Author: admin

1 “The priests and the Levites, and all who are from the same tribe, shall have no portion or inheritance with the rest of Israel. For they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord and his oblations.

2 And they shall receive nothing else from the possession of their brothers. For the Lord himself is their inheritance, just as he said to them.

3 This shall be the recompense for the priests from the people, and from those who offer victims, whether they will immolate an ox or a sheep. They shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast,

4 the first-fruits of grain, wine, and oil, and a portion of the wool from the shearing of the sheep.

5 For the Lord your God himself has chosen him out of all your tribes, so that he may stand and minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons, forever.

6 If a Levite departs from one of the cities, throughout all of Israel, in which he lives, and if he wills and desires to go to the place which the Lord will choose,

7 he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as do all his brothers, the Levites, who will be standing at that time in the sight of the Lord.

8 He shall receive the same portion of food as the rest also receive, besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers.

9 When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations.

10 Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult,

11 nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead.

12 For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival.

13 You shall be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God.

14 These nations, whose land you shall possess, they listen to soothsayers and diviners. But you have been otherwise instructed by the Lord your God.

15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a PROPHET from your nation and from your brothers, similar to me. You shall listen to him,

16 just as you petitioned of the Lord your God at Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and you said: ‘Let me no longer hear the voice of the Lord my God, and let me no longer see this very great fire, lest I die.’

17 And the Lord said to me: ‘They have spoken all these things well.

18 I will raise up a prophet for them, from the midst of their brothers, similar to you. And I will place my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all the things that I will instruct him.

19 But against anyone who is not willing to listen to his words, which he will speak in my name, I will stand forth as the avenger.

20 But if a prophet, having been corrupted by arrogance, chooses to speak, in my name, things which I did not instruct him to say, or to speak in the name of foreign gods, he shall be put to death.

21 But if, in silent thought, you respond: “How will I be able to recognize a word which the Lord has not spoken?”

22 you shall have this sign. If whatever that prophet predicts in the name of the Lord does not happen, then the Lord has not spoken it. Instead, the prophet has formed it through the swelling of his own mind. And for this reason, you shall not fear him.’ “

1 “When the Lord your God will have destroyed the nations, whose land he will deliver to you, and when you possess it and live in its cities and buildings,

2 you shall separate for yourselves three cities in the midst of the land, which the Lord will give to you as a possession,

3 paving the road carefully. And you shall divide the entire province of your land equally into three parts, so that he who is forced to flee because of manslaughter may have a place nearby to which he may be able to escape.

4 This shall be the law of the killer who flees, whose life is to be saved. Whoever strikes down his neighbor unwillingly, and who has been proven to have had no hatred against him yesterday and the day before,

5 such that he had gone with him into the forest simply to cut wood, and in cutting down the tree, the axe slipped from his hand, or the iron slipped from the handle, and it struck his friend and killed him: he shall flee to one of the cities stated above, and he shall live.

6 Otherwise, perhaps the near relative of him whose blood was shed, impelled by his grief, might pursue and apprehend him, unless the way is too long, and he might strike down the life of him who is not guilty unto death, since he had demonstrated that he had no prior hatred against him who was slain.

7 For this reason, I instruct you to separate three cities at equal distance from one another.

8 And when the Lord your God will have enlarged your borders, just as he swore to your fathers, and when he will have given to you all the land that he has promised to them,

9 (but this is only so if you will keep his commandments and do the things which I instruct to you this day, so that you love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways at all times) you shall add for yourselves three other cities, and so you shall double the number of the three cities stated above.

10 So may innocent blood not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord your God will give you to possess, lest you be guilty of blood.

11 But if anyone, having hatred for his neighbor, will have lain in ambush for his life, and, rising up, will have struck him, and he will have died, and if he will have fled to one of the cities stated above,

12 the elders of his city shall send, and they shall take him from the place of refuge, and they shall deliver him into the hand of the relative of him whose blood was shed, and he shall die.

13 You shall not take pity on him, and so shall you take away the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

14 You shall not take up or move the landmark of your neighbor, which those before you have placed, in your possession that the Lord your God will give to you, in the land you will receive to possess.

15 One witness shall not stand against another, no matter what the sin or outrage may be. For every word shall stand by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

16 If a lying witness will have stood against a man, accusing him of a transgression,

17 both of those whose case it is shall stand before the Lord in the sight of the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.

18 And when, after a very diligent examination, they will have found that the false witness had told a lie against his brother,

19 they shall render to him just as he intended to do to his brother. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

20 Then the others, upon hearing this, will be afraid, and they will by no means dare to do such things.

21 You shall not take pity on him. Instead, you shall require a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.”

1 “If you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horsemen and chariots, and that the multitude of your adversary’s army is greater than your own, you shall not fear them. For the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, is with you.

2 Then, as the battle now draws near, the priest shall stand before the front ranks, and he shall speak to the people in this manner:

3 ‘Listen, O Israel! Today you engage in a battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart be overwhelmed with fear. Do not be apprehensive. Do not yield. You should have no dread of them.

4 For the Lord your God is in your midst, and he will contend against your enemies on your behalf, so that he may rescue you from peril.’

5 Likewise, the officers shall proclaim, throughout every company, in the hearing of the soldiers: ‘What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may dedicate it.

6 What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not yet caused it to be common, so that all may eat from it? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may carry out his office.

7 What man is there, who has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in battle, and another man may take her.’

8 After these things have been declared, they shall add the remainder, and shall say to the people: ‘What man is there who is overwhelmed by fear and is fainthearted? Let him go, and return to his house, lest he cause the hearts of his brothers to fear, just as he himself has been thoroughly stricken with fear.’

9 And when the officers of the army have become silent, and have completed their speech, each one shall prepare his unit to wage war.

10 When, at any time, you approach a city to fight against it, you shall first offer peace to it.

11 If they receive it, and open the gates to you, then all the people who are in it shall be saved, and they shall serve you by paying tribute.

12 But if they are not willing to enter into an agreement, and they begin to act against you in warfare, then you shall besiege it.

13 And when the Lord your God will have delivered it into your hands, you shall strike down anyone who is in it, of the male gender, with the edge of the sword,

14 but not the women and young children, nor the cattle and the other things that are within the city. And you shall divide all the plunder to the soldiers, and you shall eat the spoils from your enemies, which the Lord your God will give to you.

15 So shall you do to all the cities which are at a great distance from you, those which are not among the cities that you shall receive as a possession.

16 But among those cities which shall be given to you, you shall not permit anyone at all to live.

17 Instead, you shall put them to death with the edge of the sword, specifically: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you.

18 Otherwise, they may teach you to do all the abominations which they have committed for their own gods. And then you would sin against the Lord your God.

19 When you will have besieged a city for a long time, and you will have encircled it with fortifications, so that you may fight against it, you shall not cut down trees from which one is able to eat, neither shall you cause devastation with axes to the surrounding region. For it is a tree, and not a man. It is not able to increase the number of those who are fighting against you.

20 But if there are any trees which are not fruitful, but are wild, and if these are fit for other uses, then cut them down, and make machines, until you have captured the city that is contending against you.”

1 “When there will have been found in the land, which the Lord your God will give to you, the corpse of a man who has been killed, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder,

2 your judges and those greater by birth shall go out and measure, from the place of the corpse, the distance to each of the surrounding cities.

3 And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow.

4 And they shall lead it into a rough and stony valley, one which has never been tilled or sown. And in that place, they shall cut the neck of the calf.

5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall approach, those whom the Lord your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and to decide every controversy by their word, and to judge which things are clean and which are unclean.

6 And those greater by birth of that city, nearest to the one who was slain, shall go and shall wash their hands over the calf that was killed in the valley.

7 And they shall say: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8 Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not charge them with innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And so the guilt of the blood will be taken away from them.

9 Then you will be free from the blood that was shed against the innocent, when you will have done as the Lord has instructed you.

10 If you have gone out to fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand, and if, as you are leading away the captives,

11 you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her, and you are willing to have her as a wife:

12 then you shall lead her into your house. And she shall shave off her hair, and cut her nails short,

13 and remove the garment in which she was captured. And she shall sit in your house and weep for her father and mother, for one month. And after that, you shall enter to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife.

14 But if afterwards she does not sit well in your mind, you shall set her free. You cannot sell her for money, nor can you oppress her by force. For you have humiliated her.

15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have produced children by him, and if the son of the hated wife is the firstborn,

16 and if he wishes to divide his substance among his sons: he cannot make the son of the beloved wife the firstborn, and so prefer him before the son of the hated wife.

17 Instead, he shall acknowledge the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and he shall give to him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first among his children, and the rights of the firstborn are owed to him.

18 If a man produces a disobedient and reckless son, who will not listen to the orders of his father or mother, and, having been corrected, shows contempt for obedience:

19 they shall take him and lead him to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment.

20 And they shall say to them: ‘This our son is reckless and disobedient. He shows contempt when listening to our admonitions. He occupies himself with carousing, and self-indulgence, and feasting.’

21 Then the people of the city shall stone him to death. And he shall die, so that you may take away the evil from your midst. And so may all of Israel, upon hearing it, be very afraid.

22 When a man will have sinned in a matter which is punished by death, and, having been judged unto death, he has been hanged on a gallows:

23 his corpse shall not remain on the tree. Instead, he shall be buried on the same day. For he who hangs from a tree has been cursed by God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God will give to you as a possession.”

1 “If you see your brother’s ox or sheep wander astray, you shall not pass by. Instead, you shall lead them back to your brother.

2 But if your brother is not near, or you do not know him, you shall lead them to your house, and they shall be with you until your brother seeks them and receives them.

3 You shall act in a similar manner with his donkey, and his clothing, and all the belongings of your brother that have been lost. If you find it, you shall not neglect it, as if it belonged to a stranger.

4 If you see that your brother’s donkey or ox has fallen along the way, you shall not disregard it. Instead, you shall lift it up with him.

5 A woman shall not be clothed with manly apparel, nor shall a man make use of feminine apparel. For whoever does these things is abominable with God.

6 If, as you are walking along the way, you find a bird’s nest, in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is nurturing the young or the eggs, you shall not take her with her young.

7 Instead, you shall permit her to go, retaining the young that you have caught, so that it may be well with you, and you may live for a long time.

8 When you build a new house, you shall make a wall around the roof. Otherwise, someone may slip and fall down violently, and so blood would be shed at your house, and you would be guilty.

9 You shall not sow your vineyard with another seed, lest both the seed that you have sown and what springs forth from the vineyard be sanctified together.

10 You shall not till with an ox and a donkey at the same time.

11 You shall not wear a vestment which has been woven from both wool and linen.

12 You shall make strings along the hem, at the four corners of your cloak, which covers you.

13 If a man takes a wife, and afterwards he has hatred for her,

14 and so he seeks opportunities to dismiss her, imputing a very wicked name to her by saying, ‘I received this woman as a wife, and upon entering to her, I found her not to be a virgin,’

15 then her father and mother shall take her, and they shall bring with them the signs of her virginity, to the elders of the city who are at the gate.

16 And the father shall say: ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife. And because he hates her,

17 he accuses her with a very wicked name, by saying: “I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.” But behold, these are the signs of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the clothing before the elders of the city.

18 And the elders of that city shall apprehend that man and beat him.

19 Moreover, they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, which he will give to the father of the girl, because he has committed slander, with a very wicked name, against a virgin of Israel. And he shall have her as a wife, and he cannot dismiss her throughout all the days of his life.

20 But if what he has claimed is true and virginity is not found in the girl,

21 then they shall throw her down, outside the doors of her father’s house, and the men of that city shall stone her to death, and she shall die. For she has acted wickedly in Israel, in that she fornicated in her father’s house. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

22 If a man sleeps with the wife of another, then they shall both die, that is, the adulterer and the adulteress. And so shall you take away the evil from Israel.

23 If a man has betrothed a girl who is a virgin, and if someone finds her in the city and he lies with her,

24 then you shall lead them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be stoned to death: the girl, because she did not cry out though she was in the city; the man, because he has humiliated the wife of his neighbor. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

25 But if a man discovers, in the countryside, a girl who has been betrothed, and, apprehending her, he lies with her, then he alone shall die.

26 The girl shall suffer nothing, nor is she guilty unto death. For just as a robber rises up against his brother and slays his life, so also did the girl suffer greatly.

27 She was alone in the field. She cried out, and there was no one nearby, who might deliver her.

28 If a man find a girl who is a virgin, who does not have a betrothal, and, taking her, he lies with her, and the matter is brought to judgment,

29 then he who slept with her shall give to the father of the girl fifty shekels of silver, and he shall have her as a wife, because he has humiliated her. He cannot dismiss her, throughout all the days of his life.

30 No man shall take his father’s wife, nor remove her covering.”

1 “A eunuch, one whose testicles have been debilitated or cut off, or whose penis has been cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord.

2 The offspring of a harlot, that is, one born of a prostitute, shall not enter into the church of the Lord, until the tenth generation.

3 The Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation, shall not enter into the church of the Lord forever,

4 because they were not willing to meet you with bread and water along the way, when you had departed from Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor, from Mesopotamia in Syria, in order to curse you.

5 But the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he turned his cursing into your blessing, because he loves you.

6 You shall not make peace with them, nor shall you seek their prosperity, throughout all the days of your life forever.

7 You shall not abhor anyone from Idumea, for he is your brother, nor the Egyptian, for you were a new arrival in his land.

8 Those who have been born of them, in the third generation, shall enter into the church of the Lord.

9 When you have gone out to war against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from everything that is evil.

10 If there is a man among you who has been defiled by a dream in the night, he shall depart from the camp.

11 And he shall not return before the evening, after he has washed with water, and then, after the sun sets, he shall return to the camp.

12 You shall have a place beyond the camp to which you may go for the necessities of nature,

13 carrying a small shovel at your belt. And when you would sit down, you shall dig around, and then, with the soil that was dug up, you shall cover

14 that from which you were relieved. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, in order to rescue you, and to deliver your enemies to you. And so, let your camp be holy, and let nothing filthy appear within it, lest he abandon you.

15 You shall not deliver a servant who has fled to you to his master.

16 He shall live with you in a place that pleases him, and he shall rest in one of your cities. You shall not grieve him.

17 There shall be no prostitutes among the daughters of Israel, nor anyone among the sons of Israel who visits a prostitute.

18 You shall not offer money from a prostitute, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord your God, no matter what you may have vowed. For both of these are an abomination with the Lord your God.

19 You shall not lend money, or grain, or anything else at all, to your brother at interest,

20 but only to a foreigner. For you shall lend to your brother whatever he needs without interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your works in the land, which you shall enter so as to possess it.

21 When you have made a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be late in paying it. For the Lord your God demands it. And if you delay, it shall be imputed to you as a sin.

22 If you are not willing to make a promise, then it shall be without sin.

23 But as soon as it has departed from your lips, you shall observe and do just as you have promised to the Lord your God and just as you have spoken by your own free will and with your own mouth.

24 Upon entering your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you please. But you may not carry any out with you.

25 If you enter into your friend’s grain field, you may break off the ears, and rub them in your hand, but you may not reap them with a sickle.”

1 “If a man takes a wife, and he has her, and she does not find favor before his eyes because of some vileness, then he shall write a bill of divorce, and he shall give it to her hand, and he shall dismiss her from his house.

2 And when, having departed, she has married another,

3 and if he likewise hates her, and has given her a bill of divorce, and has dismissed her from his house, or if indeed he has died,

4 then the former husband cannot take her back as a wife. For she has been polluted and has become abominable in the sight of the Lord. Otherwise, you may cause your land, which the Lord your God will deliver to you as a possession, to sin.

5 When a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, nor shall any public office be enjoined upon him. Instead, he shall be free at home without guilt, so that for one year he may rejoice with his wife.

6 You shall not accept an upper or lower millstone as collateral. For then he will have placed his life with you.

7 If a man has been caught soliciting his brother among the sons of Israel, and selling him in order to receive a price, then he shall be put to death. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

8 Observe diligently, lest you incur the wound of leprosy. But you shall do whatever the priests of the Levitical stock shall teach you to do, according to what I have instructed them. And you shall fulfill it carefully.

9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam, along the way, as you were departing from Egypt.

10 When you require from your neighbor anything that he owes to you, you shall not enter into his house in order to take away the collateral.

11 Instead, you shall stand outside, and he will carry out to you what he has.

12 But if he is poor, then the collateral shall not remain with you through the night.

13 Instead, you shall return it to him promptly, before the setting of the sun, so that, sleeping in his own garment, he may bless you, and you may have justice in the presence of the Lord your God.

14 You shall not refuse the pay of the indigent and the poor, whether he is your brother, or he is a new arrival who dwells with you in the land and is within your gates.

15 Instead, you shall pay him the price of his labor on the same day, before the setting of the sun. For he is poor, and with it he sustains his life. Otherwise, he may cry out against you to the Lord, and it would be charged to you as a sin.

16 The fathers shall not be put to death on behalf of the sons, nor the sons on behalf of the fathers, but each one shall die for his own sin.

17 You shall not pervert the judgment of the new arrival or the orphan, nor shall you take away the widow’s garment as collateral.

18 Remember that you served in Egypt, and that the Lord your God rescued you from there. Therefore, I am instructing you to act in this way.

19 When you have reaped the grain in your field, and, having forgotten, you leave behind a sheaf, you shall not return to take it away. Instead, you shall permit the new arrival, and the orphan, and the widow to take it away, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands.

20 If you have gathered the fruit of your olive trees, you shall not return in order to gather whatever may remain on the trees. Instead, you shall leave it behind for the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow.

21 If you harvest the vintage of your vineyard, you shall not gather the remaining clusters. Instead, they shall fall to the use of the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.

22 Remember that you also served in Egypt, and so, for this reason, I am instructing you to act in this way.”

1 “If there is a case between persons, and they apply to the judges, they shall give the palm of justice to the one whom they perceive to be just, and they shall condemn of impiety the one who is impious.

2 But if they see that the one who has sinned is worthy of stripes, they shall prostrate him and cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin, so shall the measure of the stripes be.

3 Even so, these shall not exceed the number of forty. Otherwise, your brother may depart, having been wounded shamefully before your eyes.

4 You shall not muzzle an ox as it is treading out your crops in the field.

5 When brothers are living together, and one of them dies without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another. Instead, his brother shall take her, and he shall raise up offspring for his brother.

6 And the first son from her, he shall call by his brother’s name, so that his name will not be abolished from Israel.

7 But if he is not willing to take his brother’s wife, who by law must go to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and she shall call upon those greater by birth, and she shall say: ‘The brother of my husband is not willing to raise up his brother’s name in Israel; nor will he join with me.’

8 And immediately, they shall summon him to be sent, and they shall question him. If he responds, ‘I am not willing to accept her as a wife,’

9 then the woman shall approach him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall say: ‘So shall it be done to the man who was not willing to build up his brother’s house.’

10 And his name shall be called in Israel: The House of the Unshod.

11 If two men have a conflict between themselves, and one begins to do violence to the other, and if the other’s wife, wanting to rescue her husband from the hand of the stronger one, extends her hand and grasps him by his private parts,

12 then you shall cut off her hand. Neither shall you weep over her with any mercy.

13 You shall not have differing weights, greater and lesser, in your bag.

14 Neither shall there be in your house a greater and a lesser measure.

15 You shall have a just and a true weight, and your measure shall be equal and true, so that you may live for a long time upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.

16 For the Lord your God abominates him who does these things, and he loathes all injustice.

17 Remember what Amalek did to you, along the way, when you were departing from Egypt:

18 how he met you and cut down the stragglers of the troops, who were sitting down, exhausted, when you were consumed by hunger and hardship, and how he did not fear God.

19 Therefore, when the Lord your God will give you rest, and you will have subdued all the surrounding nations, in the land which he has promised to you, you shall delete his name from under heaven. Take care not to forget this.”

1 “And when you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you to possess, and when you will have obtained it and are living within it:

2 you shall take the first of all your crops, and place them in a basket, and you shall travel to the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may be invoked there.

3 And you shall approach the priest who will be in those days, and you shall say to him: ‘I profess this day, before the Lord your God, that I have entered into the land about which he swore to our fathers that he would give it to us.’

4 And the priest, taking up the basket from your hand, shall place it before the altar of the Lord your God.

5 And you shall say, in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘The Syrian pursued my father, who descended into Egypt, and he sojourned there in a very small number, and he increased into a great and strong nation and into an innumerable multitude.

6 And the Egyptians afflicted us, and they persecuted us, imposing upon us the most grievous burdens.

7 And we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers. He heard us, and he looked with favor upon our humiliation, and hardship, and distress.

8 And he led us away from Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with a mighty terror, with signs and wonders.

9 And he led us into this place, and he delivered to us the land flowing with milk and honey.

10 And because of this, I now offer the first fruits of the land which the Lord has given to me.’ And you shall leave them in the sight of the Lord your God, and you shall adore the Lord your God.

11 And you shall feast on all the good things which the Lord your God will give to you and to your house: you, and the Levite, and the new arrival who is with you.

12 When you will have completed the tithing of all your crops, in the third year of tithes, you shall give it to the Levite, and to the new arrival, and to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied.

13 And you shall say, in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘I have taken what was sanctified from my house, and I have given it to the Levite, and to the new arrival, and to the orphan and the widow, just as you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten your precepts.

14 I have not eaten from these things in my grief, nor have I separated them due to any kind of uncleanness, nor have I expended any of these things in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and I have done all things just as you have instructed me.

15 Look with favor from your sanctuary and from your lofty habitation amid the heavens, and bless your people Israel and the land which you have given to us, just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

1 Then Moses and the elders of Israel instructed the people, saying: “Keep each commandment that I instruct to you this day.

2 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, you shall erect immense stones, and you shall coat them with plaster,

3 so that you may be able to write upon them all the words of this law, when you have crossed the Jordan so as to enter into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as he swore to your fathers.

4 Therefore, when you have crossed over the Jordan, erect the stones, just as I instruct you to do this day, on Mount Ebal. And you shall coat them with plaster,

5 and you shall build, in that place, an altar to the Lord your God out of stones which have not been touched by iron,

6 out of stones which have not been hewn or polished. And you shall offer holocausts on it to the Lord your God.

7 And you shall immolate peace victims. And you shall eat and feast in that place, in the sight of the Lord your God.

8 And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law, plainly and clearly.”

9 And Moses and the priests of Levitical stock said to all of Israel: “Attend and listen, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

10 You shall listen to his voice, and you shall do the commandments and justices, which I am entrusting to you.”

11 And Moses instructed the people in that day, saying:

12 “These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim, as a blessing to the people, when you will have crossed the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

13 And in the opposite region, there shall stand upon Mount Ebal, as a curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14 And the Levites shall pronounce and declare to all the men of Israel, with an exalted voice:

15 Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten idol, an abomination to the Lord, a work of the hands of its maker, and who puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall respond by saying: Amen.

16 Cursed be he who does not honor his father and mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.

17 Cursed be he who removes his neighbor’s landmarks. And all the people shall say: Amen.

18 Cursed be he who causes the blind to go astray on a journey. And all the people shall say: Amen.

19 Cursed be he who subverts the judgment of the new arrival, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say: Amen.

20 Cursed be he who lies with his father’s wife, and so exposes the covering of his bed. And all the people shall say: Amen.

21 Cursed be he who lies with any beast. And all the people shall say: Amen.

22 Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or of his mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.

23 Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say: Amen.

24 Cursed be he who secretly strikes down his neighbor. And all the people shall say: Amen.

25 Cursed be he who accepts gifts in order to strike down the life of innocent blood. And all the people shall say: Amen.

26 Cursed be he who does not remain in the words of this law, and does not carry them out in deed. And all the people shall say: Amen.”