the stone pillars that are dedicated to their male god Baal, cut down the poles that they use when they worship the goddess Asherah, and burn their wooden idols. 6You must do that because you are a group of people who belong to Yahweh our God. He has chosen you from among all the people-groups in the world to be his own special people.

7It was not because you were more numerous than any other people-group that Yahweh preferred you; you are one of the smallest people-groups on the earth. 8Instead, it is because Yahweh loved you and because he wanted to do what he vowed to your ancestors. That is the reason that he rescued you by his great power [MTY], and freed you from being slaves [MTY] of the king of Egypt. 9So do not forget that Yahweh our God is the only/true God. He will do what he agreed to do for you, and he will faithfully love ◄for 1,000 generations/forever► all those who love him and who obey his commandments. 10But for those who hate him, he will ◄pay them back/do to them what they deserve►; he will punish them and quickly get rid of them.

11So you must be sure to obey all the commandments and rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. 12If you heed these commands and obey them faithfully, Yahweh our God will do what he has agreed to do for you, and he will faithfully love you, which is what he vowed to your ancestors that he would do. 13He will love you and bless you. He will enable you to have many children [DOU]. He will bless your fields, with the result that you will have plenty of grain and grapes to make wine and plenty of olive oil. You will have many cattle and sheep. He will do all these things for you in the land that he promised to your ancestors that he would give to you. 14He will bless you more than he will bless any other people-group. All of you will be able to have/produce children [LIT]. All of your livestock will be able to produce offspring. 15And Yahweh will protect you from all illnesses. You will not be afflicted with any of the dreadful diseases that our ancestors knew about in Egypt, but all your enemies will be inflicted with those diseases. 16You must get rid of all the people-groups that Yahweh our God will enable you to conquer. Do not [SYN] act mercifully toward any of them. And do not worship their gods, because if you do that, it would be like falling into a trap from which you will never be able to escape.

17Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people-groups are more numerous/powerful than we are, so we certainly cannot [RHQ] expel them.’ 18Do not be afraid of them. Instead, think about what Yahweh our God did to the king of Egypt and to all the people whom he ruled. 19Do not forget the terrible plagues that your ancestors saw Yahweh inflict on the people of Egypt, and the many [DOU] miracles that he performed, and the very powerful [DOU, MTY] way by which he brought your ancestors out of Egypt. Yahweh our God will do the same kind of things to the people-groups that you are afraid of now. 20Furthermore, he will cause them to become terrified, and he will destroy those who remain alive and run away to hide from you. 21Do not be afraid of those people, because Yahweh our God will be with/among you. He is a great God; he is the one you should be afraid of. 22He will expel those people-groups gradually. You should not try to expel all of them at one time, because if you did that, the number of wild animals would quickly increase, and you would not be able to get rid of them. 23Instead, Yahweh will enable you to defeat your enemies one people-group at a time. He will cause them to panic until they are destroyed. 24He will enable you to defeat [IDM] their kings. After you kill them, their names will be forgotten {people will forget about them}. No people-group will be able to stop you; you will destroy all of them. 25You must burn the wooden idols that represent their gods. Do not desire to take the silver or gold decorations that are on those idols, because if you take them for yourselves, they will be like a trap to cause you to want to worship those idols. Yahweh hates the worship of those idols. 26You must not bring any of those disgusting idols into your houses, because if you do that, God will curse you like he curses them. You must hate and despise [DOU] those idols, because they are things that Yahweh has cursed.”

8

Moses urged them to remember and obey

1“You must faithfully obey all the commandments that I am giving you today. If you do that, you will live a long time, you will become very numerous, and you will occupy the land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors that he would give to you. 2And do not forget how Yahweh our God led us as we traveled through the desert during these past 40 years. He caused you to have many problems/difficulties, because he wanted to cause you to realize that you needed to trust him and not yourselves. And he wanted to test you, to find out what you intended to do [IDM], whether you would obey his commandments or not. 3So he caused you to have/experience difficulties. He allowed you to become hungry. Then he gave you manna food from heaven, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did that to teach you that people need food for their bodies; but they also need food for their spirits, which comes from paying attention to everything that Yahweh says [MTY]. 4During those 40 years of walking through the desert, our clothes did not wear out and our feet did not swell from walking a very long way through the desert. 5Do not forget that Yahweh our God disciplines us, like parents discipline their children.

6So, obey the commandments of Yahweh our God, and conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and revere him. 7He is about to bring you into a good/fertile land, which has streams which flow down from the hills and pour/flow out of springs in the valleys. 8It is a land on which wheat and barley grow, a land where there are fig trees and pomegranates, and a land where there are olive trees and honey. 9It is a land where there will be plenty of food for you, where you will ◄not lack anything/have everything that you need► [LIT], a land which has iron ore in its rocks and from which you can dig copper ore from its hills. 10Every day you will eat until your stomachs are full, and you will thank Yahweh our God for the fertile/good land that he has given you.

11But, when that happens, be sure not to forget Yahweh our God by disobeying his commandments and rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. 12When your stomachs are full every day, and when you have built good houses and are living in them, 13and when the number of your cattle and sheep has greatly increased, and when you have accumulated a large amount of silver and gold, and the amount of all your other possessions has greatly increased, 14be sure that you do not become proud [IDM] and forget Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt and brought them out from there. 15Do not forget that he led them while they traveled through that huge and terrible desert, where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. And do not forget that where the ground was very dry and there was no water, he caused water to flow for them out of ◄solid/very hard► rock. 16Do not forget that in that desert he gave your ancestors manna to eat, food that they had never eaten before. He caused them to have/experience many problems/difficulties, because he wanted them to realize that they needed to trust him and not themselves. And he wanted to test them, to find out whether they intended to obey him, in order that when those difficulties ended, he would do many good things for them. 17Be sure that you do not think to yourselves, ‘I have acquired all these things by my own power [MTY] and ability.’ 18Do not forget that it is Yahweh our God who has enabled you to become rich. He does this because he faithfully does what he solemnly promised our ancestors that he would do.

19I solemnly warn you that if you forget Yahweh our God and turn to other gods and start to serve them and worship them, you will certainly be destroyed. 20If you do not obey Yahweh our God, he will certainly destroy you just like he will destroy the people-groups that you will fight against.”

9

The reason that God will enable them to be victorious

1“You people of Israel, listen to me! You will soon [HYP] cross the Jordan River. In the land that you will enter, there are large cities that have very high walls around them that seem to [HYP] extend up to the sky. There are people-groups in that land that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. 2Those people are very tall and strong. Some of them are giants who are descendants of Anak. You know about them, and you have heard people say that no one [RHQ] can defeat the descendants of Anak. 3But I want you to know that Yahweh our God will go ahead of you. He will be like a raging/roaring fire. While you advance, he will defeat and destroy them. As a result, you will quickly be able to expel some of them and kill the others, which is what Yahweh promised that you would do.

4After Yahweh our God has expelled them for you, do not say to yourselves, ‘It is because we are righteous that Yahweh has enabled us to capture this land.’ The truth is that it is because the people in that land are wicked that Yahweh will expel them as you advance. 5I say again that it is not because you are righteous or because you do things that are righteous that you will enter and capture that land. It is because those people-groups are very wicked that Yahweh our God will expel them as you advance, and because he intends to do what he vowed to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would do. 6I want you to know that it is not because you are righteous that Yahweh our God is giving you this good/fertile land. I say that because you are not righteous; you are a very stubborn [IDM] people.”

Moses reminded them of the golden calf

7“Never forget what your ancestors did in the desert that caused Yahweh our God to become angry. From the day that we left Egypt until the day that we arrived here, you and your ancestors have continually rebelled against him. 8Even at Sinai Mountain your ancestors caused Yahweh to become angry. Because he was very angry, he was ready to get rid of all of them. 9When I climbed the mountain to receive from him the stone tablets on which he had written the Ten Commandments that he was giving to them, I stayed there 40 days and nights, and during that time I did not eat or drink anything. 10Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written the commandments with his own fingers. They were the words/commandments that he had spoken to your ancestors from the fire on that mountain, when they were gathered together at the bottom of the mountain.

11At the end of those 40 days and nights, Yahweh gave me those two stone tablets on which he had written those commandments. 12But then he said to me, ‘Go down the mountain immediately, because the people whom you are leading, the people whom you led out of Egypt, have committed a terrible sin! They have very quickly done what I commanded them not to do. They have made for themselves a metal statue of a calf to worship.’

13Then Yahweh said to me, ‘I have been watching these people, and I see that they are very stubborn. 14So do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy all of them, with the result that no one anywhere will remember ◄their names [MTY]/that they ever existed►. Then I will enable you to become the ancestor of a nation that will be more numerous and more powerful than they are.’

15So I turned and went down the mountain, carrying in my hands the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Fire was burning all over the mountain. 16I looked, and I was shocked to see that your ancestors had committed a great sin against Yahweh. They very quickly had begun to do what Yahweh our God had commanded them not to do. They had requested Aaron to make for them a metal image of a calf to worship. 17So while they were watching, I lifted up those two stone tablets and threw them on the ground, and they broke into pieces.

18Then I ◄prostrated myself/lay► on the ground in Yahweh’s presence as I had done before, and I did not eat or drink anything for 40 days and nights. I did that because your ancestors had sinned against Yahweh and caused him to become very angry. 19I was afraid/worried that because Yahweh was very angry with them, he would get rid of all of them. But again I prayed that he would not do that, and again he listened to me and answered my prayer. 20Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron for making that golden calf and was ready to kill Aaron. But at the same time I prayed for Aaron also, and Yahweh answered my prayer. 21Your ancestors had sinned by requesting Aaron to make a metal statue of a calf. So I took that statue and I melted it in a fire and crushed it and ground it into very tiny pieces [HYP]. Then I threw those tiny pieces into the stream that flowed down the mountain.

22Your ancestors also caused Yahweh to become very angry by what they did at places which they named Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-Hattaavah.

23And when we were at Kadesh-Barnea, Yahweh said to your ancestors, ‘Go up and capture the land that I am about to give to you!’ But they rebelled against him. They did not trust him, and they did not obey what he told [MTY] them to do. 24Your ancestors rebelled against Yahweh from the first day that I knew them, in Egypt.

25So, as I said, I lay on the ground in Yahweh’s presence for 40 days and nights, because Yahweh had said that he would get rid of your ancestors. 26And I prayed to Yahweh, saying, ‘Lord God, these people belong to you; do not destroy them. They are people whom you rescued and brought out of Egypt by your very great power. [DOU, MTY] 27Do not forget what you promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Please ignore these stubborn and wicked people and the sin that they have committed. 28If you do not do that, and if you get rid of them, the people of Egypt will hear about it and say that you were not able to bring them into the land that you promised to give to them. They will say that you took them into the desert only to kill them there because you hated them. 29Do not forget that they are your people. You chose them to belong to you. You brought them out from Egypt by your very great power [DOU, MTY].’ ”

10

A new copy of the Ten Commandments

1“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. And make a wooden chest to put them in. Then bring the tablets up to me on this mountain. 2I will write on those tablets the same words that I wrote on the first tablets, the ones that you broke. Then you can put them in the chest.’

3So I made a chest. I used wood from an acacia tree to make it. Then I cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I went up the mountain carrying the tablets. 4There Yahweh wrote on the tablets the same Ten Commandments that he had written on the first tablet. They are the commandments that he told to your ancestors from the middle of the fire on the mountain, when they were gathered at the bottom of the mountain. Then Yahweh gave the tablets to me, 5and I turned and went down the mountain. Then, just as he had commanded, I put them in the chest that I had made. And they are still there.”

6(Then, from the wells that belonged to the people of Jaakan, the Israeli people traveled to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar took his place and became the Supreme Priest. 7From there, the Israelis traveled to Gudgodah, and from there to Jotbathah, which was a place that had many streams. 8At that time, Yahweh ◄set apart/appointed► the tribe of Levi to carry the chest that contained the tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments, and to stand in Yahweh’s presence in the sacred tent, to offer sacrifices, and to pray for Yahweh to bless the people. They are still doing those things at the present time. 9That is the reason that the tribe of Levi did not receive any land like the other tribes did. What they received was the work/privilege of being Yahweh’s priests, which is what he said that they should do.)

10“I stayed on the mountain 40 days and nights, just like I did the first time. I prayed to Yahweh, and he ◄answered my prayers/did what I requested► again and said that he would not destroy your ancestors. 11Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Continue your journey, going in front of the people, to occupy the land that I vowed your ancestors that I would give to you.’”

What Yahweh required

12“Now, you Israeli people, I will tell you [RHQ] what Yahweh our God requires/demands that you do. He requires you to revere him, to conduct your lives as he wants you to, to love him, and to serve him wholeheartedly [DOU], 13and to obey all of his commandments [DOU] which I am giving to you today for your benefit.

14Do not forget that Yahweh our God owns even the sky and everything that is in it. He also owns the earth and everything that is on it. 15But in spite of owning all those things, Yahweh loved your ancestors, and from all the people-groups on the earth he chose us, their descendants, and we are still his people. 16So you must stop sinning [MET] and stop being stubborn [IDM]! 17Yahweh our God is greater than all gods, and he is greater than all rulers. He is very powerful [DOU] and awesome. He ◄is impartial/does not do things that favor one ◄group/person► more than others►, and he does not accept bribes. 18He makes sure that orphans and widows are treated fairly. He loves even ◄foreigners/people from other countries► who live among us Israeli people, and he gives them food and clothes. 19So you must love those foreigners too, because you were once foreigners when you were living in Egypt. 20Revere Yahweh our God and worship only him. ◄Be faithful to/Have a close relationship with► him, and say that he should punish you if you do not do what you promise. 21He is the one whom you must praise. He is our God, and we have seen the great and amazing things that he has done for us. 22When our ancestors, Jacob and his family, went down to Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now Yahweh our God has caused us to be as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

11

Moses reminded them of the great things that God did

1“Because of all that Yahweh your God has done for you, you must love him and continually obey all his rules and regulations and commandments. 2It was you and your ancestors, not your children, whom he disciplined by causing all of you to have/experience difficulties. So, starting today, continue to think about how very great and very powerful he is [DOU, MTY]. 3Think about the various miracles [DOU] that he performed in Egypt. Think about what he did to the king of Egypt and to hiis country*. 4Think about what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots. Think about how he caused the Red Sea to flood/cover over them while they were pursuing your ancestors, and how the army of Egypt was completely ◄wiped out/destroyed►. 5Think about what Yahweh did for your ancestors in the desert before you arrived at this place. 6Think about what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the two sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. While all of your ancestors were watching, the earth split open, and they fell into the opening and disappeared, along with their families and their tents, their servants, and their animals. 7You [SYN] and your ancestors have seen all these miracles that Yahweh performed.

8So, obey all the commandments that I am giving you today, in order that you will be strong and able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter, 9and in order that you will live for a long time in that land, the land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors that he would give to them and to their descendants, a land that is very fertile [IDM]. 10The land that you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where your ancestors lived. In Egypt, after they planted seeds, it was necessary for them to work hard [MTY] to water the plants that grew. 11But the land that you are about to enter is a land where there are many hills and valleys, where there is plenty of rain. 12Yahweh takes care of that land. He [SYN] watches over it every day, from the beginning of each year to the end of each year.

13Today I am commanding you to love Yahweh our God and to serve him with your entire inner beings. If you do that, 14each year he will send rain on your land at the ◄right times/times when it is needed►, ◄in the autumn/at the end of the dry season► and ◄in the spring/before the next dry season starts►. As a result, you will have grain and grapes to make wine and olives to make olive oil. 15And he will cause grass to grow in your fields for your livestock to eat. You will have all the food that you want.

16But I warn you, do not turn away from Yahweh our God and start to worship other gods, 17because if you do that, Yahweh will become very angry with you. He will prevent any rain from falling. As a result, the crops will not grow, and you will soon die from hunger in the good land that Yahweh is about to give to you. 18So, keep thinking [IDM] about these commands. Write them on tiny scrolls and fasten them to your arms/wrists, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads to help you to remember them. 19Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them all the time: When you are in your houses and when you are walking outside; talk about them when you are lying down at inght and when you are getting up in the morning. 20Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses. 21Do that in order that you and your children will live for a long time in the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them. That land will belong to you and your descendants as long as there is a sky above the earth.

22Faithfully continue to obey what I am commanding you to do—to love Yahweh our God, and to conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and to ◄be faithful to/have a close relationship with► him. 23If you do that, Yahweh will expel all the people-groups in that land as you advance, people-groups that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. 24All the ground in that land on which you walk will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 25Yahweh our God will cause all the people in that land to be afraid of you, which is what he promised, with the result that no people-group will be able to stop you.

26Listen carefully: Today I am telling you that Yahweh will either bless you or he will curse you. 27If you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, he will bless you. 28If you do not obey them, and if you turn away from him to worship other gods that you have never known about before, he will curse you. 29And when Yahweh brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, some of you must stand on top of Gerizim Mountain and proclaim what will cause Yahweh to bless you, and the others must stand on top of Ebal Mountain and proclaim what will cause Yahweh to curse you.” 30(Those two mountains are [RHQ] west of the Jordan River, west of the Jordan Valley near the huge oak tree at Moreh village in the land where the Canaan people-group lives. They live close to the sacred trees near Gilgal.) 31“You will soon cross the Jordan River to occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. When you enter that land and start to live there, 32be sure to obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.”

12

The one place for worship

1“◄I will now tell you again/These, again, are► the rules and regulations that you must faithfully obey in the land that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, is giving to you to occupy. You must obey these laws all the time that you are alive. 2You must destroy all the places where the people-groups that you will expel worship their gods, on the tops of mountains and hills and under big green trees. 3You must tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Completely burn the statues of their goddess Asherah in fires, and chop down their wooden idols, in order that no one will ever worship them [MTY] in those places again.

4Do not worship Yahweh like the people in Canaan worship their gods. 5Instead, you must go to the place that Yahweh will choose. It will be in the area where one of your tribes will live. That is where you must go to worship Yahweh. 6That is the place where you must bring your sacrifices that will be completely burned on the altar, and your other sacrifices, ◄your tithes/ten percent of all of your crops►, other offerings that you decide to give, and the firstborn animals from your cattle and sheep. 7There, in the presence of Yahweh our God, who has greatly blessed you, you and your families will eat the good things that you have worked to produce, and you will be happy.

8When you are in that land, you must not do some of the things that we have been doing. Until now, you have all been worshiping Yahweh the way you wanted to, 9because you have not yet arrived in the land which Yahweh is giving to you, where you will be able to live peacefully. 10But when you cross the Jordan River, you will start to live in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. He will protect you from all your enemies that will surround you, and you will live peacefully/safely.

11Yahweh will choose one place where he wants you to worship him. That is the place to which you must bring all the offerings that I command you to bring: The sacrifices that must be completely burned on the altar, your other sacrifices, other offerings that you yourselves decide to give, ◄your tithes/ten percent of all your crops►, and all the special offerings that you will solemnly promise to give to Yahweh. 12Rejoice there in the presence of Yahweh, along with your children, your male and female servants, and the descendants of Levi who live in your towns. Do not forget that the descendants of Levi will not have their own land, like you will have. 13Be sure that you do not offer sacrifices anywhere you want to. 14You must offer them only in the place that Yahweh will choose for you, in an area that belongs to one of your tribes. That is the only place where he wants you to offer sacrifices that will be completely burned on the altar, and to do the other things that I am commanding you to do when you worship him.

15However, you will be permitted to kill and eat the meat of your animals in the places where you live. As often as you want to, you may eat the meat of the animals that Yahweh our God will bless you by giving them to you. Those who have done things that cause them to become unacceptable to God and those who have not done things like that may all eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a deer or an antelope. 16But you must not eat the blood of any animals; you must let the blood drain onto the ground before you cook the meat. 17In the places where you live, you must not eat the things that you are offering to Yahweh: You must not eat the ◄tithes/ten percent► of your grain or of your wine, or of your olive oil, or the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, or the offerings that you yourselves decide to give to Yahweh, or any other offerings. 18Instead, you and your children and your male and female servants and the descendants of Levi who live in your towns must go to the place that he has chosen and eat those things there in the presence of Yahweh. And you should rejoice in the presence of Yahweh about everything that you do. 19Be sure that you take care of the descendants of Levi all during the time that you live in your land.

20When Yahweh our God gives you much more land than you will have when you first occupy it, which is what he has promised to do, and you say ‘I would like some meat to eat’ because you are craving/wanting some meat, you will be permitted to eat meat whenever you want to. 21If the place that Yahweh our God chooses to be the place for you to worship him is far from where you live, you are permitted to kill some of your cattle or sheep that Yahweh has given to you, and you may eat that meat at the places where you live, just like I have told you to do. 22Those who have done things that cause them to become unacceptable to God, and those who have not done things like that, are all permitted to all eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a deer or an antelope. 23But be sure that you do not eat the blood of any animal, because it is the blood that sustains life in living beings, and so you must not eat the life along with the meat. 24Do not eat the blood; instead, let it drain onto the ground. 25If you obey this command and do what Yahweh says is right for you to do, things will go well for you and for your descendants.

26But the sacred offerings that Yahweh has told you to give and the other offerings that you yourselves decide to give, you must take to the place that Yahweh will choose. 27You must offer there the sacrifices that will be completely burned on Yahweh’s altar. You must also offer there the sacrifices from which you may eat some of meat after you kill the animals and drain out the blood and some of it is thrown on the sides of the altar. 28Faithfully obey all these things that I have commanded you. If you do that, things will go well forever for you and your descendants, because you will be doing what Yahweh our God says is right for you to do and what pleases him.

29When you enter the land that you will occupy, as you advance, Yahweh our God will get rid of the people-groups that live there. 30After he does that, be sure that you do not worship the gods that they have been worshiping, because if you do that, you will be caught in the same trap that they were caught in [MET]. Do not ask anyone about those gods, saying, ‘Tell me how they worshiped their gods, in order that I can worship them also.’ 31Do not try to worship Yahweh our God like they have worshiped their gods, because when they worship them, they do disgusting things, things that Yahweh hates. The worst thing that they do is that they sacrifice their own children and burn them on their altars.

32Be sure to do everything that I have commanded you to do. Do not add anything to these commands, and do not take anything away from them.”

13

Moses warned them against idolatry

1“Possibly there will be people among you who say that they are prophets. They may say that they are able to interpret the meaning of dreams or perform various kinds of miracles [DOU]. 2They will say those things in order to induce/persuade you to worship gods that you have never known about before. But even if what they predict happens, 3do not pay attention to what they say. Yahweh our God will be testing you to find out if you love him with all your inner being. 4You must conduct your lives as Yahweh our God wants you to, and you must revere him, and do what he tells you to do [MTY], and worship only him, and ◄be faithful to/have a close relationship with► him.

5But you must execute anyone who falsely says that he is a prophet, or someone who falsely says that he can interpret dreams, or who tells you to rebel against Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt. People like that are only wanting to cause you to stop conducting your lives as Yahweh has commanded you to do. Execute them, to get rid of this evil among you. 6It does not matter if even your brother or your daughter or your wife or some close/dear friend secretly urges you, saying ‘Let’s worship other gods. They are gods which you or your ancestors have never known about. 7Some of them may encourage you to worship gods that people-groups that live near you worship, or gods that groups who live far away worship. 8Do not [SYN] do what they suggest. Do not even listen to them. Do not even be merciful to them, and do not keep secret what they have done. 9Execute them! You who are their relative must be the first one to throw stones at them to kill them, and then let everyone else [MTY] throw stones at them, too. 10Kill such people by throwing stones at them, because they are trying to cause you to stop worshiping Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt. 11When they are executed, all the Israeli people will hear what happened, and they will become afraid, and none of them will do such an evil thing again.

12When you are living in one of the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, you may hear 13that some worthless people there among you [IDM] are deceiving the people of their town, saying, ‘Let’s go and worship other gods,’ but they are gods that you have never heard about before. 14Investigate it thoroughly/carefully. If you find out that it is true that such a disgraceful thing has happened, 15kill all the people in that town. And kill all their livestock, too. Destroy the town completely. 16Gather all the possessions that belonged to the people who lived there and pile them up in the city plaza. Then burn the town and everything in it, as though it were an offering to Yahweh that would be completely burned on the altar. The ruins/ashes must stay there forever; the town must never be rebuilt. 17None of you Israelis must take for yourselves [IDM] anything that Yahweh has said must be destroyed. But if you do what I say, Yahweh will stop being angry with you, and he will act mercifully toward you. And he will cause you to have many children/descendants, which is what he promised our ancestors that he would do. 18Yahweh our God will do all those things if you do what he is telling you to do, and if you obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today and do what Yahweh says is right for you to do.”

14

Creatures that were forbidden to be eaten

1“We are people who belong to Yahweh our God. So, when people die, do not show that you are grieving by gashing/cutting yourselves or by shaving the hair on your foreheads like the other people-groups do. 2We belong to Yahweh alone. Yahweh chose us from all the other people-groups on the earth to be his special people.

3Do not eat anything that Yahweh detests. 4The animals whose meat you are permitted to eat are cattle, sheep, goats, 5deer, gazelles, wild goats, antelopes, and mountain sheep. 6Those are animals that have split hoofs and that also ◄chew their cuds/regurgitate their food from their stomachs to chew it again►. 7But there are other animals that chew their cuds that you must not eat. Those are camels, rabbits, and rock badgers. They chew their cuds, but their hooves are not split. So they are not acceptable for you to eat. 8Do not eat pigs. They are unacceptable for you to eat; their hooves are split, but they do not chew cud. Do not eat the meat of those animals; do not even touch their dead bodies. 9You are permitted to eat any fish that has scales and fins. 10But anything else that lives in the water that does not have scales and fins, you must not eat, because if you eat them, you will become unacceptable to Yahweh.

11You are permitted to eat the flesh of any bird that is acceptable to Yahweh. 12But eagles, vultures, black vultures, 13buzzards, all kinds of kites, 14all kinds of crows, 15ostriches, seagulls, 16owls, hawks, falcons, 17pelicans, vultures that eat dead animals, cormorants, 18storks, herons, hoopoes, and bats, you must not eat.

19All insects with wings and which walk on the ground are unacceptable to Yahweh; do not eat them. 20But other insects with wings and which hop along the ground are acceptable to eat.

21Do not eat any animal that has died naturally, because its blood has not been drained out. You may allow foreigners who live among you to eat those things or you may sell them to other foreigners. But you belong to Yahweh our God; and those who belong to him are not permitted to eat the meat of animals whose blood has not been drained out.

You must not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s milk.”

Giving tithes

22“Once each year you must set apart ◄a tithe/10 percent► of all the crops that are produced/harvested in your fields. 23Take those things to the place that Yahweh our God will choose for you to worship him. There eat the tithes of your grain, your wine, your olive oil, and the meat of the firstborn male animals of your cattle and your sheep. Do this in order that you may learn to always revere Yahweh, the one who has blessed you by giving you these things. 24If the place that Yahweh has chosen for you to worship him is very far from your home, with the result that you are not able to take there the tithes of your crops with which Yahweh has blessed you, do this: 25Sell [IDM] the tithes of your crops, wrap the money carefully in a cloth, and take it with you to the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen. 26There, with that money, you may buy whatever you want to—beef or lamb or wine or fermented drinks. And there, in the presence of Yahweh, you and your families should eat and drink those things and be happy. 27But be sure to not neglect/forget to help the descendants of Levi who live in your towns, because they will not own any land.

28At the end of every three years, bring a tithe of all your crops that have been produced/harvested in that year and store it in your towns. 29That food is for the descendants of Levi, because they do not have their own land, and for foreigners who live among you, and for orphans and widows who live in your towns. They are permitted to come to where the food is stored and take what they need. Do that in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do.”

15

The year for canceling debts

1“At the end of every seven years, you must ◄cancel all debts/tell people who owe you money that they do not need to pay it back►. 2Do it like this: Each of you who has lent money to a fellow Israeli must cancel that debt. You must not insist that he pay it back. You must do that because Yahweh has declared that the debts must be canceled every seven years. 3During that year you may require foreigners who live among you to pay what they owe you, but you must not try to require that any fellow Israeli pay you what he owes you. 4-5Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that he is giving to you. If you obey Yahweh our God and obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today, there will not be any poor people among you. 6Yahweh our God will bless you like he has promised to do, and you will be able to lend money to people of other people-groups, but you will not need to borrow from any of them. You will control the finances of many people-groups, but they will not control your finances.

7In the towns that Yahweh our God is giving to you, if there are any Israelis who are poor, do not be selfish [IDM] and refuse [IDM] to help them. 8Instead, be generous [IDM] and lend to them the money that they need. 9Be sure that you do not say to yourself, ‘The year when debts will be canceled is near, so I do not want to lend anyone any money now, because he will not need to pay it back when that year comes.’ It would be evil to even think that. If you act in an unfriendly way toward a needy fellow Israeli, and give him nothing, he will cry out to Yahweh about you, and Yahweh will say that you have sinned by not helping that person. 10Give freely to poor people and give generously [IDM]. 11If you do that, Yahweh will bless you in everything that you do. There will always be some poor people in your land, so I command you to give generously to poor [DOU] people.”

Freeing slaves

12“If any of your fellow Israeli men or women sell themselves to one of you to become your slave, you must free them after they have worked for you for six years. When the seventh year comes, you must free them. 13When you free them, do not allow them to go ◄empty-handed/without giving them anything►. 14Give to them generously from the things with which Yahweh has blessed you—sheep, grain, and wine. 15Do not forget that your ancestors were once slaves in Egypt, and Yahweh our God freed them. That is the reason that I am now commanding you to do this.

16But one of your slaves may say, ‘I do not want to leave you.’ He loves you and your family, because you have treated him well. 17If he says that, take him to the door of your house and, while he stands against the doorway, pierce one of his earlobes with ◄an awl/a sharp pointed tool►. That will indicate that he will be your slave for the rest of his life. Do the same thing to any female slave who does not want to leave you.

18Do not complain when you are required to free your slaves. Keep in mind that they served you for six years, and you paid them only half as much as you pay the servants that you hire. If you free them, Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do.”

Rules about sacrificing firstborn animals

19“◄Set aside for/Dedicate to► Yahweh our God the firstborn male animals from your cattle and sheep. Do not force them to do any work for you, and do not ◄shear/cut off► the wool of the firstborn animals to sell the wool. 20You and your family may kill them and eat their meat in the presence of Yahweh at the place that Yahweh chooses for you to worship him. 21But if the animals have any defects, if they are lame or blind, or if they have any other serious defect, you must not sacrifice them to Yahweh our God. 22You may kill and eat the meat of those animals at your homes. Those who have done things that cause them to become unacceptable to God and those who have not done such things are permitted to eat that meat, just like anyone is permitted to eat the meat of a deer or an antelope. 23But you must not eat any of the blood; you must drain all the blood on the ground when you kill those animals.”

16

The Passover Festival

1“Each year honor Yahweh our God by celebrating the Passover Festival in the month of Abib in early spring. It was on a night in that month that Yahweh rescued your ancestors from Egypt. 2In order to celebrate that festival, go to the place that Yahweh will choose for you to worship him, and offer there one young animal from your cattle or your sheep to be the Passover sacrifice, to honor Yahweh [MTY]. 3When you eat the Passover meal, the bread that you eat must not have yeast in it. You must eat this kind of bread, which will be called the bread of suffering/misery, for seven days. This is to help you to remember all during the time that you are alive that when your ancestors left Egypt, where they were suffering because they were slaves, they left very quickly. They did not put in yeast and wait for the dough to swell up. 4During that festival, you must not have any yeast in any house in your land for seven days. Furthermore, the meat of the animals that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day of the Passover Festival must be eaten during that night; do not allow any of it to remain until the next day.

5-6To honor Yahweh our God, you must offer the Passover sacrifice only at the place that he chooses for you to worship him; do not offer that sacrifice in any other town in the land that Yahweh is giving to you. Offer that sacrifice when the sun is setting, at the same time of day that your ancestors started to leave Egypt. 7Boil the meat and eat it at the place of worship that Yahweh our God chooses. The next morning, you may return to your tents. 8Each day for six days the bread that you eat must have no yeast in it. On the seventh day, you must all gather to worship Yahweh our God. It will be a day of rest; you must not do any work on that day.”

The festival for harvesting grain

9“Each year, from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks. 10Then, to honor Yahweh our God, celebrate the Harvest Festival. Do that by bringing to him an offering of grain. Yahweh has blessed you by causing it to grow in your fields during that year. If you had a big harvest, bring a big offering. If you had a small harvest, bring a small offering. 11Each married couple should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. Their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should also be joyful. Bring those offerings to the place of worship that Yahweh will choose.

12When you celebrate these festivals by obeying these commands, remember that your ancestors were previously slaves in Egypt.”

The Festival of Living in Shelters

13“Each year, after you have threshed all your grain and pressed the juice from all your grapes, you must celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters for seven days. 14Each married couple along with their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. 15Honor Yahweh our God by celebrating this festival for seven days in the place that Yahweh chooses for you to worship him. You should all be joyful, because Yahweh will have blessed your harvest and all the other work that you have done.

16So, each year all of you Israeli men must gather with your families to worship Yahweh our God at the place that he will choose, to celebrate three festivals: The Passover Festival, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters. Each of you men must bring [LIT] an offering for Yahweh to these festivals17in proportion to the blessings that Yahweh has given you during that year.”

Judging people fairly

18“Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly/justly. 19They must not judge unjustly. They must not favor one person more than another. The judges must not accept bribes, because if a judge accepts a bribe, even if he is wise and honest, it will be very difficult for him to judge fairly [IDM]; he will do what the person who gave him the bribe wants him to do and declare that the righteous/innocent people must be punished. 20You must be completely fair and just [DOU], in order that you will enter and occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.”

Warning against worshiping other gods

21“When you make an altar to worship Yahweh our God, do not put next to it any wooden statue that represents the goddess Asherah. 22And do not set up any stone pillar to worship any idol, because Yahweh hates them.”

17

Warning against sacrificing defective animals

1“Do not sacrifice to Yahweh our God any cattle or sheep or goats that have any defects, because Yahweh hates that kind of gift.”

Punishment for idolatry

2“When you are living in any of the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, suppose you hear that there is some man or woman who sins by disobeying the agreement that Yahweh has made with you. 3Suppose someone tells you that that person has worshiped and served other gods, or the sun, or the moon, or the stars. 4If you hear that some person has been doing that, you must investigate it thoroughly. If you find out that it is true that this detestable thing has happened in Israel, 5you must take outside the town the man or woman who has done it. Then you must kill that person by throwing stones at him or her. 6But you are allowed to execute such people only if at least two witnesses testify that they saw them doing that. They must not be executed if there is only one witness. 7The ◄witnesses/ones who saw them doing it► must be the first ones to throw stones at them. Then the other people [MTY] should throw stones at them. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you.”

Judging difficult cases

8“Sometimes it will be very difficult for a judge to decide what really happened. He might be trying to decide whether, when someone injured or killed another person, he did it accidentally or deliberately. Or he might be trying to decide if some person is suing another person unfairly. If in some town it is very difficult to know what really happened, with the result that the judge cannot decide it, you should go to the place that Yahweh our God has chosen for you to worship him. 9There you should present the case to the descendants of Levi who are the priests, and to the judge who is serving at that time, and they should decide what should be done. 10After they make their decision, you must do what they tell you to do. 11Accept what they have decided, and do what they say that you should do. Do not try to change in any way what they have decided [IDM]. 12You must execute anyone who proudly/arrogantly disobeys the judge or the priest who stands there in the presence of Yahweh and decides what should be done. By doing that, you will get rid of evil practices among you. 13Then after that person is executed, all the people will hear about it, and they will be afraid, and none of them will act that way anymore.”

Proper behavior for a king

14“I know that after you have occupied the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you are living there, you will say, ‘We should have a king to rule over us, like the kings that other nations around us have.’ 15Yahweh our God will permit you to have a king, but be sure that you appoint someone whom he has chosen. That man must be an Israeli; you must not appoint someone who is a foreigner to be your king. 16After he becomes the king, he should not acquire a large number of horses for himself. He should not send people to Egypt to buy horses for him, because Yahweh said to you, ‘Never return to Egypt for anything’! 17And he must not have a lot of wives, because if he did that, they would turn him [SYN] away from worshiping only Yahweh. And he must not acquire a lot of silver and gold.

18When he becomes your king, he must appoint someone to copy these laws. He must copy them from the scroll that is kept by the priests who are descended from Levi. 19He must keep this new scroll near him and read from it every day of his life, in order that he may learn to revere Yahweh, and to faithfully obey [DOU] all the rules and regulations that are written in these laws. 20If he does that, he [SYN] will not think that he is ◄better/more important► than [IDM] his fellow Israelis, and he will completely obey [LIT] Yahweh’s commands. As a result, he and his descendants will rule as kings in Israel for many years.”

18

What the priests were to receive

1“The priests, who are all from the tribe of Levi, will not receive any land in Israel. Instead, they will receive some of the food that other people offer to be burned on the altar to be sacrificed to Yahweh and some of the other sacrifices that will be offered to Yahweh. 2They will not be allotted any land like the other tribes will be. What they will receive is the work/privilege of being Yahweh’s priests, which is what he said that they should have.

3When the people bring an ox or a sheep to be sacrificed, they must give to the priests the shoulder, the cheeks/jaws, and the stomach of those animals. 4You must also give to them the first part of the grain that you harvest, and the first part of the wine that you make, and the first part of the olive oil that you make, and the first part of the wool that you shear from your sheep. 5You must do this because Yahweh our God has chosen the tribe of Levi from all of your tribes, in order that men from that tribe would always be the priests who would serve him.

6If any man from the tribe of Levi who has been living in one of the towns in Israel wants to come from there to the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen, and start living there, 7he is permitted to serve Yahweh there as a priest, just like the other men from the tribe of Levi who have been serving there. 8He must be given the same amount of food that the other priests receive. He is permitted to keep the money that his relatives give him for selling some of their possessions.

A warning about pagan practices

9When you enter the land that Yahweh our God is giving you, you must not imitate the disgusting things that the people-groups who are there now do. 10You must not sacrifice any of your children by burning them on your altars. Do not practice ◄divination/using supernatural power to reveal what will happen in the future►. Do not do/practice ◄soothsaying/magic to find out what will happen in the future►. Do not ◄interpret omens/say that because of something that you have seen you know what will happen►. Do not practice sorcery/witchcraft. Do not practice ◄putting spells on people/saying things to cause bad things to happen to others►. 11Do not try to talk with spirits of dead people. Do not do/practice magic. 12Yahweh hates people who do any of those disgusting things. And as you advance through that land, he is going to expel the people-groups because they do/practice those disgusting things. 13But you must always avoid doing any of those things.

The promise to send a prophet like Moses

14The people-groups that you are about to expel from the land that you will occupy ◄consult/seek advice from► soothsayers and those who practice divination. But as for you, Yahweh our God does not allow you to do that. 15Some day he will send from among you a prophet like me. He is the one who will tell you what will happen in the future, and he is the one whom you must heed. 16On the day that your ancestors were gathered at the bottom of Sinai Mountain, they pleaded with me saying, ‘We do not want Yahweh to speak [MTY] to us again, and we do not want to see this huge fire that is burning on the mountain!’ Your ancestors said that because they were afraid that they would die if Yahweh spoke to them again.

17Then Yahweh said to me, ‘What they have said is true/wise. 18So I will send from among them a prophet who will be like you. I will tell him what to say, and then he will tell people everything that I tell him to say. 19He will speak for me. And I will punish anyone who does not heed what he says. 20But if any other person says that he is a prophet and dares to speak a message which he falsely says comes from me but which I did not tell him to speak, or if anyone who speaks a message that he says other gods [MTY] have revealed to him, he must be executed for doing that.’

21But if you say to yourself, ‘How can we know if a message that someone tells us does not come from Yahweh?’ 22The answer is that when someone speaks a message about what will happen in the future, a message that he says was revealed by Yahweh, if what he says does not happen, you will know that the message did not come from Yahweh. That person has wrongly claimed that it was revealed to him by Yahweh. So you do not need to be afraid of anything that he says.”

19

The cities of refuge

1After Yahweh our God has gotten rid of the people-groups from the land that he is giving to you, and after you have expelled them from their cities and you start to live in their houses, 2-3you must divide into three parts the land that he is giving to you. Then choose a city in each part. You must make good roads in order that people can get to those cities easily. Someone who kills another person can escape to one of those cities to be safe/protected.

4This is the rule about someone who has killed another person. If someone ◄accidentally/without planning to► kills another person who was not his enemy, he may escape to one of those cities and be safe/protected there. 5For example, if two men go into the forest to cut some wood, if the axe head comes off the handle while one of them is chopping down a tree and the axe head strikes and kills the other man, the man who was using the axe will be allowed to run to one of those cities and be safe there, because the people of that city will protect him. 6Because he accidentally killed someone, and because the man was not his enemy, he can try to run to one of those cities. If there were only one city, it may be a long distance to that city. Then if the relative of the man who was killed [MTY], the man who is supposed/expected to get revenge, is very angry, he may be able to catch the other person before he arrives at that city. 7To prevent that from happening, you must choose three cities, not only one, in order that someone can get to one of those cities quickly.

8-9If you do everything that I am today commanding you to do, and if you love Yahweh our God, and if you conduct your lives as he wants you to do, Yahweh our God will give you much more land than you will have when you first occupy it, which is what he promised to do. He will give you all the land which he promised your ancestors that he would give to you. When he gives you that land, you must select three more cities to which people may escape. 10Do this in order that people who ◄are innocent/have killed someone else without planning to► will not die, and you will not be guilty for allowing them to be executed, in the land that Yahweh is giving to you.

11But suppose someone hates his enemy and hides and waits for that person to come along the road. Then when he passes by, suddenly he attacks him and murders him. If the attacker flees to one of those cities to be protected there, 12the elders of the city where the murdered man lived must not protect the attacker. They must send someone to the city to which the other man escaped, and bring him to [MTY] the relative who is supposed/expected to get revenge, so that he may execute that man. 13You must not pity those who murder other people! Instead, you must execute them, in order that the people in the land of Israel will not murder [MTY] innocent people, and in order that things will go well for you.

Warning against moving boundaries

14When you are living in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, do not move the markers of your neighbors’ property boundaries which were placed there long ago.

Warnings about witnesses

15If someone is accused of committing a crime, one ◄witness/person who says, ‘I saw him do it’► is not enough. There must be at least two ◄witnesses/people who say, ‘We saw him do it’►. If there is only one witness, the judge must not believe that what he says is true.

16If someone tries to do wrong to another person by falsely accusing him, 17both of them must go to the place where the people worship, to talk to the priests and judges who are serving at that time. 18The judges must ◄investigate the case carefully/try to find out which one is telling the truth►. If the judges determine that one of them has accused the other falsely, 19that person must be punished in the same way that the other one would have been punished if the judge decided that he ◄was guilty/had done what is wrong►. By punishing such people, you will get rid of this evil practice among you. 20And/Because when that person is punished, everyone will hear what has happened, and they will be afraid, and no one will dare to act that way anymore. 21You must not pity people who are punished like that. The rule should be that a person who has murdered someone else must be executed; one of a person’s eyes must be gouged out if he has gouged out someone else’s eye, one tooth of a person who has knocked out the tooth of another person must be knocked out; one hand of a person who has cut off the hand of another person must likewise be cut off; one foot of a person who has cut off the foot of another person must also be cut off.”

20

Rules concerning fighting wars

1“When your soldiers go to fight your enemies, and you see that they have many horses and chariots and that their army is much bigger than yours, do not be afraid of them, because Yahweh our God, who brought your ancestors safely out of Egypt, will be with you. 2When you are ready to start the battle, the Supreme Priest must stand in front of the troops. 3He must say to them, ‘You Israeli men, listen to me! Today you are going to fight against your enemies. Do not be timid or afraid [DOU] or tremble or panic [DOU], 4because Yahweh our God will go with you. He will fight your enemies for you, and he will enable you to defeat them.’

5Then the army officers must say to the troops, ‘If anyone among you has just built a new house [RHQ] and has not dedicated it to God, he should go home and dedicate the house. If he does not do that, if he dies in the battle, someone else will dedicate the house and live in it. 6If anyone among you has planted a vineyard and has not yet harvested any grapes from it [RHQ], he should go home. If he stays here and dies in the battle, someone else will harvest the grapes and enjoy the wine made from them. 7If anyone among you has become engaged to marry a woman but has not married her yet [RHQ], he should go home. If he stays here and dies in the battle, someone else will marry her.’

8Then the officers must also say, ‘If anyone among you is afraid or timid [RHQ], he should go home, in order that he does not cause his fellow soldiers to also stop being courageous.’ 9And when the officers have finished speaking to the troops, they must appoint commanders to lead the groups of soldiers.

10When you come near a city that is far away to attack it, first tell the people there that if they surrender, you will not attack them. 11If they open the gates of the city and surrender, they all will become your slaves to work for you. 12But if they refuse to surrender peacefully, and decide instead to fight against you, your troops must surround the city and break through the walls. 13Then, when Yahweh our God enables you to capture [IDM] the city, you must kill all the men in the city. 14But you are allowed to take for yourselves the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else that you want to take from the city. You will be allowed to enjoy all the things that belonged to your enemies; it is Yahweh our God who has given those things to you. 15You should do that in all the cities that are far from the land in which you will settle.

16But in the cities that are in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, you must kill all the people and all the animals [LIT]. 17You must get rid of them completely. Get rid of the Heth people-group, the Amor people-group, the Canaan people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group; that is what Yahweh our God commanded you to do. 18If you do not do that, they will teach you to sin against Yahweh our God and do the disgusting things that they do when they worship their gods.

19When you surround a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not cut down the fruit trees outside the city. You are allowed to eat the fruit from the trees, but do not get rid of the trees, because they certainly are not [RHQ] your enemies. 20You are permitted to cut down the other trees and use the wood to make ladders and towers to enable you to go over the walls and capture the city.”

21

When no one knows who murdered someone

1“Suppose someone has been murdered in a field in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you do not know who killed that person. 2If that happens, your elders and judges must go out to where that person’s corpse was found and measure the distance from there to each of the nearby towns. 3Then the elders in the town that is closest to where the corpse was found must select a young cow that has never been used for doing work. 4They must take it to a place near a stream where the ground has never been plowed or planted. They must break its neck there in that valley. 5The priests must go there also, because Yahweh our God has chosen them from the tribe of Levi to serve him and to be his representatives [MTY] when they bless people. And he has also chosen them to settle disputes in which someone has been injured. 6The elders from the closest town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken, 7and they must say, ‘We did not murder this person [MTY], and we did not see who did it. 8Yahweh, forgive us, your Israeli people whom you rescued from Egypt. Do not consider ◄us to be guilty/that we should be punished because► of murdering someone who ◄is innocent/had not done something that is wrong►. Instead, forgive us.’ 9By doing that, you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right, and you will not be considered to be guilty for murdering that person.

The rule about marrying women who are captured

10When you soldiers go to fight against your enemies, and Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them [IDM], and ◄they become your prisoners/you capture them►, 11one of you may see among them a beautiful woman that he likes, and he may want to marry her. 12He should take her to his home, and there she must shave all the hair off her head and cut her fingernails to signify that now she does not belong to her people-group anymore, but instead she is becoming an Israeli. 13She must take off the clothes that she was wearing when she was captured, and put on Israeli clothes. She must stay in that man’s house and mourn for a month because of leaving her parents. After that, he will be allowed to marry her. 14Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he will be permitted to allow her to leave him. But because she was forced to have sex with him, he will not be allowed to treat her like a slave and sell her to someone else.

The oldest son’s inheritance

15Suppose that a man has two wives, but he likes one of them and dislikes the other one. And suppose that they both give birth to sons, and the oldest son is the child of the woman that he does not like. 16On the day when that man decides how he will divide his possessions for his sons to possess after he dies, he must not favor the son of the wife that he loves by giving him a bigger share, the share that the older son should receive. 17He must give to the older son, the son of the wife whom he does not like, twice as much of his possessions. That son is his firstborn son, and he must be given the share that he should receive because of his being that man’s firstborn son.

A rebellious son

18Suppose there is a boy who is very stubborn and always ◄rebelling against/disobeying► his parents, and who will not heed what they say to him. And suppose that they punish him but he still does not pay attention to what they tell him [MTY]. 19If that happens, his parents must take him to the ◄gate of/central meeting place in► the city where he lives and have him stand in front of the elders of the city. 20Then the parents must say to the elders of that city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and always rebelling against us. He will not pay attention to what we tell him [MTY]. He wastes a lot of money (OR, eats too much food) and gets drunk.’ 21Then all the elders of that city must execute him by throwing stones at him. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you. And everyone in Israel will hear about what happened and they will be afraid to do what he did.

Burying criminals

22If someone is executed for having committed a crime for which he deserves to die, and you hang his corpse on a post, 23you must not allow his corpse to remain there all night. You must bury it on the day that he died, because God has cursed anyone whose corpse is allowed to remain on a post. You must bury the corpse that day, in order that you do not defile the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.”

22

Various other laws

1“If you see some Israeli’s ox or sheep that has strayed away, do not act as though you did not see it. Take it back to its owner. 2But if the owner does not live near you, or if you do not know who the owner is, take the animal to your house. It can stay with you until the owner comes, searching for it. Then you must give the animal to him. 3You must do the same thing if you see a donkey, or a piece of clothing, or anything else that someone has lost. Do not refuse to do what you should do.

4And if you see a fellow Israeli’s donkey or cow that has fallen down on the road, do not act as though you did not see it. Help the owner to lift the animal up so that it can stand on its feet again.

5Women must not wear men’s clothes, and men must not wear women’s clothes. Yahweh our God hates people who do things like that.

6If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting in the nest on its eggs or with the baby birds, do not take the mother bird and kill it. 7You are permitted to take the baby birds, but you must allow the mother bird to fly away. Do this in order that things will go well for you and that you will live for a long time.

8If you build a new house, you must put a ◄railing/low wall► around the edge of the roof. If you do that, and if someone falls off the roof and dies, ◄you will not be guilty of causing that person to die/his death [MTY] will not be your fault►.

9Do not plant any crop in the area where your grapevines are growing. If you do, you are not allowed to harvest the crops that you have planted or to harvest the grapes to make wine from them.

10Do not hitch together an ox and a donkey for plowing your fields.

11Do not wear clothing that is made by weaving together ◄wool and linen/two different kinds of thread►.

12Twist threads together to make tassels and sew/fasten them on the four bottom corners of your cloak.

Rules concerning sex

13Suppose a man marries a young woman and has sex with her and later decides that he does not want her anymore, 14and he says false things about her, and claims that she was not a virgin when he married her. 15If that happens, the young woman’s parents must take the sheet that was on the bed when that man and their daughter were married, which still has bloodstains on it, and show it to the elders of the city at the ◄gate of/central meeting place in► the city. 16Then the father of the young woman must say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But now he says that he doesn’t want her anymore. 17And he has falsely said that she was not a virgin when he married her. But look! Here is what proves that my daughter was a virgin! Look at the bloodstains on the sheet where they slept the night that they were married!’ And he will show the sheet to the elders. 18Then the elders of that city must take that man and whip him. 19They shall require that he pay a fine of 100 pieces of silver and give the money to the father of the young woman, because the man caused an Israeli young woman to be disgraced. Also, that woman must continue to live with him; she is his wife. He is not allowed to divorce her during the rest of his life.

20But if what the man said is true, and there is nothing to prove that she was a virgin when he married her, 21they must take that young woman to the door of her father’s house. Then the men of that city must execute her by throwing stones at her. They must do that because she has done something in Israel that is very disgraceful, by having sex with some man while she was still living in her father’s house. By executing her like that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you.

22If a man is caught while he is having sex with another man’s wife, both of them must be executed. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice in Israel.

23Suppose in some town a man sees a young woman who is engaged/promised to be married to another man, and he is caught having sex with [EUP] her. 24You must take both of them to the ◄gate of/central meeting place in► that town. There you must execute them both by throwing stones at them. You must execute the young women because she did not shout for help even though she was in the town. And the man must be executed because he had sex [EUP] with someone who was already engaged/promised to be married. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you.

25But suppose out in the open countryside a man meets a young woman who is engaged/promised to be married, and he rapes her. If that happens, only that man must be executed. 26You must not punish the young woman, because she did not do anything for which she deserves to be executed. This case is like when one man attacks another man in the countryside and murders him, 27because the man who raped her saw her when she was in the open countryside, and even though she called out for help, there was no one there who could rescue her.

28If a man rapes a young woman who is not engaged/promised to be married, if someone sees him while he is doing that, 29that man must pay 50 pieces of silver to the young woman’s father, and he must marry her, because he forced her to have sex with him. He is not allowed to divorce her for the rest of his life.

30A man must not disgrace his father by having sex with any of his father’s wives.”

23

Exclusion from Yahweh’s people

1“Any man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall not be ◄included as one of/allowed to worship with► Yahweh’s people.

2No ◄illegitimate person/person whose mother and father were not married►, or descendant of that person, extending to the tenth generation, shall be included as one of Yahweh’s people.

3No one from the Ammon or Moab people-groups shall be ◄included as one of/allowed to worship with► Yahweh’s people, extending to the tenth generation. 4One reason is that their leaders refused to give your ancestors food and water when they were traveling from Egypt to Canaan. Another reason is that they wanted to pay Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor town in Mesopotamia, to curse you Israelis. 5But Yahweh our God did not pay attention to Balaam; instead, he caused Balaam to bless your ancestors, because Yahweh loved them. 6As long as Israel is a nation, you must not do anything to cause things to go well for those two people-groups or enable them to prosper.

7But do not despise anyone from the Edom people-group, because they are descendants of your ancestor Jacob, just like you are. And do not despise people from Egypt, because they treated your ancestors well when they first lived in Egypt. 8The children and grandchildren of people from Edom and Egypt who live among you may be ◄included among/allowed to worship with► Yahweh’s people.

Keeping the camp clean

9When your soldiers are living in tents at a time of fighting your enemies, they must avoid doing things that would make them unacceptable to God. 10If any soldier becomes unacceptable to God because semen comes out of his body during the night, the next morning he must go outside the camp and stay there during that day. 11But in the evening of that day, he must bathe himself, and at sunset he is allowed to come back into the camp.

12Your soldiers must have a toilet area outside the camp where you can go when you need to. 13When you go to fight against your enemies, carry a stick along with your weapons, in order that when you need to defecate [EUP], you can dig a hole with the stick, and then cover up the hole when you have finished defecating. 14You must keep the camp acceptable to Yahweh our God, because he is with you in your camp to protect you and to enable you to defeat your enemies. Do not do anything disgraceful/indecent that would cause Yahweh to abandon you.

Various other laws

15If slaves who escape from their masters come to you and request you to protect them, do not send them back to their masters. 16Allow them to stay/live among you, in whatever town they choose, and do not mistreat them.

17Do not allow any Israeli man or woman to become a prostitute at the temple. 18Also, do not allow any people who earned money from being a prostitute to bring any of that money into the temple of Yahweh our God, even if they solemnly promised to pay that money to Yahweh. Yahweh hates those who are prostitutes.

19When you lend money or food or anything else to a fellow Israeli, do not charge them interest. 20You are allowed to charge interest when you lend money to foreigners who live in your land, but not when you lend money to Israelis. Do this in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

21When you vow to give something to Yahweh your God or to do something for him, do it as soon as you can. Yahweh expects you to do what you promised, and if you do not do it, you will be committing a sin. 22But if you [SYN] do not vow to do something, that is not sinful. 23But if you voluntarily promise to do something, you must do it.

24When you walk through someone else’s vineyard, you are allowed to pick and eat as many grapes as you want, but you must not cut some from a vine and carry them away in a container. 25When you walk along a path in someone else’s field of grain, you are allowed to pluck/pick some of the grain and eat it, but you must not cut any grain with a sickle and take it with you.”

24

Laws about divorcing and remarrying

1“Suppose a man marries a woman and later decides that he does not want her because there is something about her that he doesn’t like. And suppose he writes on paper that he is divorcing her, and he gives the paper to her [SYN] and sends her away from his house. 2Then suppose that she goes and marries another man, 3and that man later also decides that he does not like her, and he also writes on paper that he is divorcing her, and he sends her away from his house. Or, suppose that the second husband dies. 4If either of those things happens, her first husband must not marry her again. He must consider that she has become unacceptable to Yahweh. Yahweh would consider it to be disgusting if he married her again. You must not sin [MTY] by doing that in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.

Various laws

5When some man has recently become married, he must not be required to become a soldier in the army or be required to do any other work for the government for one year after being married. He should stay happily at home with his wife for that year.

6Anyone who lends money to someone else is allowed to require that person to give him something to guarantee that he will pay back the money that he borrowed. But he must not take from him his ◄millstone/stone for grinding grain►. That would be taking the millstone that his family needs to grind the grain to make the bread they need to stay alive.

7If someone kidnaps/steals a fellow Israeli to cause that person to become his slave or to sell him to become someone else’s slave, you must execute the person who did that. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil among you.

8If you are suffering from ◄leprosy/a dreaded skin disease►, be sure to do everything that the priests, who are from the tribe of Levi, tell you to do. Obey carefully the instructions that I have given to them. 9Do not forget what Yahweh our God did to Miriam, when she became a leper, after your ancestors left Egypt.

10When you lend something to someone, do not go into his house to take the cloak that he says that he will give you to guarantee that he will return what he has borrowed. 11Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you are lending something will bring the cloak out to you. 12But if he is poor, do not keep that cloak all night. 13When the sun sets, take the cloak back to him, in order that he may wear it while he sleeps. If you do that, he will ask God to bless you, and Yahweh our God will be pleased with you.

14Do not mistreat any servants whom you have hired who are poor and needy [DOU], whether they are Israelis or foreigners who are living in your town. 15Every day, before sunset, you must pay/give them the money that they have earned. They are poor and they need to get their pay. If you do not pay them right away, they will cry out against you to Yahweh, and he will punish [MTY] you for having sinned like that.

16Parents must not be executed for crimes that their children have committed, and children must not be executed for crimes that their parents have committed. People should be executed only for the crimes that they themselves have committed.

17You must [LIT] do for foreigners who live among you and for orphans what the laws state must be done for them. And if you lend something to a widow, do not take her coat from her as a guarantee that she will return it. 18Do not forget that you had great hardships/troubles when you were slaves in Egypt, and Yahweh our God rescued you from there. That is why I am commanding you to help others who have troubles.

19When you harvest your crops, if you have forgotten that you left one bundle in the field, do not go back to get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows. If you do that, Yahweh will bless you in everything that you do. 20And when you have harvested/picked all your olives from the trees once, do not go back to pick the ones that are still on the trees. 21Similarly, when you pick the grapes in your vineyard, do not go back a second time to try to find more. Leave them for the foreigners, orphans, and widows among you. 22Do not forget that Yahweh was kind to you when you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I am commanding you to be kind to those who are needy.”

25

Whipping criminals

1“If two Israelis have a dispute and they go to a court, the judge will probably decide/declare that one of them ◄is innocent/did not do any wrong► and the other one is guilty. 2If the judge says that the guilty person must be punished, he shall command him to lie with his face on the ground and be whipped. The number of times he is struck with a whip will depend on what kind of crime he committed. 3It is permitted that he be struck as many as 40 times, but no more than that. If he is struck more than 40 times, he would be humiliated publicly.

Don’t muzzle your ox

4When your ox is treading/walking on the grain to separate the chaff from the grain, do not ◄muzzle it/put a covering on its mouth► to prevent it from eating some of the grain.

Responsibility to a dead brother

5If two brothers live on the same property, and one of them who has no son dies, the man’s widow should not marry someone who is not a member of his family. The dead man’s brother must marry her and have sex [EUP] with her. It is his duty to do that. 6If she later gives birth to a son, that son is to be considered [MTY] the son of the man who died, in order that the dead man’s name will not disappear from Israel.

7But if the dead man’s brother does not want to marry that woman, she must stand at the ◄gate/central meeting place► of the town and say to the town elders, ‘My husband’s brother will not do ◄his duty/what he is supposed to do►. He refuses to marry me in order that I may give birth to a son who will prevent my dead husband’s name from disappearing in Israel.’ 8Then the elders must summon that man and talk to him. If he still refuses to marry that widow, 9she must go up to him while the elders are watching, and take off one of his sandals to symbolize/show that he would not receive any of her property, and spit in his face, and say to him, ‘This is what happens to the man who refuses to do what is needed to allow his dead brother to have a son in order that our family name does not disappear.’ 10After that happens, that man’s family will be known as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’.

Two other laws

11When two men are fighting with each other, and the one man’s wife comes near to help her husband by grabbing hold of the other man’s genitals, 12do not act mercifully toward her; cut off her hand.

13-14When you are buying or selling things, do not try to cheat people by having two kinds of weights, one which you use when you buy something and one which you use when you sell something, and two kinds of measuring baskets, one which you use when you buy something and one which you use when you sell something. 15Always use correct weights and correct measuring baskets, in order that Yahweh our God will allow you to live a long time in the land that he is giving to you. 16Yahweh hates all those who act dishonestly, and he will punish them.

Getting revenge on the Amalek people-group

17Continue to remember what the Amalek people-group did to your ancestors when they were coming out of Egypt. 18They attacked your ancestors as your ancestors were traveling, when they were weak and exhausted. Those people were not afraid of God at all, so they attacked your ancestors from the rear and killed all those who were unable to walk as fast as the others. 19Therefore, when Yahweh our God has given you the land that he promised to give you, and when he has enabled you to rest from fighting all your enemies around you, kill all the Amalek people-group, with the result that no one will remember them anymore. Do not forget to do this!”

26

Offerings at harvest time

1“After you occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you ◄have settled/are living► there, 2each of you must take some of the first crops that you harvest, put them in a basket, and take them to the place that Yahweh will have chosen for you to worship [MTY] there. 3Go to the Supreme Priest who is serving at that time and say to him, ‘By giving you this first part of my harvest today, I am declaring to Yahweh our God that I have picked it in the land that he vowed to our ancestors to give to us.’ 4Then the priest must take the basket of food from your hand and put it on the altar where sacrifices are offered to Yahweh our God. 5Then in Yahweh’s presence you must say this: ‘My ancestor Jacob was a man from Aram/Syria who was continually wandering from one place to another. He took his family to Egypt. They were a small group when they went there, but they lived there and their descendants became a very large/populous [DOU] and powerful nation. 6Then the people of Egypt treated them very harshly [DOU], and they forced them to become their slaves and to work very hard. 7Then our ancestors cried out to you, Yahweh our God, and you heard them. You saw that they were suffering, and that they were forced to work very hard, and were being oppressed. 8Then by your great power [MTY] and by performing many kinds of miracles [DOU], and other terrifying things, you brought them out of Egypt. 9You brought us to this land and gave it to us, a land that is very fertile [IDM]. 10So now, Yahweh, I have brought to you the first part of the harvest from the land that I received.’ Then you must set the basket down in Yahweh’s presence and worship him there. 11And you must celebrate by eating a meal together to thank Yahweh our God for all the good things that he has given to you and to your family. And you must invite the descendants of Levi and the foreigners who are living among you to also rejoice and eat with you.

The tithes

12Every third year, you must bring to the descendants of Levi and to the foreigners who are living among you and the orphans and the widows ◄a tithe/10 percent► of your crops, in order that in every town they will have plenty to eat. 13Then you must say to Yahweh, ‘I have brought to you, from my house, all of the sacred tithe from my harvest this year. I am giving it to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows, as you commanded us to do. I have not disobeyed any of your commands about the tithes, and I have not forgotten any of your commands about tithes. 14I declare that I have not eaten any food from the tithe while I was mourning for someone who died. And I have not touched any of it while I was unacceptable to you; I have not offered any of it to spirits of dead people. Yahweh, I have obeyed you and done everything that you have commanded us concerning the tithe. 15So please look down from your holy place in heaven, and bless us, your Israeli people. Also bless this very fertile [IDM] land which you have given to us, which is what you promised our ancestors that you would do.’

Yahweh’s own people

16Today Yahweh our God is commanding you to obey all these rules and regulations. So obey them faithfully, with your entire inner being [DOU]. 17Today you have declared that Yahweh is your God, and that you will conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and that you will obey all his commands and rules and regulations, and that you will do all that he tells you to do. 18And today Yahweh has declared that you are his people, which is what he promised that you would be, and he commands you to obey all his commands. 19If you do that, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation that he has established, and he will enable you to praise him and honor him [DOU]. You will truly belong to Yahweh our God, which is what he has promised.”

27

The stone tablets set up on Ebal Mountain

1Moses/I, along with the other Israeli leaders, said this to the people: “Obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today. 2-4Soon you will cross the Jordan River and enter the land that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, promised to give to you. There, in that very fertile [IDM] land on the west side of the Jordan River, set up some large stones on Ebal Mountain, and cover them with plaster. Then write on those stones all these laws and teachings/instructions. 5And build a stone altar there to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, but do not cut those stones with iron tools. 6The altar that you make to burn sacrifices to Yahweh our God must be made with uncut stones. 7And there you must sacrifice offerings to maintain fellowship with Yahweh, and you must eat your share of those offerings and rejoice/celebrate in the presence of Yahweh. 8And, when you write these laws on those stones, you must write them very clearly.”

9Then Moses/I, along with the priests, said to all the Israeli people, “You Israeli people, be quiet and listen to what I am saying. Today you have become the people who belong to Yahweh, our God. 10So, you must do what he tells you, and obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.”

The curses from disobeying God

11On that same day Moses/I said to the Israeli people, 12“After you have crossed over the Jordan River, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin must stand on Gerizim Mountain and request Yahweh to bless the people. 13And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Ebal Mountain and listen to the things that Yahweh will do when he curses the people.

14The descendants of Levi must shout these words loudly:

15‘Yahweh will curse anyone who makes an idol of stone, or of wood, or of metal, and secretly sets it up and worships it.

Yahweh considers that those things, made by humans [SYN], are detestable/disgusting.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

16‘Yahweh will curse anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

17‘Yahweh will curse anyone who removes someone else’s markers of property boundaries.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

18‘Yahweh will curse anyone who leads a blind person to go ◄in the wrong direction/where that person does not want to go►.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

19‘Yahweh will curse anyone who deprives foreigners or orphans or widows of the things that the laws state must be done for them.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

20‘Yahweh will curse anyone who ◄shows no respect for/disgraces his father►

by having sex with [EUP] any of his father’s wives.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

21‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sex [EUP] with any animal.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

22‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sex with his sister or with his half-sister.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

23‘Yahweh will curse anyone who has sex with [EUP] his mother-in-law.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

24‘Yahweh will curse anyone who secretly murders someone else.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

25‘Yahweh will curse anyone who accepts a bribe to murder someone who ◄is innocent/has not done something that is wrong.►’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’

26‘Yahweh will curse anyone who disobeys these laws and refuses to declare that these laws are good.’

And all the people must reply, ‘◄Amen/We want that to happen►.’”

28

The blessings from obeying God

1“If you do what Yahweh our God tells you to do and faithfully obey everything that I am today commanding you to do, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation on the earth. 2If you obey Yahweh, this is what he will do to bless you:

3He will bless everything that you do when you are in the cities

and he will bless everything that you do when you are working in the fields.

4He will bless you by giving you many children [IDM] and by giving you abundant crops, and plenty of cattle and sheep.

5He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.

6He will bless you everywhere —when you go out of your houses and when you come into your houses.

7Yahweh will enable you to defeat the armies of your enemies;

they will attack you from one direction, but they will run away from you in seven/many directions.

8Yahweh will bless you by filling your barns with grain, and he will bless all the work that you do;

he will bless you in the land that he is giving to you.

9If you obey all the commandments that Yahweh our God has given to you and if you conduct your lives as he wants you to do, you will continue to be his people, which is what he promised.

10Then all the people-groups on the earth will realize that you belong to [MTY] Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you.

11And Yahweh will cause you to prosper very much. He will give you many children [IDM], many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he vowed to our ancestors that he would give to you.

12When rain is needed, Yahweh will send it from where he stores it in the sky, and he will bless all your work, with the result that you will be able to lend money to many other nations, but you will not need to borrow money from them.

13If you faithfully obey all of the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving you today, Yahweh will cause your nation to be a leader among the nations, not inferior to them; you will always be prosperous ander be needy/poor [IDM].

14Yahweh will do all these things for you if you do not turn away from obeying what I am commanding you today, and if you never worship or serve other gods.

The curses from disobeying God

15But if you do not do what Yahweh our God is telling you to do, and if you do not faithfully obey all his rules and regulations that I am giving to you today, this is what he will do to curse you:

16He will curse you when you are in the cities

and he will curse you when you are working in the fields.

17He will curse you by not allowing you to have good harests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.

18He will curse you by giving you only a few children [IDM], by causiing you to have poor crops, and by not enabling you to have many cattle and sheep.

19He will curse you everywhere —when you go out of your houses and when you come into your houses.

20If you do evil things and reject Yahweh,

he will curse you by causing you to ◄be confused/not know what to do►, and to be frustrated in everything that you do,

until your enemies quickly and completely destroy you {you will be quickly and completely destroyed}.

21Yahweh will cause you to experience terrible diseases,

until not one of you remains alive in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

22Yahweh will strike/afflict you with diseases that shrivel your bodies, with fever, with inflammation/swelling.

It will be extremely hot, and it will not rain.

There will be scorching winds, and Yahweh will cause your crops to rot.

You will experiece all these things will strike you until you die.

23There willl be no rain [MET], with the result that the ground will be as hard as iron [MET].

24Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.

25Yahweh will enable your enemies to defeat you;

your soldiers will attack your enemies from one direction, but they will run away from your enemies in seven/many directions,

and when the people of other nations see what is happening to you, they will say that it is horrible.

26You will die, and birds and wild animals will come and eat your corpses,

and there will not be anyone to scare/shoo them away.

27Yahweh will cause you to have boils on your skin, like he caused the people of Egypt to have many years ago.

He will cause you to have tumors, open sores, and your skin will itch, and there will be nothing that will cure those diseases.

28Yahweh will cause some of you to become insane; he will cause some of you to become blind, and he will cause some of your minds to become confused.

29Because you will not be able to see where you are going, at midday you will ◄grope/feel your way► around with your hands, like people do in the darkness.

You will continually be oppressed and robbed, and no one will help you.

30Some of you men will be engaged/promised to marry a young woman, but someone else will rape her.

You will build houses, but you will never live in them.

You will plant grapevines, but you will not eat the grapes; someone else will eat them.

31Your enemies will butcher your cattle while you watch them, and you will not get any of the meat to eat.

They will drag away your donkeys while you watch them do it, and they will not give them back to you.

They will take away your sheep; and no one will help you rescue them.

32While you watch, your sons and daughters will be given to foreigners to become their slaves. Every day you will very sadly watch for your children to return, but ◄you will watch in vain/they will never return►.

33People from a foreign nation will take all the crops that you worked hard to produce,

and they will constantly treat you harshly and cruelly [DOU].

34The result will be that all these terrible things that you see/experience will cause you to become insane.

35Yahweh will cause your legs to be covered with painful boils that cannot be healed,

and you will have boils from the bottoms of your feet to the tops of your heads.

36Yahweh will cause your king and the rest of you to be taken to another country, to a place in which you and your ancestors have never lived before,

and there you will worship and serve gods that are made of wood or stone.

37When the people-groups in nearby countries see what has happened to you, they will be shocked/horrified;

they will make fun [DOU] of you.

38You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops.

39You will plant grapevines and take care of them, but you will not pick any grapes to make wine, because worms will eat the vines.

40Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not get any olive oil to rub on your skin because the olives will drop on the ground before they are ripe.

41You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because they will be captured and taken away.

42Swarms of locusts/insects will eat your crops and the leaves of all your trees.

43Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more powerful, and you will become less and less powerful.

44They will have money to lend to you, but you will not have any money to lend to them.

They will be superior [IDM] to you, and you will be inferior to them [IDM].

45You will experience all these disasters, and you will continue to experience them you until you are destroyed, if you do not do what Yahweh your God told you to do, and do not obey all the rules and regulations that he gave to you.

46These disasters will warn [DOU] you and your descendants forever about what happens to groups who disobey Yahweh.

47Because Yahweh blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully [DOU], but you did not do that.

48Therefore, you will work for the enemies whom Yahweh will send to attack you. You will be hungry and thirsty; you will not have clothes to wear; and you will lack everything else that you need. And Yahweh will cause you to become slaves [MET] and work hard until he gets rid of you.

49Yahweh will cause an army from very far away [HYP] to attack you, whose soldiers speak a language that you do not know/understand. They will swoop down on you quickly like an eagle [SIM] attacks its prey. 50They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people. 51They will kill and eat your livestock, and they will eat your crops, and you will ◄starve/die because you do not have anything to eat►. They will not leave for you any grain or wine or olive oil or cattle or sheep; and you will all die from hunger. 52Your enemies will surround your towns throughout the land that Yahweh your God is about to give to you, and they will break down the high and strong walls around your towns, walls which you trusted/thought would protect you.

53When your enemies are surrounding your towns, you will be extremely hungry, with the result that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters that Yahweh your God has given to you. 54-55When your enemies have surrounded your towns, even the most gentle and sensitive men among you will want food very desperately, with the result that they will kill their own children and eat their flesh, because they will not have anything else to eat. They will not even share any of it with their brothers or wives whom they love very much or with any of their children who are still alive. 56-57Even the most gentle and sensitive/kind women among you, who are very refined/rich with the result that they have never had to walk anywhere [HYP], will do the same thing. When your enemies have surrounded your towns, those women will be extremely hungry, with the result that after they give birth to a baby, they will secretly kill it and eat its flesh and also eat its afterbirth. And they will not share any of it with their husbands whom they love very much or with any of their other children.

58If you do not faithfully obey all of the laws that I am writing, and if you do not revere Yahweh our glorious God [MTY], 59he will punish you by causing you and your descendants to experinence great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years. 60He will cause you to experience the plagues that he sent on the people of Egypt, and you will never be healed. 61He will also cause you to experience many other sicknesses and diseases that I have not talked about in these laws, until you all will die. 62You became as numerous as the stars in the sky, but only a few of you will remain alive, if you do not obey Yahweh your God. 63Yahweh was very happy to do good things for you and to cause you to become very numerous, but now he will be happy to ruin you and get rid of you. Those of you who do not die from these plagues will be snatched away from the land that you will soon be entering to possess.

64Yahweh will scatter you among many people-groups, all over the earth, and in those areas/places you will serve other gods that are made of wood or stone, gods which you and your ancestors have never known/worshiped. 65In those places you will be restless. Yahweh will cause you to be constantly worried/anxious, feel hopeless, and discouraged. 66You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night. 67Because you will be very fearful/afraid and because you will very distressed because of the terrible things that you see, each morning you will say ‘I wish it were evening already!’ and each evening you will say ‘I wish it were morning already!’ 68Yahweh will send some of you back to Egypt in ships, even though he promised that you would never be forced to go there again. There in Egypt you will try to sell yourselves to become slaves of your enemies in order to have food to eat, but no one will buy you. All those things will happen to you if you do not obey the laws that Yahweh is giving to you.”

29

The agreement made in Moab

1These are the things that the Israelis were required to do to keep the agreement that Yahweh was making with them. Moses/I commanded them to keep this agreement when they/we were in the Moab region on the east side of the Jordan River. This was in addition to the agreement that Yahweh had made with them/us at Sinai Mountain.

2Moses/I summoned all the Israeli people and said to them, “You saw [SYN] for yourselves what Yahweh did to the king of Egypt and to his officials and to his entire country. 3You [SYN] saw all the plagues that Yahweh caused them to experience, and all the various miracles [DOU] that Yahweh performed. 4But until now, Yahweh has not enabled you to understand the meaning of all that you have seen and heard. 5For 40 years Yahweh has led you while you traveled/walked through the desert. During that time, your clothes and your sandals have not worn out. 6You did not have bread to eat or wine or other fermented/strong drinks to drink, but Yahweh took care of you, in order that you would know that he is your God.

7And when we came to this place, Sihon, the king who ruled in Heshbon city, and Og, the king who ruled the Bashan region, came with their armies to attack us, but we defeated them. 8We took/conquered their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

9So faithfully keep all of this agreement, in order that you will be successful in everything that you do. 10Today all of us are standing in the presence of Yahweh our God. The leaders of all our tribes, our elders, our officials, all you Israeli men, 11your wives, your children, and the foreigners who live among you and cut wood for you and carry water for you, are here. 12We are here today to promise to keep this solemn agreement with Yahweh. 13He is making this agreement with you in order to confirm that you are his people, and that he is your God. This agreement is what he promised you, and which is what he vowed to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14This agreement is not only with you. 15He is making this agreement with us who are here today and also with our descendants who are not yet born.

16You remember the things that our ancestors suffered in Egypt, and how they traveled through the land that belonged to other nations after they came out of Egypt. 17In those countries they saw those disgusting idols made of wood and stone and decorated with silver and gold. 18So be sure that no man or woman or family or tribe that is here today turns away from Yahweh our God, to worship/serve the gods of those nations. Doing that would be like a root of a plant that would grow among you and bear poisonous and bitter fruit [MET].

19Be sure that no one here today who hears this agreement thinks, ‘Everything will go well with me, even if I stubbornly do what I want to.’ If you are stubborn likethat, the result will be that Yahweh will eventually get rid of all of you, both good people and evil people [MET]. 20Yahweh will not forgive anyone who is stubborn like that. Instead, he will be extremely angry [DOU] with that person, and that person will experience all the curses that I have told you about, until Yahweh gets rid of that person and his family [IDM]. 21From all the tribes of Israel, Yahweh will separate that individual. Yahweh will cause him to experience all the disasters that I have listed in the agreement that states the things that Yahweh will do to curse those who disobey the laws that I have written in this scroll/book.

22In the future, your descendants and people from other countries will see the disasters and the illnesses that Yahweh has caused to happen to you. 23They will see that all your land has been ruined by burning sulfur and salt. Nothing will have been planted. Not even weeds will grow there. Your land will resemble Sodom and Gomorrah cities, and Admah and Zeboiim cities, which Yahweh destroyed when he was very angry [DOU] with the people who lived there. 24And the people from those other nations will ask, ‘Why did Yahweh do this to this land? Why was he very angry with the people who lived here?’

25Then other people will reply, ‘It is because they refused to keep the agreement that Yahweh, the God whom their ancestors worshiped, had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26Instead, they served/worshiped other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that Yahweh had told them not to worship. 27So, Yahweh became very angry with the Israeli people in this land, and he caused them to experience all the disasters that their leader warned them about. 28Yahweh became extremely angry [DOU] with them and took/yanked them [MET] out of their land and banished them into another land, and they are still there.’

29There are some things that Yahweh our God has ◄kept secret/not revealed►, but he has revealed his laws to us, and he expects us and our descendants to obey them forever.”

30

Bringing them back to Israel

1“I have now told you about the ways that Yahweh our God will bless you if you obey him and the ways that he will curse you if you disobey him. I am saying that you must choose which you want. But when you choose not to obey his laws, some day you will be living in the countries to which he will scatter you, and you will remember what I told you. 2Then, if you return to Yahweh our God and faithfully [IDM] obey all that I have today commanded you to do, 3he will be merciful to you. He will bring you back from the nations to which he scattered you, and he will cause you to be prosperous again. 4Even if you have been scattered to the most distant places on the earth, Yahweh our God will gather you from there and bring you back to your land. 5He will enable you to possess again the land where your ancestors lived. And he will cause you to be more prosperous and more numerous than you are now. 6Yahweh our God will change [MET] your inner beings, with the result that you will love him more than you love anything else and want to do only what he wants you to do. And then you will continue to live in that land. 7Yahweh our God will cause your enemies and those who oppressed/persecuted you to experience all the disasters that I have told you about. 8You will do what Yahweh wants you to do, as you did before, and you will obey all the commands that I have given to you today. 9Yahweh our God will cause you to be very successful in all that you do. You will have many children [IDM], and a lot of cattle, and you will have abundant crops. He will again be happy to enable you to prosper, just like he was happy to enable your ancestors to prosper. 10But he will do those things only if you do what he has told you to do, and if you obey all his rules and regulations that I have written about in this scroll, and if you will love him more than you love anything else and want to do only what he wants you to do.

Choose life, not death

11The commands that I am giving to you today are not very difficult for you to obey, and they are not difficult to know . 12They are not in heaven, with the result that you need to say, ‘◄Who will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them down here to us in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them down here to us in order that we can hear them and obey them.►’ [RHQ] 13And they are not on the other side of the sea, with the result that you need to say, ‘◄Who will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them.►’ [RHQ] 14You do not need to do that because his commands are here with you. You know them [MTY] and you have ◄memorized them/put them in your minds►. So you can easily obey them.

15So listen! Today I am allowing you to choose between doing what is evil and doing what is good, between what will enable you to live for a long time and what will cause you to die while you are still young. 16I say again, if you obey the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, and if you love him and conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and if you obey all his rules and regulations, you will prosper and become very numerous, and Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

17But if you turn away from Yahweh and refuse to heed what he says, and if you allow yourselves to be led away to worship other gods, 18I am warning you today that you will soon die. You will not live for a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to enter and possess.

19I am requesting that everyone in lheaven and the earth testify to you, that today I am allowing you to choose whether you want to live for a long time or to soon die, whether you want Yahweh to bless you or to curse you. So choose to live. 20Choose to love Yahweh our God, and to obey him [MTY], and to ◄be faithful to/have a close relationship with► him. If you do that, you and your descendants will live for a long time in the land that Yahweh solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give to them.”

31

Moses appointed Joshua to succeed him

1When Moses/I finished saying all that to the Israeli people, 2he/I said to them, “Now I am 120 years old. I am no longer able to go everywhere that you go (OR, to be your leader). Furthermore, Yahweh has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River. 3But Yahweh our God will go ahead of you. He will enable you to destroy the nations that are living there, in order that you can occupy their land. Joshua will be your leader, which is what Yahweh already told me. 4Yahweh will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amor people-group when he destroyed their armies [MTY]. 5Yahweh will enable you to conquer those nations, but you must kill all of the people of those nations, which is what I have commanded you to do. 6Be brave and confident. Do not be afraid of those people. Do not forget that it is Yahweh our God who will go with you. He will always help [LIT] you and never abandon you.”

7Then Moses/I summoned Joshua, and while all the Israeli people were listening, he/I said to him, “Be brave and confident. You are the one who will lead these people into the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them, and you will enable them to occupy it. 8It is Yahweh who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will always help [LIT] you. He will never abandon you. So do not be afraid or dismayed.”

The laws are to be read periodically

9Moses/I wrote down all these laws on two scrolls and gave one scroll to the priests, who carried the chest containing the Ten Commandments, and gave the other scroll to the Israeli elders. 10Moses/I told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time that all debts are canceled, read this to the people during the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters. 11Read it to all the Israeli people when they gather at the place that Yahweh chooses for them to worship him. 12Gather together everyone—men, women, children, even the foreigners who are living in your towns—in order that they may hear these laws and learn to revere Yahweh our God, and to faithfully obey everything that is written in these laws. 13If they do that, your descendants who have never known these laws will hear them and will also learn to revere Yahweh our God, during all the years that they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy.”

Moses predicted their disobedience

14Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Listen carefully. You will soon die. Summon Joshua, and you go to the Sacred Tent with him, in order that I may appoint him to be the new leader.” So Joshua and Moses/I went to the Sacred Tent.

15There Yahweh appeared to them/us in a pillar of cloud, and that cloud was close to the door of the tent. 16Yahweh said to Moses/me, “You will soon die [EUP]. Then these people will become unfaithful [MET] to me. They will abandon me and ◄break/stop obeying► the agreement that I made with them. They will begin to worship the foreign/pagan gods that are worshiped by the people of the land that they will enter. 17When that happens, I will become very angry with them. I will abandon them [DOU] and I will no longer help them [IDM], and I will destroy them {they will be destroyed}. Many terrible things will happen to them, with the result that they will say, ‘We are certain that [RHQ] these things are happening to us because our God is no longer with us.’ 18And because of all the evil things that they will have done, and especially because they will have started to worship other gods, I will refuse to help [IDM] them.

19So, I am going to give you a song. Write it on a scroll and teach it to the Israeli people and cause them to memorize it. It will be like a witness that accuses them. 20I am about to take them into a very fertile [IDM] land, a land that I solemnly promised their ancestors that I would give to them. There they will have plenty to eat, with the result that their stomachs will always be full and they will become fat. But then they will turn to other gods and start to worship them, and they will despise me and ◄break/stop obeying► the agreement that I made with them. 21And they will experience many terrible disasters. After that happens, their descendants will never forget this song, and it will be like a witness that says ‘Now you know why Yahweh punished your ancestors.’ I will soon take them into the land that I vowed that I would give to them; but now, before I do that, I know what they are thinking that they will do when they are living there.” 22So on the day that Yahweh gave Moses/me this song, he/I wrote it down, and he/I taught it to the Israeli people.

23Then Yahweh ◄appointed/set apart► Joshua and said to him, “Be brave and confident, because you will lead the Israeli people into the land that I vowed that I would give to them. And I will be with you.”

24Then Moses/I finished writing on a scroll all the laws that Yahweh had told to him/me. 25Then Moses/I told the descendants of Levi, who were carrying the Sacred Chest that contained the Ten Commandments, 26“Take this scroll on which these laws are written, and place it beside the Sacred Chest that contains the agreement that Yahweh our God made with you, in order that it may remain there to testify about what Yahweh will do to the people if they disobey him. 27I say this because I know that these people are very stubborn [DOU]. They have rebelled against Yahweh all during the time that I have been with them, and they will rebel much more after I die! 28So gather all the elders of the tribes and your officials, in order that I can tell them the words of this song, and request all those who are in heaven and on the earth to be witnesses to testify against these people. 29I say that because I know that after I die, the people will become very wicked. They will turn away from doing everything that I have commanded them to do. And in the future, because of all the evil things that they will do, they will cause Yahweh to become angry with them. And he will cause them to experience disasters.”

The song that Moses sang to them

30Then, while all the Israeli people listened, Moses/I sang/recited this entire song to them:

32

1“Listen to me, all you who are in the heavens,

and all you who are on the earth, listen to what I say [MTY].

2I wish/desire that my teaching will fall on you like rain drops

or be like dew on the ground,

and be like a gentle rain on the young plants,

like showers on the grass.

3I will praise Yahweh [MTY].

And all you people should tell others that our God is very great.

4He is like a rock [MET] under which we are protected;

everything that he does is perfect and completely just/fair [DOU].

He always does what he says that he will do;

he never does anything that is wrong.

5But you Israeli people have been very unfaithful to him;

because of your sins, you no longer deserve to be his children.

You are extremely wicked and deceitful [DOU].

6You foolish and senseless [DOU] people,

◄is this the way that you should repay Yahweh for all that he has done for you?/this is certainly not the way that you should repay Yahweh for all that he has done for you. ► [RHQ]

He is your father; he created you [RHQ];

he caused you to become a nation.

7Think about what happened long ago;

consider what happened to your ancestors.

Ask your parents, and they will inform you;

ask the older people, and they will tell you.

8When God, who is greater than any other god, long ago divided the people into groups,

he assigned to the nations their land.

He determined where each people-group should live

and ◄assigned to/chose for► each people-group a god/angel.

9But Yahweh decided that we would be his people;

he chose us, the descendants of Jacob, to belong to him.

10He saw our ancestors when they were in a desert,

wandering in a land ◄that was desolate/where no people lived►.

He protected them and took care of them,

as every person takes good care of his own eyes. [SIM, IDM]

11Yahweh protected his people just like an eagle encourages its babies to fly

and flutters over them [MET],

spreading its wings and catching them if they start to fall.

12Yahweh was the only one who led them;

no other foreign god helped him.

13After they entered the land that Yahweh promised to give to them,

Yahweh enabled them to rule the hilly areas;

they ate the crops that grew in the fields.

They found honey in the rocks,

and their olive trees [MTY] grew even in stony ground.

14The cows gave them plenty of curds/yogurt, the goats gave them plenty of milk,

they had well-fed sheep and cattle,

they had very good wheat,

and they made delicious wine from their grapes.

15The Israeli people became rich and prosperous,

but then they rebelled against God;

they abandoned him, the one who created them,

the one who powerfully saves them.

16So he abandoned them because they started to worship other/strange gods.

Because of their worshiping disgusting idols,

he became angry.

17They offered sacrifices to gods who were really demons,

gods that their ancestors had never known;

they offered sacrifices to gods that they had recently found out about,

gods whom your ancestors had never revered.

18They forgot the true God, the one who protects them [MET],

the one who created them and caused them to live.

19When Yahweh saw that they had abandoned him, he became angry,

so he rejected the Israeli people, who are like his sons and daughters.

20He said, ‘They are very wicked/stubborn people,

very unfaithful;

so I will no longer help them,

and then I will watch and see what happens to them.

21They 32:21 Because they heymade me very angry because of their worshiping idols, which are not really gods;

they have caused me to be jealous [MET] because I want them to worship only me.

So now, in order to cause them to become jealous,

I will send to attack them an army of a nation of worthless and foolish people.

22I will be very angry, and I will destroy them

like a fire that will burn on the earth and all the way down to the place where dead people are [MET];

that fire will destroy the earth and everything that grows on it,

and it will even burn what is down under the mountains.

23I will cause them to experience many disasters;

they will feel as though [MET] I am shooting all my arrows at them.

24They will die because of being hungry and because of having hot fevers

and because of terrible diseases;

I will send wild animals to attack [MTY] them,

and poisonous snakes to bite [MTY] them.

25Outside their houses, their enemies will kill them [MTY] with swords,

and in their homes, their enemies will cause them to be terrified.

Their enemies will kill young men and young women,

and they will kill infants and old people with gray hair.

26I wanted to scatter the Israeli people to distant countries

in order that no one would ever remember them.

27But if I did that, their enemies would wrongly boast

that they were the ones who had gotten rid of my people;

they would say, “We [SYN] are the ones who defeated them;

it was not Yahweh who has done all these things.”’

28You Israelis are a nation of people who do not have any sense.

None of you is wise.

29If you were wise, you would understand why you would be punished;

you would have realized what was going to happen to you.

30You would have realized why 1,000 of your soldiers would be defeated by only one of the enemy soldiers,

and why two of your enemies would chase away 10,000 Israeli soldiers.

You would realize that this would happen only if God, the one who always defended you [MET], had allowed your enemies to defeat you,

because he had abandoned you.

31Your enemies know that their gods are not powerful like Yahweh, our God,

so their gods could not have defeated us Israelis.

32Your enemies are like [MET] grapevines planted near the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah cities;

the grapes from those vines are bitter and poisonous;

33the wine from those grapes is like the poison of snakes [DOU].

34Yahweh says, ‘I know [RHQ] what I have planned to do to the Israeli people and to their enemies,

and those plans are so secure that it as though he locked them up [MET].

35I am the one who will get revenge and pay those enemies back for what they have done to my people,

at the right time for them to be punished [IDM];

they will soon experience disasters,

and I will punish/destroy them quickly.’

36But Yahweh will see that you who are truly his people, who ◄are innocent/have not done things that are wrong►,

and he will be merciful to you.

And he wil see that you are helpless,

and that there are very few of you, slaves or free people, who are still alive.

37Then Yahweh will ask his people, ‘Where are the gods

that you thought would protect you [MET]?

38You gave to those gods the best parts of the animals that you sacrificed,

and you poured out wine for them to drink.

So, they should begin to help you;

they should be the ones who will protect you!

39But now you will realize that I, only I, am God;

there is no other god who is a real god.

I am the one who can kill people and who can cause people to live;

I can wound people, and I can heal people,

and there is no one who can prevent me from doing those things.

40I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly declare

that just as sure as I live forever,

41that when I sharpen my sword,

as I [SYN] prepare to punish people,

I will get revenge on my enemies;

I will pay back those who hate me.

42I will kill all of my enemies with a sword;

it will be as though I had arrows that will be covered with their blood.

I will kill [MTY] all those whom I capture

and cut off their leaders’ heads.’

43You people of all nations, you as well as his people should praise Yahweh,

because Yahweh gets revenge on those who kill the people who serve him;

and he cleanses his people’s land

which has become defiled because of their sins.”

44Joshua and Moses/I recited the words of that song while the Israeli people were listening. 45When they/we finished reciting to the Israeli people the words of this song, 46Moses/I said, “Never forget all these commands that I have been giving you today. Teach these laws to your children, in order that they will faithfully obey all of them. 47These instructions are very important [LIT]. If you obey them, you will live a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy.”

God told Moses that he would see the land from far away

48On that same day, Yahweh said to Moses/me, 49“Go to the Abarim Mountain range here in the Moab region, across from Jericho. Climb Nebo Mountain, and look toward the west to see Canaan land, the land that I am about to give to the Israeli people. 50You will die on that mountain [EUP, DOU], like your older brother Aaron died on Hor Mountain. 51You will die because both of you disobeyed me in the presence of the Israeli people, when you all were at Meribah Springs near Kadesh town in the Zin Desert. You did not honor and respect me in the presence of the Israeli people in the way that I deserve because I am God. 52When you are on that mountain where I told you to go, you will see in the distance in front of you the land that I am about to give to the Israeli people, but you will not enter it.”

33

Moses blessed the Israeli tribes

1Before God’s prophet Moses died, he asked God to bless the Israeli people. 2This is what he said:

“Yahweh came and spoke to us at Sinai Mountain;

he came like [MET] the sun rises in the Edom region

and like his light shone on us when we were in the desert near Paran Mountain after we left Sinai Mountain.

He came with 10,000 angels,

and there was a flaming fire at his right side.

3Yahweh truly loves his people,

and protects [MTY] all those who belong to him.

So they prostrate themselves in front of him,

and they listen to his instructions.

4I gave them laws to obey,

laws that would be the most precious thing that the descendants of Jacob owned.

5So Yahweh became the king of his Israeli people

when all the tribes and their leaders were gathered together.

6I say this about the tribe of Reuben:

I desire/hope that their tribe will never disappear,

but they will never become numerous.

7I say this about the tribe of Judah:

Yahweh, listen to them when they call out for help;

and unite them with the other tribes again.

Fight for them,

and help them to fight against their enemies.

8I say this about the tribe of Levi:

Yahweh, give to those who are dedicated to you the sacred stones that they will use to find out what you want to be done;

You tested them at a spring in the desert, a spring that they named Massah and also named Meribah

to find out if they would ◄remain loyal to/continue to obey► you.

9The tribe of Levi did what you told them to do

and obeyed the agreement that you made with the Israeli people;

those laws were more important to them [HYP]

than their siblings and parents and children.

10The tribe of Levi will teach the Israeli people [DOU] your rules and regulations,

and they are the ones who will burn incense and who will completely burn on the altar the offerings that the people bring.

11Yahweh, bless their work

and ◄accept/be pleased with► all that they do.

Crush/Destroy all their enemies;

do not enable their enemies to be able to fight against them again.

12I say this about the tribe of Benjamin:

They are the tribe that Yahweh loves;

he keeps them safe.

He protects them continually,

and he lives among their hills [MET].

13I say this about the tribes of Joseph:

I desire/hope that Yahweh will bless their land

by giving them rain/dew from the sky

and water from deep in the ground,

14by giving them good fruit ripened by the sun

and good crops at harvest time.

15I desire/hope that very nice fruit will grow on trees in their ancient mountains/hills [DOU],

16and that their land will be have many good crops,

blessed by Yahweh, the one who appeared to me in a burning bush.

I desire/hope that Yahweh will bless the tribes of Joseph in all those ways,

because he was the leaders of his older brothers when they were in Egypt.

17The descendants of Joseph will be as strong as [SIM] a bull;

with their weapons they will wound their enemies, like [MET] a wild ox gores other animals with its horns.

They will force other people-groups,

all of them, to be exiled to the most distant places on the earth.

That is what the descendants of the two sons of Joseph will do,

the ten thousands of the tribe of Ephraim and the thousands of the tribe of Manasseh.

18I say this about the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar:

I desire/hope that the people of Zebulun will prosper in their travels across the seas,

and that the people of Issachar will prosper while they stay at home and take care of their cattle and crops.

19They will invite people from the other Israeli tribes to the mountain where they worship Yahweh,

and they will offer the correct/proper sacrifices to him.

They will become rich from the work that they do on the seas

and from the things that they make from (OR, find in) the sand on the beaches.

20I say this about the tribe of Gad:

Praise Yahweh, the one who made their territory large.

The people of their tribe will attack their enemies fiercely [SIM] like a lion that crouches,

waiting to tear off the arm or the scalp of some animal.

21They chose the best part of the land for themselves;

a large share of the land, a share that should be given to a leader was allotted to them.

When the leaders of the tribes of Israel gathered together,

they decided that the tribe of Gad should have a large share of the land.

The tribe of Gad obeyed the commands of Yahweh and the things that he decided that they should do.

22I say this about the tribe of Dan:

The people of the tribe of Dan are like [SIM] a young lion;

they leap from their caves in the Bashan region to attack their enemies.

23I say this about the tribe of Naphtali:

The people of the tribe of Naphtali have been blessed by Yahweh, who has been very kind to them;

their land extends far south from Lake Galilee.

24I say this about the tribe of Asher:

May Yahweh bless the descendants of Asher more than he will bless the other tribes.

May he favor Asher’s descendants most of all.

I desire/hope that their land will be filled with olive trees that will produce a lot of [IDM] olives to make olive oil.

25Their towns will be protected by high walls with gates that have bronze and iron bars;

I desire/hope that they will be strong and secure/protected all the time that they are alive.

26You people of Israel, there is no god like your God,

who rides majestically across the sky to help you.

27God, who lives forever, is the one who ◄gives you refuge/protects you►;

it is as though he puts his everlasting arms under you to support you.

He will expel your enemies while you advance;

he has told you to destroy all of them.

28So, you Israeli people will live safely;

you descendants of Jacob will not be disturbed by others;

in the land where you will live, there will be plenty of grain and wine,

and there will be plenty of rain.

29You people of Israel, Yahweh ◄has blessed/is pleased with► you.

There is certainly [RHQ] no nation like your nation,

whom Yahweh has rescued from being slaves in Egypt.

He will be like [MET] a shield to protect you

and like [MET] a sword to enable you to defeat your enemies.

Your enemies will come to you begging for you to act mercifully toward them,

but you will trample on their backs/necks.”

34

How Moses died

1Then Moses climbed up from the plains in the Moab region to the top of Pisgah Peak on Nebo Mountain, across the Jordan River from Jericho. There Yahweh showed him all the land that the Israelis would occupy. He showed him the Gilead region as far north as Dan city; 2all the land that the tribe of Naphtali would occupy; all the land that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh had occupied; all the land that the tribe of Judah would occupy as far west as the Mediterranean sea; 3the desert area in the south part of Judah; and the Jordan Valley that extends from Jericho in the north to Zoar city in the south. 4Then Yahweh said to him, “You have now seen this land that I solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have allowed you to see it from a distance, but you will not go there.”

5So Moses, who always served Yahweh faithfully, died there on that mountain in the Moab region, which is what Yahweh said would happen. 6Yahweh buried Moses’ body in a valley in the Moab region, opposite/near Beth-Peor town, but no one to this day knows where Yahweh buried him. 7Moses was 120 years old when he died, but he was still very strong, and he could still see [MTY] very well. 8The Israeli people mourned for him in the plains of the Moab region for 30 days.

9God caused Joshua to be very wise, because Moses had put his hands on Joshua to appoint him to be their new leader. The Israeli people obeyed Joshua, and they obeyed all the commands that Yahweh had given to Moses to tell to the Israeli people.

10Since the time that Moses lived, there has never been a prophet in Israel like him. Yahweh spoke to him face-to-face/directly. 11No other prophet has performed all the kinds of [DOU] miracles that Yahweh sent Moses to perform in front of the king of Egypt, his officials, and all [HYP] the people of Egypt. 12No other prophet has been able to do all the great and terrifying things that Moses did while all the Israelis watched.