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Onkelos Deuteronomy

Targum · 100-200 C.E.

Targum Onkelos is the primary Eastern Aramaic Targum (interpretation) of the Torah from the Jewish-Babylonian community, accepted as an authoritative translated text of the Five Books of Moses and thought to have been written in the early 2nd-century C.E. The Targums are known for their inclusion of extra material such as aggadic paraphrase and commentary that seeks to minimize ambiguities in the Hebrew text. The English text is based on J. W. Etheridge's 1862 translation, with archaic language lightly modernized.

1These are the words which Mosheh spoke with all Israel beyond the Jordan, reproving them because they had sinned in the wilderness, and had provoked (the Lord) to anger on the plains over against the Sea of Suph, in Pharan, where they scorned the manna; and in Hazeroth, where they provoked to anger on account of flesh, and because they had made the golden calf. 2 It is a journey of eleven days from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Rekem Giah. 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, in the first day of the month, Mosheh spoke with the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him for them. 4 After he had slain Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, king of Mathnan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrehi; 5 on this side Jordan in the land of Moab began Mosheh to explain the doctrine of this law, saying: 6 The Lord our God spoke with us at Horeb, saying: It is sufficient for you to have dwelt at this mountain: 7 turn, and proceed, and go to the mountain of the Amoraah, and to all its habitable places in the plains, the mountain, the valleys, and in the south, and by the side of the sea; the land of the Kenaanah and Lebanon, to the river, the great river Phrat; 8 behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord covenanted to your fathers, to Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob, to give it to them, and to your children after them. 9 And I spoke to you at that time, saying: I am not able to bear you myself alone. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you; and, behold, you are this day as the stars of the heavens for multitude. 11 The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, as He has said to you! 12 How can I bear alone your labour, your business, and your adjudgments? 13 Provide (then) for yourselves prudent and sagacious men of your tribes, and I will appoint them to be chiefs over you. 14 And you answered me, and said: The thing that you have spoken it is right that we should do. 15 And I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and masters of knowledge, and appointed them chiefs over you, captains of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and officers of your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying: Hear between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother, or the sojourner. 17 You shall not have respect to persons in the judgment; you shall hear little words (matters) as well as great; nor be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is of the Lord; and the matter that is too hard for you bring to me, and I will hear it; 18 and I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. 19 And we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and fearful desert which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amoraah, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Rekem Giah. 20 And I said: You have come to the mountain of the Amoraah, which the Lord our God will give to us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you: arise, possess (it), as the Lord the God of your fathers has bid you; fear not, nor be broken. 22 And all of you came to me and said: We will send men before us, to explore the land for us, and bring us word about the way to go up to it, and to what cities we shall come. 23 And the thing was good in my eyes, and I took from you twelve men, one man for a tribe. 24 And they turned and went up to the mountain, and came to the brook of Ethkela, and explored it. 25 And they took in their hands some of the produce of the land and brought to us, and returned us word, saying: The land which the Lord will give us is good. 26 But you were not willing to go up, but were rebellious against the Word of the Lord your God, 27 and murmured in your tents, and said: Because the Lord has hated us, He has brought us from the land of Mizraim to deliver us into the hand of the Amoraah to destroy us. 28 To what shall we go up? Our brothers have broken our heart, saying: The people are greater and stronger than we; vast are the cities, and walled to the height of heaven, and we saw there also the sons of the giants. 29 But I said to you: Be not broken (hearted), fear them not; 30 the Word of the Lord, who leads on before you, will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Mizraim in your sight; [1] 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen that the Lord your God carries you, as a man carries his child, in all the way you have journeyed until your coming to this place. 32 But in this thing you did not believe in the Word of the Lord your God, 33 who led on before you in the way to prepare for you (each) place of encampment for your sojournings, in the pillar of fire by night to show you in which way to go, and in the pillar of the cloud by day. 34 But the voice of your words was heard before the Lord, and He was angry, and made oath, saying: 35 If a man of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to your fathers, 36 save Kaleb bar Jephunneh. He shall see it, and I will give to him the land on which he has trodden, and to his children, because he has been upright in the fear of the Lord. 37 Also against me was there displeasure before the Lord on your account, (He) saying: You too are not to go in there; 38 Jehoshua bar Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there; strengthen him, for he is to make Israel to inherit; 39 but your little ones, who you said would be for prey, your children, who today do not know good and evil, they shall enter it, to them will I give it, and they shall possess it; 40 but you, turn, and go into the wilderness by the Weedy Sea. 41 Then you answered, and said: We have sinned before the Lord; we will go up and wage war according to all that the Lord our God commanded; and you fastened on every man his weapons of war, and began to go up to the mountain. 42 But the Lord said to me: Tell them, You shall not go up, neither wage war; for My Shekinah is not among you, lest you be crushed before your enemies. 43 And I told you, but you did not listen, but rebelled against the Word of the Lord, and dared, and went up to the mountain; 44 but the Amoraah who dwelt in that mountain came out against you, and pursued you as bees are dispersed, and struck you in Seir to Hormah. 45 And you returned, and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not receive your prayer, nor listen to your words; 46 and you dwelt in Rekem many days, according to the days that you stayed.

2And we turned, and journeyed to the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Suph, as the Lord had told us; and we encompassed the mountain of Seir many days. 2 And the Lord spoke to me, saying: 3 You have been about this mountain enough for you: turn northward; 4 and command the people, saying: You are going through the coasts of your kinsmen, the sons of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Take great heed, 5 quarrel not with them; for I will not give you of their land, not so much as you may tread upon with the sole of the foot; for the inheritance of Mount Seir I have given to Esau. 6 You shall buy provision of them with silver, that you may eat; and water, with, silver, that you may drink; 7 for the Lord your God has blessed you in all the works of your hands; He has given you sufficient for your need in your going about in this great wilderness; these forty years the Word of the Lord your God has been your helper, you have not lacked anything. 8 And we passed by from our kinsmen, the sons of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, by the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion Geber; and turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the Lord said to me, Distress not the Moabaee, nor stir yourself to make war with them; for I will not give you any of their land to inherit, for I have given Lechiath to the children of Lot for an inheritance. 10 The Emethanee in old times dwelt in it; a people great and many, and strong as the giants. 11 They were reputed as giants, and like giants also they were; but the Moabites called them Emethanee. 12 And in Seir dwelt the Horaee in former times; but the sons of Esau drove them out, and destroyed them, and dwelt in their places, as Israel did in the land of his inheritance which the Lord gave to them. 13 Now arise (said I), and go over the stream of Zared. And we passed over the stream of Zared. 14 And the days in which we were journeying from Rekem Giah until we crossed the stream of Zared were thirty and eight years, till all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For the plague stroke from before the Lord was upon them to destroy them from among the host till they were consumed. 16 When all the men of war had been consumed, and had died away from among the people, 17 the Lord spoke with me, saying: 18 You are today to pass by Lechaiath, the frontier of Moab. 19 But when you come near over against the Beni Ammon, be not troublesome to them, nor provoke yourself to make war with them; for I have not given to you of the land of the Beni Ammon any inheritance; for I have given it to the children of Lot to inherit.— 20 That also was reputed a land of giants; in old times giants did dwell in it, and the Ammonites called them Hashbanee; 21 a people great and many, and strong as giants, but the Lord destroyed them before them, and cast them out, and they dwelt in their places. 22 As did the sons of Esau who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horaee from before them, and drove them out, and they have dwelt in their places to this day. 23 And the Avaee, who dwelt in Pheziach to Hazah, destroyed the Kaphutkaee, who came out of Kaphutkaia, and dwelt in their place. 24 Arise, remove, and pass over the river of Arnon: behold, I have delivered into your hand Sihon, king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land; begin to cast him out, and rouse yourself to make battle with him. 25 This day will I begin to put dread of you and fear of you upon the face of the peoples which are under the whole heavens, who shall hear your fame, and be broken before you. 26 And I sent ambassadors from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27 May I pass through your land by the way? I will go by the way, nor turn to the right or the left: 28 you shall sell me provision for silver, and I will eat; and give me water for silver, and I will drink; I will only go through on my feet: 29 as the Beni Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabaee who dwell in Lechaiath, did to me, until I pass over Jordan to the land which the Lord our God shall give to us. 30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to permit us to pass through his coasts; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart, that He might deliver him into your hand, as at this day. 31 And the Lord said to me, See, I have begun to deliver to you Sihon and his country; begin to drive him out, that you may inherit his land. 32 And Sihon came forth to meet us, he and all his people, to give battle at Jahaz; 33 and the Word of the Lord our God delivered him up before us, and we struck him, and his sons, and all his people. 34 And we subdued all his cities at that time, and consumed all the towns, and the men, women, and children, and left none to escape. 35 Only the cattle was a booty to us, and the spoil of the cities which we subdued. 36 From Aroer which is upon the bank of the river of Arnon, and the city that is by the river, even to Gilead, there was no city too strong for us; for the Lord our God delivered all before us. 37 Only to the land of the Beni Ammon you did not come near, nor to all the side of the river Jubeka, nor the cities of the mountain, nor to any of which the Lord our God had commanded us.

3And we turned, and went up the way of Mathnan; and Og king of Mathnan came out to meet us, he and all his people, to give battle at Edrehi. 2 And the Lord said to me, Fear him not; for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you have done to Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt at Heshbon. 3 And the Lord our God delivered Og the king of Mathnan into our hand with all his people, and we struck him until not a remnant of him escaped. 4 And we subdued all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we did not take from them, sixty cities, all the region of the territory of the kingdom of Og in Mathnan. 5 All those strong cities were fortified with gates and bars, beside unwalled towns very many. 6 But we consumed them as we did Sihon king of Heshbon: we destroyed in all the cities the men, women, and children; 7 but all the cattle and the spoil of the cities were a prey to us. 8 And we took at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amoraah, the country on this side of Jordana, from the river of Arnon to the mountain of Hermon. 9 The Zidonaee call Hermon Sirion, but the Amoraee call it the Mount of Snow. 10 All the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Mathnan, to Salka and Edrehi, cities of the kingdom of Og in Mathnan. 11 For only Og king of Mathnan remained of the remnant of the giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron: is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon, nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, in the cubit of the king? 12 And their land (which) we took into possession at that time, from Aroer, upon the river Arnon, and half Mount Gilead, and the cities of it, I have given to the tribe of Reuben, and to the tribe of Gad. 13 And the rest of Gilead, and all Mathnan, the kingdom of Og, I have given to the half tribe of Menasheh; all the surrounding country, even all Mathnan, which was called the Land of the Giants. 14 Jaer bar Menasheh took all the territory of Terakona, to the border of Geshurah and Aphkiros, and called it after his name, Mathnan Kapharne-Jair, to this day. 16 And to the tribe of Reuben, and of Gad, I have given from Gilead to the river of Arnon (to) the middle of the river and its bound, to the river Jubeka, which is the border of the children of Ammon. 17 And the plain, and the Jordan, and the border of it, from Genezar to the Sea of the Plain, the Sea of Salt, under the declivity of the height, eastward. 18 And I instructed you at that time, saying: The Lord your God has given you this land to possess it; you shall pass over armed before your brothers the sons of Israel, all armed for the host. 19 Only your wives, and little ones, and your cattle,—for I know that you have much cattle,—shall stay in your cities which I have given you, 20 until the Lord has given rest to your brothers as well as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God has given to them on the other side of Jordana: and you shall return every man to his inheritance which I have given you. 21 And I charged Jehoshua at that time, saying: Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so shall the Lord do to all the kingdoms to which you are going over. 22 Fear them not, for the Word of the Lord your God will fight for you. 23 And I prayed before the Lord at that time, saying: 24 O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for You are God, whose Shekinah is in the heavens above, and You rule in the earth, and none can do according to Your greatness or Your might. 25 Let me, I pray, go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and the place of the sanctuary. 26 But there was displeasure with the Lord against me on your account, and He did not hear me; but said to me, It is enough for you; add not to speak again before Me of this thing: 27 go up to the summit of the height, and lift up your eyes to the west, the north, the south, and the east, and see with your eyes; for you shall not pass over this Jordan. 28 But instruct Jehoshua, and fortify, and make him strong; for he shall go over before this people, and put them in possession of the land which you will see. 29 And we dwelt in the valley over against Beth Peor.

4And now, Israel, hear the statutes and the judgments which I am to teach you to do, that you may live, and go in to inherit the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor diminish from it, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done with the worshippers of Baala Peor; for all the men who went after Baala Peor the Lord your God has destroyed from among you. 4 But you who have cleaved to the fear of the Lord your God, are alive all of you this day. 5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you may so do in the land to which you go to possess it. 6 And observe, and perform; for this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations who will hear all these statutes, and say, Most surely this great people is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what people so great who has God so near to it to listen to their prayer in the time of their tribulation, as the Lord our God (is to us) in every time that we pray before Him? 8 Or what people so great which has statutes and judgments so true as all this law which I set before you this day? 9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep your soul, all the days of your life, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and they pass away from your heart. But make them known to your children, and to your children"s children, 10 (as was said) on the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people together before Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days which they live on the earth, and may teach their children. 11 And you came near, and stood at the lower parts of the mountain, and the mount burned with fire to the height of the heavens, in darkness, clouds, and shadow. 12 And the Lord spoke with you from the midst of the fire; you heard a voice of words, but you saw no likeness; (there was) only the Voice. 13 And He proclaimed to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, (even) the Ten Words; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments for you to perform in the land where you pass over to possess it. 15 But take heed to your souls; for you saw no likeness in the day that the Lord spoke with you from the midst of the fire; 16 lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you an image, or the likeness of any form, the likeness of male or female, 17 of any beast on the ground, or of any bird which flies in the air of the expanse of the skies, 18 of any reptile of the earth, or any fish of the waters, under the earth; 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and behold the sun, or moon and stars, all the host of the heavens, and go astray and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has not appointed for any of the nations that are under the whole heavens. 20 But you the Lord has drawn near to His service, and brought you out from the iron furnace, (even) from Mizraim, to be to Him a people of inheritance, as at this day. 21 But towards me the Lord had displeasure, on account of your words, and He swore that I should not go over Jordan, nor enter the good land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit. 22 For I must die in this land; I am not to pass over the Jordan; but you are to pass over, and inherit that good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He has concluded with you, and you make an image for you, the likeness of anything about which the Lord your God has commanded you. 24 For the Word of the Lord your God is a consuming fire: He is a jealous God. 25 When you shall have fathered sons and daughters, and have grown old in the land, and you become corrupt, and make an image, the likeness of anything, or do what is evil before the Lord your God, to cause displeasure before Him; 26 I call, this day, the heavens and earth to witness that you will surely perish from off the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it: you will not prolong days upon it, for with destruction you will be destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the nations, and you will remain a numbered people among the nations where the Lord shall lead you. 28 And there will you serve the peoples who are worshippers of idols, the work of men"s hands, wood and stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 Yet if from there you seek the fear of the Lord your God, you shall find, if you seek for Him with your heart, and with all your soul. 30 When you will be in trouble, and all these words will have found you, in the end of the days, and you will turn to the fear of the Lord your God, and be obedient to His Word, 31 because the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. 32 For ask now of the ancient days that have been before you, from the day that the Lord created man upon the earth, and (ask) from one end of the heavens to the other, if there has been so great a thing as this, or any heard like it, 33 whether a people have heard the voice of the Word of the Lord speaking from the midst of the fire as you heard, and have lived. 34 Or (if any have seen) like miracles which the Lord has performed, in being revealed to redeem to Himself a people from among a people, by miracles, signs, and wonders, and with war, and by a mighty hand and uplifted arm, and by grand visions, according to all that the Lord your God has done for you in Mizraim before your eyes. 35 To you has it been shown, that you may know that the Lord He is God, there is none beside Him. 36 From the heavens you heard the voice of His Word, that He might teach you, and upon earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 And because He loved your fathers, and had pleasure in their children after them, He brought you out by His Word, by His mighty power, from Mizraim, 38 to drive out nations greater and stronger than you from before you, to bring you in, to give you their land to inherit, as at this day. 39 Know then, this day, and revolve it in your heart, that the Lord He is God, whose glory is in the heavens above, and who rules upon the earth beneath, (and that) there is none but He; 40 and keep His statutes and His commandments that I teach you this day, that it may be well with you, and your sons after you, and you may prolong days on the land which the Lord your God gives you, all the days. 41 Then Mosheh separated three cities on the other side of the Jordan (toward) the sunrise, 42 that the slayer may escape there who may kill his neighbour unawares, not having hated him yesterday, or before it; and that, escaping to one of those cities, he may live:— 43 Bezer, in the wilderness, in the plain land of the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth, in Gilead, of the tribe Gad; and Golan, in Mathnan, of the tribe of Menasheh. 44 And this is the law which Mosheh set in order before the children of Israel: 45 these are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments, which Mosheh spoke to the children of Israel, on their coming forth from Mizraim; 46 on the other side of Jordan, in the vale over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Mosheh and the children of Israel struck when they had come out of Mizraim. 47 And they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king of Mathnan, two kings of the Amoraah, who were beyond Jordan, toward the sunrise; 48 from Aroer, upon the bank of the river Arnon to the mountain of Siaon, which is Hermon; 49 and all the plain beyond Jordan eastward to the sea of the plain at the declivity of the heights.

5And Mosheh called all Israel, and said to them: Listen, Israel, to the statutes and judgments which I speak before you this day, and learn them, and keep them to do them. 2 The Lord our God confirmed a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 The Lord did not confirm this covenant with our fathers, but with us who are here all of us living this day: 4 word with word has the Lord spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire 5 (I stood between the Word of the Lord and you, to announce to you at that time the word of the Lord; for you were afraid in presence of the fire, and did not go up to the mountain), saying: 6 I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Mizraim, from the house of bondage; there shall not be with you another god beside Me. 7 You shall not make for yourself an image or any likeness of that which is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth; 8 you shall not worship them or serve them: for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of fathers upon rebellious children, upon the third generation and upon the fourth of them that hate Me, when the children complete the sins of their fathers; 9 but doing good to (thousands of) generations of those who love Me, and keep My commandments. 10 You shall not swear by the Name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not acquit him who shall swear by His Name falsely. 11 Keep the day of Shabbatha to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 12 Six days you shall work, and do all your labour; 13 but the seventh day is the Sabbath before the Lord your God: you shall not perform any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your servant, your handmaid, your ox, your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your sojourner who is in your gates; that your servant and handmaid may rest as well as you. 14 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Mizraim, and that the Lord brought you out from there with a mighty hand and uplifted arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 15 Honour your father and mother, as the Lord has commanded, that you may prolong your days, and it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God shall give you. 16 You shall not kill life, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness against your neighbour. 17 Nor shall you desire your neighbour"s wife, nor covet your neighbour"s house, his field, or his servant, or his handmaid, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour"s. 18 These words spoke the Lord with all your congregation at the mount, from the midst of the fire, the clouds and the darkness, with a great voice, and has not ceased. And He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me. 19 But it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the fire and darkness, the mount burning with fire, all the chiefs of your tribes and your elders drew near to me; 20 and you said, Behold, the Lord our God has showed to us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard the voice of His Word out of the midst of the fire; this day have we seen that the Lord speaks with a man, and he lives. 21 But now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us: if we go on to hear the voice of the Word of the Lord our God, we shall die. 22 For who is there of all flesh who can hear the voice of the Word of the Living God speaking from the midst of fire (in the manner) that we have, and can live? 23 Go near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak with us all that the Lord our God shall speak with you, and we will listen and will do. 24 And the voice of your words was heard before the Lord when you spoke with me, and the Lord said to me, The voice of the words of this people which they have spoken with you is heard before Me; all (the words) they have spoken are right. 25 O that they may have such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments all days, that it may be well with them and their children for ever. 26 Go, and say to them, Return to your tents. 27 But you, stand here before Me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I will give them to possess it. 28 And you shall observe to do as the Lord your God has commanded you, nor decline to the right hand or to the left. 29 In all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you shall you walk, that you may live, and it may be well with you, and you may lengthen out your days in the land which you are to inherit.

6And this is the commandment, (these are) the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God has commanded (me) to teach you to perform in the land to which you go over to possess it, 2 that you may fear before the Lord your God, and keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you; you, your sons, and your sons" son, all the days of your life, that your days may be prolonged. 3 And you, Israel, shall receive, and keep, and perform, that it may be well with you, and you may increase greatly, as the Lord God of your fathers has said to you, (in) the land which produces milk and honey. 4 HEAR ISRAEL; THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD: 5 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your substance. [2] 6 And these words that I command you this day shall be upon your heart. 7 And you shall deliver them to your children, and talk of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you go in the way, and in your lying down, and your rising up. 8 And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for tephillin between your eyes; 9 and you shall write them upon the doorposts, and affix them to the lintels of your house, and upon your gates. 10 And it shall be, when the Lord your God will have brought you into the land which He covenanted to your fathers, to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, to give you great and goodly cities which you did not build, 11 and houses full of goods that you did not fill, and cisterns hewn which you did not hew, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you have eaten and be full; 12 beware, lest you forget the fear of the Lord who brought you out from the land of Mizraim, from the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve before Him, and swear by His Name. 14 You shall not go after the idols of the Gentiles, the idols of the peoples who surround you 15 (for the Lord your God is a jealous God, His Shekinah dwells in the midst of you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16 You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in the temptation: 17 keeping you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes He has commanded you, 18 and do what is right and well ordered before the Lord, that it may be well with you, and you may enter in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers 19 to break all your enemies before you, as He has said. 20 When your son shall ask you in time to come (mehar, tomorrow), saying, What are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments, which the Lord our God has commanded you? 21 then you shall say, We were servants to Pharoh in Mizraim; and the Lord brought us out of Mizraim with a mighty hand, 22 and put forth miracles great and sore upon Pharoh, and all the men of his house, before our eyes; 23 and He brought us out from there, to bring us in, to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to perform all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, that all days it may be well with us, (and) that He may preserve us alive as at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness to observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.

7When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land into which you go to possess it, and cast out many peoples from before you, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Kenaanites, Pherizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations, greater and mightier than you, 2 and shall deliver them up before you; then you shall strike and utterly consume them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy upon them. 3 Neither shall you intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son. 4 For they will cause your son to go astray from serving Me, and they will worship the idols of the Gentiles, and the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will destroy you speedily. 5 But thus shall you do to them: you shall pull down their altars, break their statues in pieces, cut down their (sacred) groves, and burn their images with fire. 6 For you are a people consecrated before the Lord your God, you the Lord your God has chosen to be to Him a people more beloved than all peoples upon the face of the earth. 7 Not because you were greater than any of the peoples, has the Lord chosen and befriended you, for you were smaller than any of the peoples; 8 but because the Lord had mercy on you, and that He would keep the covenant He swore to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharoh, the king of Mizraim. 9 Know, then, that the Lord your God, He is God, a faithful God, keeping covenant and mercy for them who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations, 10 but repaying them who hate Him the good which they have done before Him in their lives, to destroy them (in the life to come?). He does not delay to do good to His enemies for the good they may have done before Him in their lives, to repay them. 11 You shall therefore observe the commandments, statutes, and judgments, which I command you this day, to do them. 12 And it shall be that because you will have obeyed these judgments, and have observed and performed them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you, and will bless the offspring of your womb, the fruit of your land, your grain, wine, and oil, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep, on the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 Blessed shall you be above all peoples; there shall not be among you a barren male or a barren female, neither among your cattle. 15 And the Lord your God will remove from you all diseases, and all the plagues of Mizraim; the evil things that you know He will not lay upon you, but will put them on all that hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give up to you; your eye shall not have pity upon them, nor shall you serve their idols, for that will be a stumbling-block to you. 17 If you say in your heart, These nations are greater than I am: how can I drive them out? 18 you shall not be afraid of them; remembering you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharoh and all Mizraim; 19 the great miracles which your eye saw, and the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and uplifted arm, by which the Lord your God led you forth; so shall the Lord your God do to all the nations before whom you are afraid. 20 And moreover, the Lord your God will stir up the hornet among them, until they who remain and who hid themselves from before you have perished. 21 You shall not be broken down before them; for the Lord your God dwells in the midst of you, the Great and fearful God. 22 And the Lord your God will put away those nations before you by little and little; for you may not consume them instantly, lest the wild beast of the field multiply against you. 23 Yet will the Lord your God deliver them up before you, and destroy them with a great destruction, till they be consumed; 24 and He will deliver their kings into your hand, and destroy their names from under the heavens, and not a man will stand before you till you will have destroyed them. 25 The images of their idols you shall burn with fire; you shall not desire the silver or the gold upon them, nor take (it) to yourself, lest you offend through it, for it is an abomination before the Lord your God. 26 Nor shall you bring what is abominable into your house, and you be accursed as that is; but with loathing you shall loathe it, and with abhorrence abhor it, for it is a thing accursed.

8Every mandate that I command you this day, you shall observe to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord covenanted to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember all the way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not: 3 and He humbled (or afflicted) you, and let you hunger, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that He might make you to know, That not by bread only is man sustained, but by every forth-coming word from before the Lord shall man live. 4 Your clothing did not fade away from you, and your shoes did not wear out these forty years; 5 and know you with your heart, that as a man instructs his son, (so) the Lord your God instructs you. 6 Keep then the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in the ways which are right before Him, to fear Him 7 for the Lord your God brings you into the good land; a land streaming with brooks of water, with fountain-springs, and depths (of water) gushing from valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olives yielding oil, and which produces honey; 9 a land where, without poverty, you may eat bread, and lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may cast brass: 10 and you shall eat and be satisfied, and shall bless the Lord your God in the good land. 11 Beware, lest you forget the fear of the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day. 12 Lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and inhabited (them), 13 and when your oxen and sheep have multiplied to you, and silver and gold have increased, and whatever you have is increased with you, 14 your heart should be lifted up, and you should forget the fear of the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Mizraim, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through the great and terrible desert, the place of burning serpents and scorpions, the place of thirsting, where there is no water, who brought out water for you from the hard rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, and prove you, to do you good in your latter end. 17 And (lest) you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gathered to me these possessions: 18 but remember the Lord your God, for He it is who gives you power to acquire riches, that He may confirm his covenant which He swore to your fathers, as at this day. 19 But it will be that if you forget the fear of the Lord your God, and walk after the idols of the Gentiles to serve and worship them,—I testify against you this day that perishing you will perish. 20 As the nations which the Lord destroys from before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the Word of the Lord your God.

9Hear, Israel: you are this day (about) to pass over the Jordana, to enter, to drive out nations greater and stronger than you, and (to take possession of) cities, great and fortified to the height of heaven; 2 a people great and mighty, the sons of the giants whom you know, and (of whom) you have heard (it said), Who can stand before the sons of the giants? 3 But know this day that the Word of the Lord your God, He it is who goes over before you, He who is a burning fire, He will consume them, He will break them down before you, and you will soon drive them out, as the Lord has told you. 4 You shall not (therefore) speak in your heart when the Lord your God has broken them before you, saying: For the sake of my righteousness has the Lord brought me in to inherit this land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord drives them out before you. 5 Not for your righteousness or the integrity of your heart do you go in to possess their land, but for the guilt of these nations the Lord your God drives them out before you, and that He may confirm the word which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob. 6 Know, then, that not for your righteousness will the Lord your God give you this good land to possess it, for you are a hard-necked people. 7 Be mindful, and forget not that you did provoke the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you came out from the land of Mizraim until you have come to this place, you have been rebellious before the Lord. 8 And in Horeb (itself) you provoked the Lord, and aroused the Lord"s anger to destroy you. 9 When I had gone up to the mountain to receive the tables of the stones, the tables of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, and I stayed in the mount forty days and forty nights—I ate no bread, I drank no water— 10 And the Lord gave to me the two tables of stones, written upon by the finger of the Lord, according to all the words which the Lord had spoken with you on the mount from the midst of the fire, on the day of the convocation. 11 It was at the end of forty days and nights, when the Lord gave to me the two tables of the stones, the tables of the covenant, 12 that the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people whom I brought out from Mizraim are corrupted; they have soon turned from the way that I commanded them, and have made them a molten image. 13 And the Lord spoke to me, saying: This people are disclosed before me, and, behold, it is a hard-necked people. 14 Cease from your prayer before me, and I will destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I will make you for a people stronger and greater than they. 15 And I turned and descended from the mount; and the mountain burned with fire, and the two tables of the covenant were upon my two hands. 16 And I looked, and, behold, you had sinned before the Lord your God; you had made you a molten calf; you had turned quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. 17 And I took the two tables, and cast them away from my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the Lord as at the first, forty days and forty nights, bread I did not eat, water I did not drink, for all your sins which you sinned to do evil before the Lord, to provoke to anger before Him; 19 for I was afraid before the anger and indignation with which the Lord was angry against you to destroy you; but the Lord listened to my prayer on that day also. 20 And against Aharon was there great displeasure before the Lord to destroy him; but I prayed for Aharon also at that time. 21 And your sin which you had made, the calf, I took and burned it in fire, and ground it to a fine grinding till it was small as powder, and I threw the dust of it into the stream that descended from the mount. 22 And at the Burning, and at the Temptation, and at the Graves of Desire, you were rebellious before the Lord; 23 and when the Lord sent you from Rekem Giah, saying: Go up and possess the land I have given, then you rebelled against the decree of the Word of the Lord your God, and would not believe Him, nor be obedient to His Word. 24 You have been contumacious before the Lord from the day that I have known you; 25 but I fell down before the Lord the forty days and the forty nights that I was prostrate, for the Lord had spoken to consume you. 26 And I prayed before the Lord, and said: Lord God, destroy not Your people, and Your inheritance, which You have redeemed by Your power, and brought out from Mizraim with a mighty hand. 27 Remember Your servants Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob; regard not the stubbornness of this people, nor their wickedness, nor their sin: 28 lest the inhabitants of the land from where You have led us should say: Because there was no power before the Lord to bring them into the land which He had told them of, or because He hated them, He led them forth to kill them in the wilderness. 29 But they are Your people, and Your inheritance, which you have led forth with Your great power and Your uplifted arm.

10At that time the Lord said to me: Hew for yourself two tables of stones like the first, and come up before Me on the mount, and make for yourself an ark of wood; 2 and I will write upon the tables the words that were upon the former tables which you broke, and you shall put them into the ark. 3 And I made an ark of sittin wood, and hewed two tables of stones like the former, and went up to the mountain, and the two tables were in my hand; 4 and He wrote upon the tables according to the former writing, the Ten Words which the Lord spoke with you on the mount from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. 5 And I returned and descended from the mount, and put the tables into the ark which I had made, and they are there, as the Lord commanded me. 6 And the children of Israel went forward from Bearith of the Beni Jaakan to Moserah; there Aharon died, and was buried there, and Elazar his son has ministered in his place. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jatbath, a land flowing with streams of water. 8 At that time the Lord had set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the Lord"s covenant, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him, and to bless in His Name, to this day. 9 Therefore, Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers; the gifts which the Lord shall give him are his inheritance, as the Lord your God has told him. 10 And I stood on the mountain as in the former days, forty days and nights; and the Lord received my prayer at that time also, that He would not destroy you. 11 And the Lord said to me: Arise, go, to proceed before the people, that they may be brought in to possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear before the Lord your God, to walk in all the ways that are right before Him, and to love Him, and to serve before the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul; 13 to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes which I command you this day, that it may be well with you? 14 Behold, the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, are the Lord"s your God, and all that is in it; 15 only the Lord did choose your fathers to love them, and He has taken pleasure in their children after them, even in you, above all people, as at this day. 16 Put away, therefore, the foolishness of your hearts, and harden your neck no more; 17 for the Lord your God is the God of judges, and the Lord of kings, the Great God, mighty and terrible, before whom is no respect of persons, nor does He accept a reward. 18 He executes judgment for the orphan and the widow, and has pity on the stranger to give him food and clothing. 19 Be loving then to the stranger, for you were sojourners in the land of Mizraim. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve before Him; to His fear you shall keep close, and shall swear by His Name; 21 He is your glory, and He is your God, who has done for you these vast and mighty acts which your eyes have seen. 22 With seventy souls went your fathers down into Mizraim, and now the Lord your God has set you as the stars of the heavens for multitude.

11And you shall love the Lord your God, and keeping keep His word, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments all days. 2 And you know this day what your children have not known or seen, the discipline of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and uplifted arm, 3 His miracles, and His works which He did in Mizraim, to Pharoh king of Mizraim, and to all his land; 4 and what He did to the host of the Mizraee, to their horses and their chariots, when he made the waters of the Sea of Suph to overflow their faces as they followed after you, and the Lord destroyed them to this day; 5 and what He did to you in the wilderness until your coming to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab bar Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up with the men of their house, their tents, and all the substance they had, in the midst of all Israel; 7 for your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which He has done. 8 You shall observe all the precepts which I command you this day, that you may be strengthened, and go in and possess the land to which you are going over to inherit, 9 and may prolong your days upon the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their children, a land producing milk and honey; 10 for the land into which you are going to possess it, is not as the land of Mizraim from which you have come out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your feet as a garden of herbs (or a green garden); 11 but the land to which you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, drinking water of the rains of heaven; 12 a land which the Lord your God looks after (inquires for); the eyes of the Lord your God are evermore upon it, from the beginning to the end of the year. 13 And it shall be, if you will be diligently obedient to My commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God, and to serve before Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, 14 I will give you the rain of your land in its season, the early and the latter; and you shall gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 15 and I will give herbage in your field for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied. 16 Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside to serve the gods of the Gentiles and worship them; 17 and the anger of the Lord be aroused against you, and He shut up the skies that there be no rain, and the earth yield not her fruit, and you perish soon from off the good land which the Lord will give you: 18 but lay these my words upon your heart, and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and let them be for tephillin between your eyes; 19 and teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk in the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up; 20 and write them upon the posts, and fix them to the entrance of your house, and upon your gates; 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. 22 For if you surely keep all this precept that I command you to perform it, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all the ways that are right before Him, and keep close to His fear, 23 then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, that you may possess (the lands) of nations greater and stronger than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Phrat, to the uttermost sea shall be your border. 25 There shall not a man stand before you; for the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you upon the face of all the land that you tread upon, as the Lord has said to you. 26 Behold, I set before you this day blessings and curses: 27 blessings, if you obey the precepts of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; 28 but curses, if you do not obey the precepts of the Lord your God, and turn aside from the way that I teach you this day, to go after the idols of the peoples whom you have not known. 29 And it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, you shall set the blessings upon the Mount of Gerizim, and the curses upon the Mountain of Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond Jordan, after the way of the sunsetting, in the land of the Kenaanites, which dwell in the plains over against Gilgala, by the side of the plain of Moreh? 31 For you are to pass over the Jordan to enter in to inherit the land which the Lord your God will give you; and you will possess, and dwell in it. 32 And you shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I have set before you this day.

12These are the commandments and judgments you shall observe to do in the land that the Lord the God of your fathers will give to you to inherit all the days that you subsist upon the earth. 2 You shall destroying destroy all the places in which the peoples (whose lands) you will inherit have served their idols, upon the high mountains, and the hills, and under every leafy tree. 3 And you shall lay their altars in ruin, break their statues, burn their groves with fire, cut the images of their idols in pieces, and blot out their names from that place. 4 Not so shall you do before the Lord your God; 5 but, to the place which the Lord your God will choose that His Shekinah may dwell there, to the house of His Shekinah you shall seek, 6 and come there to offer your burnt offerings, your consecrated victims, your tenths, and the separations of your hands, your vows and freewill gifts, and the firstlings of your oxen and sheep. 7 And there shall you eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all that you have set your hand to, you and your households, for that the Lord your God has blessed you. 8 You shall not (then) do as we are doing here this day, every man as (seems) proper in his own eyes; 9 for you have not come as yet to the place of quietness, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God will give you. 10 But (when) you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, and He has given you rest from all your enemies round about, and you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be a Place which the Lord your God will choose, to make His Shekinah to dwell there; there shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and consecrated oblations, your tenths and the separations of jour hands, and all the goodly things of your vows which, you may vow before the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and handmaids, and the Levite who is among you, for he has no part or inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to yourself that you offer not your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the Place which the Lord will choose out of one of your tribes you shall offer your sacrifices, and there do all that I command you. 15 Though in any place where your soul may desire you may kill and eat flesh, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which He will give you in all your cities; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as the flesh of the gazelle and the deer. 16 Only of blood you may not eat; you shall pour it upon the ground like water. 17 It is not lawful for you to eat in your cities of the tithe of the produce of your wine or oil, or the firstlings of your bullocks or your sheep, or of any vow which you have devoted, or of your freewill offerings, or separations of your hands; 18 but before the Lord your God shall you eat it, in the place which the Lord your God will choose; you and your son and daughter, your servant and handmaid, and the Levite who is in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you set your hand to. 19 Take heed to yourself that you forsake not the Levite all your days upon your land. 20 When the Lord your God shall have enlarged your border, as He has said to you, and you say, I will eat flesh, when your soul desires to eat flesh, of all the desire of your soul you may eat flesh. 21 If the place which the Lord your God will choose for His Shekinah to dwell there, be too far from you, you may kill of your oxen and sheep which the Lord will give you, as I have commanded you, and eat in your cities of all the desire of your soul. 22 As the flesh of the gazelle and the deer so shall you eat it, the unclean and the clean may eat it alike. 23 Only, be steadfast in not eating the blood, for blood is life, and you may not eat the life with the flesh: 24 you shall not eat it; you shall pour it like water upon the ground; 25 you shall not eat it,—that it may be well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right before the Lord. 26 Only your consecrated things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and bring to the place that the Lord will choose; 27 and make your burnt sacrifices, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your consecrated victims you shall pour out at the altar of the Lord your God, but of the flesh you may eat. 28 Observe and obey all these commandments which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you for ever, when you do that which is fitting and right before the Lord your God. 29 When the Lord your God shall have destroyed the nations (of the land) where you are going to cast them out from before you, and He cast them out, and you dwell in their land,— 30 take heed to yourself that you stumble not after them when they shall have been dispersed before you, and that you seek not to their idols, saying, How did these nations serve their idols? for so will I do also. 31 You shall not do so before the Lord your God; for all that is abominable before the Lord, and that He hates, have they done to their idols. For even their sons and daughters they have burned in the fire.

13Every word I command you, that shall you observe to perform; you shall not add to it nor diminish from it. 2 If there shall arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give a sign or a wonder, 3 and the sign or wonder comes to pass (yet), should he speak with you, saying, Let us go after the gods of the Gentiles whom you have not known, and let us worship them; 4 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is proving you, to know whether you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 5 You shall walk after the Lord your God; Him shall you fear, and keep His commandments, and be obedient to His Word, and serve Him, and keep close to His fear. 6 And that prophet, or dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; for he has spoken perversions against the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Mizraim, and delivered you from the house of bondage, to make you go astray from the path in which the Lord your God has commanded you to walk; and so shall you put away the evil doer from the midst of you. 7 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your covenant, or your friend who is as your soul, shall persuade you in secret, saying: Let us go and worship the gods of the Gentiles whom you have not known, nor your fathers, 8 gods of the nations round about you, near you, or far off, from one end of the earth to the other; 9 you shall not consent to him, nor listen to his word, nor must your eye have pity on him; you shall neither compassionate nor conceal him, 10 but killing you shall kill him; your hand shall be upon him the first to kill him, and afterwards the hand of all the people; 11 and you shall stone him with stones that he die, because he sought to lead you astray from the fear of the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Mizraim, from the house of bondage; 12 and all Israel will hear and be afraid, and not add to do this evil thing among you. 13 If you hear in one of the cities which the Lord your God will give you to dwell in, saying: 14 Men, sons of wickedness, have gone forth from among you, and led away the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and worship the gods of the nations which you have not known; 15 then shall you seek and search out, and fairly inquire; and, behold, such a thing is the truth, and this abomination is being done among you, 16 you shall strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, 17 and destroy it and all that is in it and its cattle by the edge of the sword; and you shall gather all the spoil of it together into the midst of its street, and burn the city and the whole spoil of it with fire entirely before the Lord your God, and it shall be a desolate heap for ever, it shall be built no more; 18 and nothing of the accursed thing shall cleave to your hand, that the Lord may turn away His anger from you, and show mercy upon you, and be loving towards you, and increase you, as He swore to your fathers; 19 when you shall be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to observe all His commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right before the Lord your God.

14Children are you before the Lord your God. You shall not lacerate yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead; 2 for you are (to be) a holy people before the Lord your God, chosen to be to Him a people more beloved than all the nations upon the face of the earth. 3 You shall not eat anything that is abominable. 4 These are the cattle that you may eat: oxen, lambs of the flock, and kids of the goats. 5 The hart, and the antelope, the forest deer, and the wild goat, the pygarg, the buffalo, and the chamois; 6 and any animal that has the hoof cloven, and that divides the hoof into two parts, and ruminates the cud, among cattle, that you may eat. 7 Nevertheless, you shall not eat of those that (only) chew the cud, or of them that (only) separate the hoof into divided parts: the camel, the hare, and the coney, for they bring up the cud, but do not divide the hoof, they are unclean to you; 8 and the swine, because it divides the hoof, but does not ruminate, shall be unclean to you; of their flesh you may not eat, nor touch their carcases. 9 Of all that are in the waters these you may eat: all that have fins and scales you may eat; 10 but any (fish) that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you. 11 You may eat any clean bird; 12 but of these you shall not eat: the eagle, ossifrage, osprey, 13 gleed, vulture, and kite after his kind, 14 and every raven after his kind; 15 the owl, nightbird, gull, and hawk after his kind; 16 the heron, swan, and stork, 17 the cormorant, pelican, and owl; 18 the bittern and ibis after his kind; the lapwing and the bat: 19 and no reptile may you eat whose flesh is unclean to you; 20 but you may eat any fowl (or winged thing) that is clean. 21 You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you may give it to the uncircumcised stranger who is in your city, and he may eat it; or you may sell it to the outward people; for you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God. You shall not eat flesh with the milk. 22 You shall tithe all the produce of your seed, and all that your field may bring forth from year to year; 23 and before the Lord your God in the place which He will choose to make His Shekinah dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, wine, and oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear before the Lord your God all days. 24 But if the way be too great for you, so that you are not able to bring it, if the way be too distant from the place which the Lord your God may choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there, when the Lord your God shall have blessed you, 25 then you shall put (change) it into silver, and bind the silver in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God will choose, 26 and shall give the silver for whatever your soul may please, for oxen, sheep, wine, new or old, or anything your soul may desire, and shall eat there before the Lord your God, and rejoice, you, the men of your house, 27 and the Levite who is in your cities; you shall not forsake him, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. 28 At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithes of your produce in that year, and lay it up in your cities; 29 and the Levite, because he has no part or inheritance with you, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your cities, shall come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you shall do.

15At the end of seven years you shall make the Release, 2 and this is the sentence (word) of the Release:—That every man who is a creditor shall give release to him who owes to his neighbour; he shall not exact it from his neighbour or his brother, because the release is proclaimed before the Lord. 3 From a son of the Gentiles you may demand; but that which is with your brother, you shall release by your hand. 4 Save when there shall not be the poor among you, for the Lord in blessing will bless you in the land which the Lord your God will give you for a possession to inherit. 5 Only if you will indeed be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, and observe to do all these precepts which I command you this day; 6 for the Lord your God blesses you, as He has said to you: and you shall lend to many peoples, but you shall not take a loan; and you shall have rule over many peoples, but they shall not have rule over you. 7 If there be with you a poor man of your brothers, in one of the cities in the land which the Lord your God will give you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut up your hand from your poor brother; 8 but you shall open your hand to him, and lend, according to the measure of his lack, of that which he may need. 9 Beware, lest there be a word with your wicked heart, saying, The year of release draws near, and your eye be evil toward your poor brother, and you give not to him, and he cry against you before the Lord, and there be guiltiness in you. 10 Giving you shall give to him, and your heart shall not be evil when you give to him: because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works, and in all you put your hand to. 11 For the poor will not cease (to be) in the midst of your land; therefore I command you, saying, You shall truly open your hand to your brother, to your afflicted, and to your poor in your land. 12 If your brother, a son of Israel, or a daughter of Israel, be sold to you, and shall have served you six years, in the seventh year let him go, a son of liberty, from you. 13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not send him away empty. 14 But you shall separate to him from your flock, and your floor, and your wine-press, and give to him of that which the Lord your God has blessed you. 15 And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Mizraim, and the Lord your God set you free: therefore I command you this thing today. 16 But if he say to you, I will not go out from being, with you, because he loves you, and the men of your house, (and) because it is good for me to be with you, 17 then you shall take an awl, put it through his ear, and into the door, and he shall be a ministering servant to you evermore. And also likewise shall you do to your handmaid. 18 It shall not be a hardship in your eyes when you send him from you to be a son of freedom, for he has been doubly worth a hireling, serving you six years; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you shall do. 19 Every firstling male which comes of your cattle or your sheep, you shall consecrate before the Lord your God: you shall not work with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock. 20 You shall eat it before the Lord your God from year to year in the place which the Lord will choose, you and the men of your house. 21 And if there be any blemish (spot) in it, (if it be) lame, or blind, or have any evil spot, you shall not sacrifice it before the Lord your God: 22 you may eat it in your cities, unclean (persons) and clean alike (may eat it), as the antelope and the hart. 23 Only you shall not eat the blood, but pour it out upon the ground like water.

16Observe the month of Abiba, and perform the pascha before the Lord your God; for in the month of Abiba the Lord your God brought you out of Mizraim, and performed signs for you in the night. 2 And you shall sacrifice the pascha before the Lord your God, with the lambs (young) of your flock, and with consecrated victims from your herd, in the place which the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah dwell there. 3 You shall not eat leaven with it. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of humiliation; for in haste did you come out of the land of Mizraim: that you may remember the day of your coming from the land of Mizraim all the days of your life. 4 And there shall not be leaven seen with you within all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh of that which you did sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain until the morning. 5 You do not have liberty to sacrifice the pascha in any one of your cities which the Lord your God will give you; 6 but in the place which the Lord your God will approve to make His Shekinah dwell, there you shall sacrifice the pascha, in the evening, at the going away of the sun; the time of your coming out of Mizraim. 7 And you shall dress and eat it in the place which the Lord your God shall favour, and in the morning turn and go to your tent. 8 Six days you shall eat unleavened, and on the seventh day gather together before the Lord your God: you shall do no work. 9 Seven weeks number for yourself from the beginning (of the harvest); when the omer of the elevation is reaped with the sickle, shall you begin to number the seven weeks. 10 And you shall perform the festival of the weeks before the Lord your God, with a tribute of the free-will offering of your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God will have blessed you. 11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your handmaid, the Levite who is in your cities, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, in the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there. 12 And you shall remember that you were a servant in Mizraim, and keep and perform these statutes. 13 The Feast of Tabernacles you shall make for yourself seven days, when you have gathered in from your threshing-floor, and from your wine-press. 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your handmaid, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities. 15 Seven days shall you hold the festival before the Lord your God in the place the Lord shall choose, because the Lord your God will have blessed you in all your produce, and in all the work of your hands, and therefore shall you rejoice. 16 Three times in the year all your males are to appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the Unleavened, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty; 17 but every man with the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you. 18 Judges and officers shall you appoint to you in all your cities which the Lord your God will give you throughout your tribes, and they shall judge the people with true judgment. 19 You shall not pervert judgment, nor have respect to persons, nor receive a gift; for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise, and corrupts right words. 20 You shall follow that which is surely true, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God will give you. 21 You shall not plant for yourself a grove, nor any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God that you make for yourself, 22 nor erect a statue which the Lord your God abhors.

17You shall not sacrifice before the Lord your God a bullock or ram which has blemish in it, nor anything that is evil; for that is abomination before the Lord your God. 2 If, in any one of the cities which the Lord your God will give you, there be found a man or woman who has done evil before the Lord your God in transgressing his covenant, 3 and going to do service to the idols of the Gentiles, or to the sun, moon, or all the host of the heavens, in worshipping them, which I have not commanded; 4 and it be told you, and you have heard; you shall inquire fairly, and if such word be true that this abomination has been done in Israel, 5 you shall bring forth that man or woman, and stone them with stones that they die. 6 On the word of two witnesses or of three shall he die who is guilty of death: he shall not die on the word of one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be upon him first to kill him, and the hands of all the people afterward; and you shall put down the doer of evil from among you. 8 If a matter for judgment be extraordinary to you, between blood and blood, between cause and cause, or between plague and plague, of leprosy, they being matters of divided judgment in your cities,—then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, 9 and come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who may be in those days, and inquire; and they will show you the sentence of decision. 10 And you shall do according to the word of the sentence which they will show you from the place which the Lord will choose, and you shall observe to do according to all that they will teach you. 11 Upon the word of the law which they teach you, and upon the judgment they tell you, you shall act; you shall not swerve from the word they will have shown you, to the right or the left. 12 And the man who does wickedly in not receiving from the priest who stands there to minister before the Lord your God, or from the judge, that man shall die; and you shall put down the evil doer from Israel. 13 And all the people will hear and be afraid, and do wickedly no more. 14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God will give you, and possess and dwell in it, and you may say, I will appoint a king over me, like the nations who are about me; 15 you may truly appoint over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose, from among your brothers you shall appoint the king over you. You shall not have power to set over you a foreign man, who is not your brother. 16 Only he shall not multiply to him horses, nor cause the people to return to Mizraim for the purpose of multiplying horses; for the Lord has said to you, You shall no more return by that way. 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to him, that his heart be not turned away; nor shall he increase silver and gold for himself greatly. 18 And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this Law in a book, out (of that which is) before the priests, the Levites. 19 And he shall have it with him, to read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear before the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to perform them: 20 that his heart may not be lifted up from his brothers, nor swerve from the precepts of the Lord to the right or to the left, and may prolong (his days) in his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.

18For the priests and Levites, (even) all the tribe of Levi, there shall be no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the oblations of the Lord and his inheritance, 2 but have no heritage among their brothers: the gifts presented to the Lord they are his heritage, as the Lord has said to him. 3 And this is what shall belong to the priests from the people, from them who offer a sacrifice, whether bullock or lamb; they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the maw. 4 The first of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall set apart for him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the Name of the Lord, he, and his sons, all the days. 6 And if a Levite come from one of your cities out of all Israel, where he has dwelt, and come with all the desire of his soul, to the place which the Lord will choose, 7 then he shall minister in the Name of the Lord his God with his brothers the Levites who minister there before the Lord. 8 Portion for portion shall they eat, beside the accustomed allotment which comes on the Sabbath, as the fathers have appointed. 9 When you have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of these peoples. 10 No one shall be found among you who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, using enchantments, observing times or augury or witchcraft, nor an incantator, 11 or a consulter at a heathen oracle, or a wizard, or an inquirer from the dead: 12 for all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be perfect in the fear of the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you shall possess listened to diviners and enchanters; not so has the Lord given you to do. 15 A PROPHET from among you, of your brothers, like me, will the Lord your God raise up to you, to him shall you listen. 16 According to all that you did ask before the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying: Let me not again hear the voice of the Word of the Lord my God, and let me not see the great fire any more, lest I die. 17 And the Lord said to me, That which they have spoken is right: 18 I will raise up to them a Prophet from among them like to you, and I will put My words of prophecy upon his lips, and he will speak to them all that I shall command him. 19 And the man who will not listen to My words which he will speak in My Name, My Word will require it of him. 20 But a prophet who shall do wickedly in speaking in My Name a word which I had not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of the gods of the Gentiles, that prophet shall die. 21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaks in the Name of the Lord, if the word come not to pass, neither be confirmed, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken: of the prophet who has spoken in wickedness you shall not be afraid.

19When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land the Lord your God will give you, and you possess it, and dwell in their cities and houses; 2 three cities shall you set apart to you within your land, which the Lord your God will give you to inherit. 3 You shall prepare for you a way, and divide into three parts the boundary of your land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, for any manslayer to escape there. 4 And this shall be the case of the manslayer who flees there that he may live: he who shall have slain his neighbour unwittingly, he not having hated him yesterday or before. 5 As, when a man goes with his neighbour into the thicket to cut wood, and his hand with the iron is driven aside in cutting the wood, and the iron flies off from the handle and strikes (finds) his neighbour, and he be killed, he shall flee to one of these cities that he may live; 6 lest the avenger of blood pursue him while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and destroy his life; he not being guilty of death, because he had not hated him in time past. 7 Therefore, I command you, saying: You shall set apart to you three cities. 8 And when the Lord your God shall enlarge your border, as He swore to your fathers, and give you all the land which He said to your fathers He would give, 9 if you will keep all this commandment which I command you this day, to perform it, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in the ways that are right before Him all the days; then you shall add yet three cities to those three, 10 that innocent blood may not be shed within your land which the Lord your God will give you to inherit, and that the guilt of murder may not be upon you. 11 But if a man bear hatred to his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and destroy his life, and he die, and he flee to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall die. 13 Your eye shall not have pity upon him, and you shall do away with the shedding of innocent blood from Israel, that it may be well with you. 14 You shall not remove the boundary of your neighbour which he has set for a limit in the inheritance which you shall possess in the land the Lord your God will give you to inherit. 15 One witness shall not rise up (alone) against a man for any iniquities or sins, or any sin by which he (may have) transgressed; but upon the word of two or of three witnesses shall the case be confirmed. 16 If a false witness stand up against a man to testify against him with perversity, 17 then the two men to whom the cause belongs shall stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who shall be in those days; 18 and the judges shall make inquest fairly, and, behold, he has testified falsely, and the testimony is false that he has witnessed against his brother, 19 then you shall do to him as he had designed to do to his brother, and so shall you put away the evil doer from among you. 20 And the rest shall hear and be afraid, and not do any more like this evil thing among you. 21 And your eye shall not have pity: life for life; eye for eye; tooth for tooth; hand for hand; foot for foot.

20When you go out to war with your adversaries, and see horses, and chariots, and more people than you, be not afraid of them; for your helper is the Word of the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Mizraim. 2 And it shall be when you draw near to battle, that the priest shall approach, and speak with the people, 3 and say to them, Hear, Israel: you come this day to do battle with your enemies: let not your heart waver, neither be afraid, or confounded, or broken before them; 4 for the Lord your God (is He) who goes before you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 5 And the officers shall speak before the people, saying: What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he be slain in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6 And what man who has planted a vineyard, but has not made it common (for use)? let him go and return to his house, lest he be slain in the battle, and another man make it common, (or partake of it). 7 And what man has betrothed a wife, and not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he be slain in the battle, and another man take her. 8 And the officers shall yet speak to the people, and say: What man is there who is afraid and brokenhearted? Let him return to his house, and not make the heart of his brothers to be broken as his heart. 9 And it shall be, when the officers have finished to speak with the people, they shall appoint captains of the host at the head of the people. 10 When you draw near to a city to make war against it, then proclaim to it words of peace. 11 And if it be that it make you an answer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who dwell in it shall be tributaries to you and serve you. 12 But if it will not make peace with you, but will have war with you, then you shall besiege it: 13 and when the Lord your God has delivered it into your hand, you may strike all the males of it by the sentence of the sword; 14 but the women, children, cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil, you shall make booty for yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God will have given you. 15 Thus shall you do to all cities which are remote from you, but are not of the cities of these nations; 16 for of the cities of these nations which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not spare alive any breathing thing, 17 but utterly destroy them, Hittites aud Amorites, Kenaanites and Pheresites, Hivites and Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded you; 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done to their idols, and you sin against the Lord your God. 19 When you lay siege to a city many days in making war against it to subdue it, you shall not destroy the trees (that are about) it, nor lift up the iron against them: for of them you may eat; you shall not cut them down, for the tree of the field is not like a man, to come against you in the siege. 20 Only a tree which you know is not for food, you may destroy and cut down; and you shall build bulwarks (palisades) against the city which makes war with you, until you subdue it.

21When in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit there may be found one who is slain, lying in the field, and it is not known who has killed him, 2 then your elders and judges shall come forth and measure to the cities that surround the dead man; 3 and the elders of the city that is nearest to the dead man shall take an heifer of the herd which has not been worked with, nor has drawn on the yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to an uncultivated valley (or field) which is not tilled nor sown, and there cut off the heifer in the field. 5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall go near,—for them the Lord your God has chosen to minister to Him, and to bless in the Name of the Lord, and on their word shall every controversy or stroke of leprosy (be adjudged);— 6 and all the elders of that city which is nearest to the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer which has been cut off in the field; 7 and shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen. 8 And the priests shall say, Forgive Your people Israel whom You, Lord, have redeemed, and let not the guilt of innocent blood be among Your people Israel. And it shall be forgiven them concerning the blood: 9 so shall you put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right before the Lord. 10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive; 11 and you see among the captives a woman of fair appearance, and have a desire for her, and would take her to you to wife; 12 then you shall bring her into your house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails, 13 and take off from her the dress of her captivity, and dwell in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a month of days; and afterward you may go to her and marry her, and she shall be your wife. 14 But if it be that you have no pleasure in her, then you may send her away by herself: you shall in no wise sell her for money, nor make merchandise of her, for you have afflicted her. 15 If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne sons, the beloved one and the hated one, and the firstborn son belong to the hated; 16 then in the day that he makes his sons to inherit what he has, he shall not make the son of the beloved to be (as) the firstborn over the head (face) of the son of the hated, the (actual) firstborn. 17 For he shall distribute to the firstborn the son of the hated by giving him two parts of all his possession; for he is the beginning of his strength, and to him belongs the birthright. 18 If a man has a son perverse and rebellious, who will not obey the word of his father or his mother, and, though they instruct him, will not listen to them; 19 then his father and mother shall lay hold of him, and bring him forth before the elders of his city at the gate of the judgment house of his place, 20 and shall say to the elders of the city, This our son is perverse and rebellious; he will not obey our words, he is a devourer of flesh and a taker of wine: 21 then all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die; and you shall put away the evil doer from among you, and all Israel will hear, and be afraid. 22 When a man guilty of the judgment of death is put to death, and you have hanged him on a gallows; 23 his body shall not remain upon the gallows, but you shall surely bury him on that day: for he was hanged because he had sinned before the Lord; and your land which the Lord your God has given you to inherit shall not be defiled. [3]

22You shall not see your brother"s ox or his lamb going astray, and turn yourself aside from them; you shall surely bring them back to your brother. 2 And if your brother be not near to you, or if you know him not, then you shall bring it into your house, and it shall be with you until you make inquiry for your brother, and then you shall restore it to him. 3 In like manner shall you do with his ass, and with his garment, and with any lost thing of your brother"s which you may have found; it is not lawful for you to conceal it. 4 You shall not see your brother"s ass or his ox fallen in the way, and turn yourself away from them; you shall surely lift them up for him. 5 The adorning of a man shall not be upon a woman, nor shall the apparel of a man be like the apparel of a woman; for every one who does these things is abominable before the Lord your God. 6 If you find the nest of a bird before you on the way, in any tree, or upon the ground, with young ones, or eggs, and the mother lying over the young ones, or upon the eggs, 7 you shall not take the mother with the offspring. You shall send away the mother, and take the young ones with you; that it may be well with you, and you may prolong your days. 8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet to your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of the blood of the slain upon your house, by the falling of any one who may fall from it. 9 You shall not sow your vineyard with mixed (seeds), lest what comes from the seed which you sow, and the produce of your vineyard, be unclean. 10 You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. 11 You shall not dress with a fabric of woollen and of linen joined together. 12 You shall make for yourself fringes (or tassels) upon the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself. 13 If a man take a wife, and go to her, and dislike her, 14 and lay an occasion of words about her, or bring out an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman and came to her, and I have not found her to be a virgin: 15 then shall the father and mother of the young woman bring forth the tokens of the young woman"s virginity before the elders of the city, at the gate of the judgment house of the place; 16 and the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her; 17 and, behold, he has set an occasion of words, saying, I have not found the virginity of your daughter; but these are the tokens of my daughter"s virginity. And he shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 And the elders of the city shall take that man and scourge him, 19 and fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give to the father of the young woman, because he brought out an evil name upon a virgin of the house of Israel. And she shall be his wife, he has no power to put her away all his days. 20 But if this word be true, and the tokens of virginity are not found to the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father"s house, and the men of that city shall stone her with stones that she die; for she has committed shame in Israel in playing whoredom in her father"s house, and you shall put away the evil doer from among you. 22 If a man be found lying with a woman, the wife of (another) man, they shall be both of them put to death, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; and you shall put away the evil doer from Israel. 23 If a man find in the city a young woman, a virgin, who is betrothed to a man, and lie with her, 24 then shall you bring them both out to the gate of that city, and stone them with stones that they die; the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humiliated his neighbour"s wife; and you shall put away the evil doer from among you. 25 But if a man find the betrothed young woman in the field, and prevail against her, and lie with her, then only the man who lay with her shall be put to death; 26 but to the young woman you shall not do anything; there is not with the young woman guilt of the judgment of death; for as when a man rises up against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter; 27 he found her in the field, the betrothed young woman cried, but there was none to deliver. 28 If a man find a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, and lay hold of her and lie with her, and they be found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman"s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he had humbled her, he shall not have power to send her away all his days.

23A man shall not take his father"s wife, nor uncover the skirt of his father. 2 He who is castrated or ruptured shall not be clean so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord. 3 A bastard or mixed person (mamzer) shall not be clean, so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord; his offspring also to the tenth generation shall not be clean, so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord. 4 An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not be clean, so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord; neither to the tenth generation shall they be clean ever to enter the congregation of the Lord; 5 because they did not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came up from Mizraim; and because they hired Bilaam bar Beor from Pethor Aram, upon the Phrat, to curse you. 6 But the Lord your God would not listen to Bileam, and the Lord your God turned the curses into blessings, because the Lord your God loved you. 7 You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days for ever. 8 You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not abhor a Mizraite, for you were a sojourner in his land. 9 The children that are begotten of them of the third generation shall be clean, so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord. 10 When you go forth a host against your enemies, then beware of every wicked thing. 11 If there be among you a man who is not clean, by an accident of the night, let him go forth outside the camp, let him not enter into the midst of the camp, 12 but at evening let him wash with water, and at sunset he may come into the camp. 13 And a place shall be appointed for you outside of the camp, that you may go out there. 14 And you shall have a blade upon your weapon, that when you sit outside you may dig with it, and cover that which comes from you. 15 For the Shekinah of the Lord your God walks amid your camp to save you and deliver up your enemies before you, and your camp shall be sacred, that nothing that offends may be seen among you, lest His Word turn away from doing you good. [4] 16 You shall not deliver up a slave of the Gentiles into the hand of his master, when he has escaped to you from his master; 17 he shall dwell with you in your midst in the place that he may choose in one of your cities where it may be best for him; you shall not oppress him. 18 No woman of the children of Israel may be the wife of a man who is a slave; neither shall any man of the sons of Israel take a bondwoman to wife. 19 You shall not bring the hire of fornication nor the price of a dog into the house of the sanctuary of the Lord your God, for any vow; for even both of them are an abomination before the Lord your God. 20 You shall not make usury of your brother; the usury of money, of grain, or of anything that produces usury. 21 From a son of the Gentiles you may take usury, but from your brother you shall not take it; for the Lord your God will bless you in all that you put your hand to in the land to which you go to possess it. 22 When you vow a vow before the Lord your God, you shall not delay to fulfil it; for the Lord your God requiring will require it of you, and it would become sin in you. 23 Yet if you should forbear to vow, it will not be sin in you. 24 What has gone forth from your lips you shall observe and perform; as you have vowed before the Lord your God, (you shall perform) freely what you have spoken with your lips. 25 If you come for hire into your neighbour"s vineyard, you may eat grapes for the satisfying of your life; but you shall not put (them) into your vessel. 26 If you come into your neighbour"s ripe grain, you may pluck the full ears with your hand, but not put in the sickle upon your neighbour"s grain.

24When a man shall have taken a wife, and become her husband, and she has not found favour in his eyes, because he has found something wrong in her, then he may write for her a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hand, and send her from his house. 2 And when she has departed from his house, she may go and become (the wife) of another man. 3 And if the latter husband dislike her, and write her a bill of divorce, and put it into her hand, and dismiss her from his house; or if the latter husband who had taken her to be his wife shall die, 4 the first husband who had put her away has no power to return to take her to be his wife, after that she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord; and you shall not cause the land to sin, which the Lord your God gives you to inherit. 5 When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go forth with the army, nor shall any transaction be (laid) upon him; he shall be free in his house for a year, that he may cheer (or, may enjoy himself with) his wife whom he has taken. 6 No man shall take as a pledge the millstones (either lower) or upper; for by them is made the subsistence of every living man. 7 If a man be found stealing a person of his brothers of the sons of Israel, to make merchandise of him, or to sell him, that man shall be put to death, and you shall put away the evil doer from among you. 8 Take heed, in the plague of leprosy, to observe and perform entirely all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; as I have commanded them, you shall observe to do. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam, in the way when you came out of Mizraim. 10 When you have lent the use of anything to your neighbour, you shall not enter into his house to take his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you have lent shall bring out the pledge to you. 12 And if the man be poor, you shall not sleep with his pledge; 13 you shall return him his pledge at sunset, that he may sleep in his garment, and may bless you, and it shall be righteousness before the Lord your God. 14 You shall not oppress an hireling who is needy and poor, (whether he be) of your brothers, or of your sojourners who are in your land or your cities. 15 In his day you shall give him his hire; you shall not let the sun go down upon it, for he is needy, and to it he delivers his life (soul); that he cry not against you before the Lord, and it be sin in you. 16 The fathers shall not die for the children, nor shall children die for the fathers; a man shall die for his own sin. 17 You shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger or the orphan, nor take the garment of the widow for a pledge; 18 but you shall remember that you were a bondman in Mizraim, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing. 19 When you are harvesting your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not return to take it; let it be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive (trees), you shall not make search for what you have left behind you; let it be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. 21 When you are gathering your vineyard, you shall not glean the grapes that are left behind you; let them be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; 22 and remember that you were a bondman in the land of Mizraim; therefore have I commanded you to do this thing.

25If there be (a case for) judgment between men, let them bring it to the judges, that they may adjudicate; and they shall justify the innocent, and condemn the guilty. 2 And if the guilty be condemned to be scourged, the judge shall cause him to lie down, and have him scourged before him (with stripes), in number according to the measure of his guilt. 3 Forty (times) he may strike him, not more, lest he should go on to strike him above these with many stripes, and your brother be made vile in your eyes. 4 You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox while he treads out (the grain). 5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, having no son, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another man outside; her husband"s brother shall go to her, and take her to him to wife, and marry her for his brother. 6 And the first-born that she bears shall keep up the name of his deceased brother, that his name be not blotted out from Israel. 7 But should the man be unwilling to take the wife of his brother, his brother"s wife shall go up to the gate of the house of judgment, and say before the elders, My husband"s brother refuses to keep up a name to his brother in Israel; he is not willing to marry me. 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak with him; and if he rise up and say, It is not my pleasure to take her; 9 then shall his brother"s wife approach him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and answer, and say, Thus let it be done to the man who will not build up the house of his brother. 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of the loosed shoe. 11 If men strive together, a man and his brother, and the wife of one (of them) come near to save her husband from the hand of him who strikes him, and put forth her hand and seize the place of his shame, 12 then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity on her. 13 You shall not, have in your bag weight and weight, great and small. 14 You shall not have in your house measure and measure, great and small: 15 perfect weights and true shall you have, perfect measures and true shall you have, that your days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord your God gives you: 16 for every one who does these things, every one who acts falsely, is an abomination before the Lord your God. 17 Remember what Amalek did to you in the way, when you came up out of Mizraim; 18 how he overtook you in the way, and killed of you all who were following behind you when you were faint and weary; and he was not afraid before the Lord. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God shall have given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for a possession to inherit, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens: you shall not be forgetful.

26And when you have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give you for possession, and you inherit and dwell in it, 2 you shall take of the first of all the produce of the earth which you shall bring up from the land the Lord your God will give you, and put it into a basket, and go to the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there. 3 And you shall come to the priest who will be in those days, and say to him: I profess this day before the Lord your God, that I have come into the land which the Lord covenanted to our fathers to give them. 4 And the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and lay it down before the altar of the Lord your God; 5 and you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: Laban the Aramite sought to destroy my father, and he went down to Mizraim, and dwelt there with a few people, but became there a people great and strong. 6 But the Mizraee maltreated and afflicted us, and laid hard labour upon us. 7 And we prayed before the Lord, the God of our fathers; and the Lord heard our prayer, and our travail, weariness, and oppression were manifest before Him; 8 and the Lord brought us out of Mizraim with a mighty hand and uplifted arm, with great visions, signs, aud wonders, 9 and brought us to this place, and gave us this land, a land producing milk and honey. 10 And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which You, Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. 11 And you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you, with the men of your house, the Levite and the stranger who is among you. 12 When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithes, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that they may eat within your cities and be satisfied, 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: I have set apart the consecrated tenth from my house, and have given also to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandment which You have commanded me. I have not transgressed Your commandment, nor been forgetful. 14 I have not eaten of it in my mourning, nor exchanged any of it for what is unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have been obedient to the Word of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15 Look down from the heavens, the habitation of Your holiness, and bless Your people Israel, and the land which You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land producing milk and honey. 16 This day does the Lord your God command you to do these statutes and judgments, and to keep and perform them with all your heart, and with all your soul. 17 This day have you declared (or avouched) the Lord to be your God, and to walk in the ways that are right before Him, and to keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and to be obedient to His word. 18 And the Lord has declared you this day to be His beloved people, as He has said to you, that you may observe all His commandments, 19 and that He may set you above all the nations whom He has made, in praise, and in name, and in greatness, and that you may be a holy people before the Lord your God, as He has spoken.

27And Mosheh and the elders of Israel instructed the people, saying: Observe all the commandments which I command you this day. 2 In the day that you pass over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall set up for yourself great stones, and cover them with plaster (or lime), 3 and write upon them all the words of this law, when you have passed over to go into the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land producing milk and honey, as the Lord God of your fathers has said to you. 4 When you have passed the Jordan, you shall set up those stones which I command you this day, on the mountain of Ebal, and plaster them with lime; 5 and you shall build an altar before the Lord your God, an altar of stones: you shall not lift up iron upon it. 6 With perfected stones shall you build the altar of the Lord your God, and offer sacrifices on it before the Lord your God. 7 And you shall sacrifice consecrated victims, and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God; 8 and you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law, distinctly and beautifully. 9 And Mosheh, and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel: Listen and hear, Israel: Today are you a people before the Lord your God; 10 and you shall listen to the Word of the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day. 11 And Mosheh charged the people on that day, saying: 12 These shall stand to bless the people on the mountain of Gerizim, when you have passed the Jordan; Shemeon and Levi, Jehudah, Issakar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand to curse upon the mountain of Ebal; Reuben and Asher, Zebulon, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 And the Levites shall answer and say to all the men of Israel, with a high voice: 15 Accursed be the man who shall make an image or molten (one), an abomination before the Lord, the work of a craftsman"s hand, and place it in secret. And all the people shall respond and say, Amen. 16 Accursed be he who despises his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. 17 Accursed he who changes the boundary of his neighbour. And all the people shall say, Amen. 18 Accursed he who makes the blind wander in the way. And all the people shall say, Amen. 19 Accursed he who perverts the judgment of the stranger, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say. Amen. 20 Accursed he who lies with his father"s wife: he uncovers the skirt of his father. And all the people shall say, Amen. 21 Accursed is he who lies with any beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. 22 Accursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. 23 Accursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen. 24 Accursed is he who strikes his neighbour in secret. And all the people shall say, Amen. 25 Accursed is he who receives hire to kill the life, and (shed the) blood of the innocent. And all the people shall say, Amen. 16 Accursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

28And if you will indeed be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you on high above all the peoples of the earth; 2 and all these blessings shall come upon you and keep with you, if you will be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed (shall) you (be) in the city, and blessed in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the offspring of your womb, and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle, the oxen of your herd, and the flocks of your sheep. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your store. 6 Blessed shall you be in your coming in, and blessed in your going out. 7 The Lord shall cause your adversaries that rise up against you to be shattered before you; they will come out to you in one way, but in seven ways shall they flee from before you. 8 The Lord will command a blessing upon you in all your storehouses, and on all that you set your hand to, and will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives to you. 9 The Lord shall confirm you for Himself to be a holy people, as He has sworn to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in the ways which are right before Him. 10 And all the nations of the earth shall see that the Name of the Lord is invoked upon you, and they will be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you to abound in good, in the offspring of your womb, and of your cattle, and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the works of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but not borrow; 13 and the Lord will make you strong and not weak, and you shall evermore be upper and not under, if you will obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day to keep and to perform. [5] 14 And you shall not go astray from any of the things I command you this day, right or left, to walk after the gods of the Gentiles to serve them. 15 But if you will not obey the Word of the Lord your God to observe and do all His commandments, and His statutes which I command you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and cleave to you. 16 Accursed shall you be in the city, and accursed in the field; 17 accursed your basket and your store; 18 accursed the generation of your womb, the produce of your ground, the oxen of your herd, and the folds of your sheep. 19 Accursed shall you be in your coming in, and accursed in your going out. 20 The Lord shall send upon you malediction and trouble and rebuke (or menace) in all that you set your hand to do, until you are consumed and perish quickly, on account of the wickedness of your works, when you have forgotten to fear Me (or, by which you have forgotten My fear). 21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave to you, until He have destroyed you from off the land into which you are going to possess it. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting, with fever, with inflammation, with dryness, and with the sword, and with jaundice (or mildew?). And they shall follow you till you are destroyed. 23 And the heavens over your head will be obdurate as brass in withholding rain, and the ground under you obstinate as iron in producing no fruit. 24 The Lord will give you ashes for the rain of your land, and dust will come down from the heavens upon you, until you be consumed. 25 The Lord will deliver you up to be broken before your enemies; you will go out to them by one way, but by seven ways shall you flee before them, and you shall be dispersed in all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your carcase shall be cast out for food for all the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive (them) away. 27 And the Lord will strike you with the ulcer of the Mizraee, with emerods, soreness, and the dry scurvy, from which you can not be healed. 28 And the Lord will strike you with distraction, and blindness, and with bewilderment of heart; 29 and you shall grope in the noonday as the blind gropes in darkness; and you shall not prosper in your way, but be only oppressed and despoiled always, and no man will be able to save. 30 You will betroth a wife, but another man shall have her; you will build a house, but not dwell in it, and plant a vineyard, but have no use of it. 31 Your ox will be killed in your sight, but you shall not eat of it; your ass shall be taken away from you, and not be returned to you; your sheep will be delivered to your enemies, and you will have no one to rescue them; 32 your sons and daughters will be given up to another people, and your eyes look and fail (with longing) for them all the day, and there shall be no power in your hand. 33 The produce of your land and all your labours a people whom you do not know shall devour, and you will only be oppressed and crushed all the days. 34 And you will be mad through the sight of your eyes which you see. 35 The Lord will strike you with an evil ulcer upon your knees and your thighs, from which you will not be able to be healed from the sole of your foot to your brain. 36 The Lord will make you and your king whom you may have set over you to be captive to a people whom you and your fathers have not known; and there shall you serve a people, worshippers of idols of wood and stone; 37 and you will become a ruin, a proverb, and a history, among all nations where the Lord shall make you go. 38 Much seed will you carry out into the field, but little shall you gather in, for the locust will consume it; 39 you will plant and till vineyards, but will not drink the wine, nor gather in, for the worm shall eat it; 40 you will have olive trees in all your borders, but with the oil you will not anoint, for your olive trees shall waste; 41 you will father sons and daughters, but will not have them (with you), for they shall go into captivity. 42 The locust will consume all the fruitage and the trees of your land. 43 The uncircumcised stranger who is among you will rise up high above you, but you shall be brought down very low: 44 he shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be strong, and you will be weak. 45 And all these curses shall come upon you, and follow you, and cleave to you till you are consumed, because you were not obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He has commanded you. 46 And they will be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and upon your children for ever; 47 because you would not worship before the Lord your God with cheerfulness and comeliness of heart for the abundance of all (His benefits): 48 but you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 And the Lord will bring upon you a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, like the flying eagle, a people whose language you will not understand, 50 a people of mighty presence, who will not regard the old man, nor have mercy on the infant. 51 And he will eat up the increase of your cattle, and the fruitage of your ground, until he has consumed you; for he will not leave you grain, wine, nor oil, the oxen of your herd, nor the sheep of your flock, until he has brought you to ruin. 52 And he will shut you up in all your cities, till he has brought down your high and fenced walls, in which you trusted to be saved by them throughout all your land; and he will besiege you in all your cities in all your land which the Lord your God gave you. 53 And you will eat the offspring of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God had given you, in the siege and straitness with which your enemies shall straiten you. 54 The man who is gentle among you, and very delicate, will, look with an evil eye upon his brother, and upon the wife of his covenant, and upon the remnant of his children whom he will leave; 55 he will not give to one of them of the flesh of his children which he shall eat, because nothing remains to him of all, in the siege and the straitness with which your enemies shall straiten you in all your cities. 56 She who is tender among you, and delicate, who had not (been used to) put the sole of her foot upon the ground under her, from delicateness and tenderness, will look with an evil eye upon the husband of her covenant, and upon her son and her daughter, 57 and against her little children who have been brought forth of her, and against her children whom she has borne; for she will eat them in secret, in the lack of all things, in the siege and the straitness with which your enemies shall straiten you in your cities:— 58 if you will not observe to perform all the words of this law which are written in this book, to reverence this glorious and fearful Name, THE LORD YOUR GOD. 59 And the Lord will make your plagues to be manifest (distinguished), and the plagues of your children, great plagues and continuous, afflictions evil and abiding. 60 And He will lay upon you all the strokes of Mizraim of which you were afraid, and they shall cleave to you. 61 All the diseases also and all the plagues that are not written in the book of this law, will the Lord lay upon you till He has destroyed you. 62 And you, who had been as the stars of heaven for multitude, will be left a small people, because you would not be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God. 63 And as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so will the Lord rejoice over you to destroy and consume you, and to carry you away from off the land which you are entering to possess it. 64 And the Lord will scatter you among all nations to the ends of the earth; and you shall there serve peoples who worship idols of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 But among those nations you will have no repose, nor will the sole of your foot have rest, but the Lord will give you there a timorous heart, darkness of eyes, and feebleness of mind; 66 and you will hold your life in suspense, and be afraid by night and day, for you will be never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, that it were evening! but in the evening you will say, that it were morning! from the tearfulness of your heart with which you will fear, and the sight of your eyes which you shall see. 68 And the Lord will cause you to return to Mizraim, in ships, by the way of which I spoke with you, You shall see it no more: and there shall you be offered for sale for bondmen and bondwomen, but none shall buy. 69 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Mosheh to ratify with the children of Israel in the land of Moab; besides the covenant which He ratified with them at Horeb.

29And Mosheh called to all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Mizraim on Pharoh, and all his servants, and on all his land; 2 the great temptations, the signs and grand portents which your eyes saw; 3 yet the Lord has not given you a heart to understand, nor eyes to discern, nor ears to hear, to this day. 4 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothing has not become old upon you, and your shoes have not worn away from off your feet; 5 you have not eaten bread, nor drank wine, either new or old, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 6 And you came to this place; and Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Mathnan came out to meet us, to wage battle; and we struck them, 7 and subdued their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the tribe of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Menasheh. 8 Keep you the words of this covenant, and perform them, that you may prosper in all that you do. 9 You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, the princes of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel; 10 your children, your wives, and your sojourner who is within your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the filler of your water; 11 to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God ratifies with you this day, 12 that He may establish you this day to be a people before Him, and that He may be a God to you, as He promised you, and as He swore to Abraham, and to Izhak, and to Jakob. 13 And I ratify this covenant and oath not with you only, 14 but with him who is standing here with us this day before the Lord our God, and with him also who is not here with us this day. 15 For you know how we dwelt in the land of Mizraim, and how we came through the midst of the nations by whom we have passed. 16 And you have seen their abominations, and their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, which (were found) among them; 17 lest there should be among you a man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart is turned away this day from the fear of the Lord our God, to go after the worship of these Gentiles; lest there should be with you a man who imagines wickedness or pride, 18 that, when he hears the words of this oath, he should reckon in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I go on in the imagination of my heart to multiply sins of ignorance with (sin of) presumption. 19 The Lord will not absolve him, but now will the anger and indignation of the Lord break forth against that man, and all the curses which are written in this book will cleave to him, and his name will be blotted out from under the heavens. 20 And the Lord will separate him from all the tribes of Israel to evil, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in the book of this law. 21 And the generation that comes after, and your children who will arise after you, and the son of the Gentiles who may come from a land afar off, when they see the plagues of that land, and the afflictions with which the Lord will afflict it, 22 the whole land, brimstone and salt and burning, with no sowing, or growth, or any herbage springing up in it, even as the overthrow of Sedom and Amorah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and indignation, 23 even all the nations will say, Why did the Lord thus to this land? What caused the fury of this wrath? 24 Then shall they say. Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He ratified with them when He brought them out of the land of Mizraim. 25 For they went and served the idols of the Gentiles, and worshipped fearful things which they did not know, and which could do them no good. 26 And the anger of the Lord grew strong against this land to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book. 27 And the Lord cast them away from off their land in anger, indignation, and great violence, and drove them captive into another land as at this day. 28 The things which are secret are before the Lord our God; and those which are revealed are ours, and our children"s for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

30And it will be that when all these words of blessings or of maledictions which I have set before you have come upon you, and you turn to your heart among all the nations where the Lord your God will have led you captive, 2 and return to the fear of the Lord your God, and obey His Word, according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have mercy upon you, and will return, and gather you from all the nations among which the Lord your God has dispersed you. 4 If any of your dispersed be (scattered) to the ends of the heavens, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and lead you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers inherited, and you shall possess it: and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will take away the foolishness of your heart, and the foolishness of your children"s heart, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses upon your enemies and upon them who hated and persecuted you; 8 but you shall return and be obedient to the Word of the Lord, and do all the commandments which I command you this day. 9 And the Lord your God will make you to abound in all the works of your hand, the offspring of your womb, the increase of your cattle, and the produce of your land, to good; for the Lord will return to rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers; 10 when you shall be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and statutes which are written in the book of this law, if you return to the fear of the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. 11 For this commandment which I command you this day is not apart from you, nor is it far away. 12 It is not in the heavens, that you should say, Who shall ascend for us into heaven, that he may bring it to us, that we may hear and do it? 13 nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who will go over for us beyond the sea, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it? 14 For the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 for I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in the ways that are right in His presence, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord God may bless you in the land into which you are going, to possess it. 17 But if your heart be averse, and you will not obey, but will go astray, and worship the idols of the Gentiles, and serve them, 18 I have shown you this day that perishing you shall perish. You will not prolong your days upon the land where you pass over Jordan to enter in and possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to attest in you this day that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses: but choose for life, that you may live, you and your children, 20 to love the Lord your God, to be obedient to His word, and to keep close to His fear, for He is your life, and the prolonger of your days, to abide upon the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, to give to them.

31And Mosheh went and spoke these words with all Israel. 2 And he said to them, I am the son of a hundred and twenty years this day. I am no more able to go out and to come in; and the Lord has said to me, You shall not pass over this Jordan. 3 The Lord your God, He goes over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall inherit them. Jehoshua, he goes over before you, as the Lord has said. 4 And the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to the lands of them whom He destroyed. 5 The Lord will deliver them up, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be broken before them; for the Word of the Lord your God will be the leader before you, He will not forsake you, nor be far off from you. 7 And Mosheh called Jehoshua, and said to him before the eyes of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage; for you are to go in with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give it to them, and you shall cause them to inherit. 8 But the Lord, He is the leader before you; His Word shall be your helper, for He will not forsake you, nor be far from you; fear not, nor be dismayed. 9 And Mosheh wrote this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Mosheh commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years, at the time of the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel, and make them hear. 12 Gather the people together, the men, the women, and children, and your sojourners who are in your cities, that they may hear, and learn, and fear before the Lord your God, and observe and perform all the words of this law, 13 and that their children who have not known may hear and learn to fear before the Lord all the days that you stay upon the land to which you pass over the Jordan to possess it. 14 And the Lord said to Mosheh, Behold, the days are drawing near for you to die: call Jehoshua, and let him stand in the tabernacle of ordinance, and I will give him commandment. And Mosheh and Jehoshua went and stood in the tabernacle of ordinance. 15 And the Lord was revealed at the tabernacle in the pillar of the cloud, and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. 16 And the Lord said to Mosheh, Behold, you are to sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up and go astray after the idols of the peoples of the land among whom they are going, and will forsake My fear, and remove (or change) from My covenant which I have made with them. 17 And my anger will be kindled against them at that time, and I will drive them afar off, and remove My Shekinah from them to consume them, and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they will say in that day, Is it not because the Shekinah of my God is not among me, that these evils have befallen me? 18 But I will remove My Shekinah from them at that time on account of the evils they had done; for they will have turned away after the idols of the nations. 19 And now, write for you this hymn, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it upon their lips, that this hymn may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20 For when they will have entered into the land which I promised to their fathers, (a land) producing milk and honey, and they have eaten and been satisfied, and have become luxurious, they will turn away after the idols of the nations, and serve them, and provoke to anger before Me, and change from My covenant. 21 And when many evils and troubles have fallen on them, this song shall answer against them, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their children, because their imagination which they will do is manifest before Me this day, while (as yet) I have not brought them into the land which I have promised. 22 And Mosheh wrote this hymn on that day, and taught it to the children of Israel. 23 And he commanded Jehoshua bar Nun, and said, Be strong, and of good courage; for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I have promised to them, and His Word shall be your helper. 24 And it was, when Mosheh had finished to write the words of this law upon a book until they were completed, 25 that Mosheh commanded the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, saying, 26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and it shall be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know your rebelliousness, and the stiffness of your neck: behold, while I am alive with you this day, you have rebelled against the Lord; but (how much) also after that I am dead? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, and I will speak these words before you, and will call the heavens and earth to witness: 29 for I know that after I am dead you will corrupt yourselves, and decline from the way which I have commanded you, and that evil will befall you at the end of the days; for you will do evil before the Lord to provoke Him to anger by the works of your hands. 30 And Mosheh spoke before all the congregation of Israel the words of this hymn, until he had finished it.

32Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; give ear, earth, to the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall be soft as rain; let it be received as the dew, and my word be as the breath of the rain that breathes upon the grass, and as the showers of the latter rain upon the herbage. 3 For in the Name of the Lord do I invoke:—Ascribe you greatness to our God; 4 the Mighty One whose works are perfect; for all His ways are justice; a faithful God from whom no iniquity proceeds, just and true is He. 5 They have corrupted themselves, and not Him; children who worship idols, a generation that changes its work, and makes it another. 6 Behold, render you this before the Lord, you people who have received the law, but have not become wise? Is He not your Father, and you are His who made you and bought you? 7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of generation and generation; ask your fathers, and they will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He made the distribution of the children of men, He ordained the boundaries of the nations after the numbers of the sons of Israel. 9 For the Lord"s portion is His people, Jakob is the lot of His inheritance. 10 He satisfied their wants in the land of the wilderness, in the dry place where there was no water; He placed them round about His Shekinah; He taught them the words of His law; He kept them as the apple of His eye. 11 As the eagle which hastens to his nest, and spreads himself over his young ones, stretching out his wings, takes them, bears them up with the strength of his pinions, 12 so did the Lord alone prepare them to dwell in the world which He will renew (set right), while the worship of idols shall not be established before Him. 13 He made them to dwell in the strong places of the earth, to eat the spoil of their enemies: He gave them the spoil of the rulers of cities, and the wealth of them who dwelt in strong defences. 14 He gave them the spoil of their kings and sultans, with the riches of their princes, and the strength of the people of their lands, their possessions, the booty of their hosts and camps, and the blood of their heroes was poured out like water. 15 But Israel grew fat and kicked, he prospered, grew strong and got rich, and forgot the worship of Eloha who made him, and provoked the Almighty who redeemed him. 16 They provoked Him by the worship of idols, by abominations they made Him angry. 17 They sacrificed to demons in whom there is no help (nothing that is needed), and fearful things that they had not known, new (gods) that were lately made, with which your fathers had no dealings; 18 of the Awful One and the Omnipotent who created you, you are forgetful; you have forsaken the worship of Eloha who made you. 19 And it was seen before the Lord, and His anger was kindled by the provocation of His sons and daughters before Him. 20 And He said: I will take away (take up) My Shekinah from among them; what will be their latter end is manifest to Me; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. 21 They have moved Me to jealousy by that which is not worshipful, they have angered Me by their idolatries; and I will make them jealous by what has not been a people, by a foolish nation will I provoke them. 22 For a burning, strong as fire, shall go forth before Me in fury consuming to the lowest hell, to make an end of the earth and its produce, and to destroy the mountains to the end; 23 and I will multiply calamities upon them, My plagues will I send forth among them; 24 they shall be swollen with hunger, and be eaten by the fowl, and be vexed with evil spirits; and the teeth of wild beasts will I appoint among them with the venom of serpents that crawl in the dust. 25 Outside will the sword devour, and within the chambers be the slaughter-work of death, the youths and the maidens, the sucklings with the aged. 26 I said I would make My anger to remain upon them and consume them; I will abolish their memorial from (among) the children of men: 27 only that the wrath of the enemy would be condensed, and the adversary make himself great, and would say: Our hand has prevailed, and all this is not from the Lord. 28 For they are a people that lets counsel go, and there is no understanding in them. 29 O that they were wise, that they had understanding in this, and would consider what will be in their end! 30 How would one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless the Mighty One had delivered them up, and the Lord had requited them! 31 For their strength is not as our Strength, and our enemies are the judges. 32 For as the punishment of the people of Sedom will their punishment be, and their stroke like (that) of the people of Amorah; their plagues will be evil as the heads of serpents, and the retribution of their works like their venom. 33 As the poison of dragons is the cup of their punishment, and as the heads of the cruel basilisks. 34 Are not all their works manifest before Me, laid up in My treasures against the day of judgment? 35 Their punishment is before Me, and I will repay; in the time of their dispersion from their land; for the day of their ruin draws near, and that which is prepared for them makes haste. [6] 36 For the Lord shall decide the judgment of His people, and the avengement of His righteous servants shall be avenged; for it is seen before Him, that in the time when the stroke of their enemies would prevail against them, they will be wavering (as those who) are forsaken. 37 And He will say: Where are their idols, the mighty things in which they had trusted, 38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations? Let them now rise up and help you, let them be a shield over you. 39 See, now, that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside Me. I kill and make alive, I wound but also heal, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand. 40 For I have prepared in the heavens the abode of My Shekinah, and have said, I live for evermore. 41 When My sword is revealed like the sight of twofold lightning from one end of the heavens to another, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance on My enemies, and My adversaries will I repay; 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall slay the peoples, that by the blood of the slain, and the captives, I may take the crowns from the head of the foe and the enemy. 43 Give praise, you Gentiles, with His people, because the avengement of His righteous servants will have been made; for He will bring retribution on them who hate Him, and will show mercy to His land and His people. 44 And Mosheh came and spoke all the words of this hymn before the people, he and Jehoshua bar Nun. 45 And Mosheh concluded to speak all these words with all Israel, 46 and said to them, Set your heart upon all the words that I have witnessed to you this day, that you may instruct your children to observe and perform all the words of this law. 47 For the word is not (given) in vain to you; it is your life, and by this word will you prolong your days upon the land which you pass over Jordan to inherit. 48 And the Lord spoke with Mosheh the same day, saying: 49 Go up to this mountain of Abaraee, the mountain of Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, over against Jericho, and see the land of Kenaan which I have given to the sons of Israel for possession; 50 and, dying on the mountain to which you go up, you shall be gathered to your people, as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; 51 because you were perverse with My Word in the midst of the children of Israel, at the Waters of Contradiction, at Rekem, in the desert of Zin, and because you did not sanctify Me among the children of Israel. 52 For, though you may see the land, yet from there you shall not go in to the land which I have given to the children of Israel.

33And this is the benediction with which Mosheh, the prophet of the Lord, blessed the children of Israel before his death; 2 and he said: The Lord was revealed from Sinai, and the brightness of His glory appeared to us from Seir. He was revealed in His power upon the mountain of Pharan, and with Him were ten thousand saints; He gave us, written with His own right hand, the law from the midst of the fire. 3 He loved the tribes, all the holy ones of the house of Israel; with power He led them out of Mizraim, and they were conducted under Your Cloud, they journeyed by Your Word. 4 Mosheh gave to us the law, and delivered it an inheritance to the congregation of Jakob. 5 And he was the king in Israel, when the heads of the people were gathered with the tribes of Israel. 6 Let Reuben live in life eternal, and not die the second death; and let his children receive their inheritance according to their numbers. 7 And of Jehudah he said this: Hear, Lord, the prayer of Jehudah when he goes forth to battle, and let him return to his people in peace; let his hands do vengeance upon his enemies, and be You to him a help against his foes. 8 And of Levi he said: With perfections and lights clothe You the man who is found holy before You; whom You tried in the temptation, and he was upright, and whom You proved at the Waters of Contention, and he was faithful. 9 Who, when they had sinned, had no mercy in the judgment upon his father or his mother, and no respect to his brother or his children; for they have kept the charge of Your word, and Your covenant have they not altered. 10 These are worthy to teach Your judgments to Jakob, and Your law to Israel. They shall set the sweet incense before You, and the full free will offerings upon Your altar. 11 Bless, Lord, his substance, and the oblation of his hands receive You with favour; break the loins of his enemies and of his adversaries, that they may not arise. 12 Of Benjamin he said: The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him: the shield will be over him all the days, and the Shekinah will dwell in his land. 13 And of Joseph he said: Blessed be his land from before the Lord; let it make fruit by the dew of the heavens from above, and from the fountain springs, and the depths which flow from the abysses of the earth beneath, 14 let it make fruit and produce which the sun causes to grow; let it make fruit from the beginning of month after month; 15 and first fruits from the mountain tops, and goodly things from the unfailing hills, 16 with the good of the earth and its fulness, and the favour of Him whose glory is in the heavens, and who was revealed to Mosheh at the Bush: let all these come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the man who was separated from his brothers. 17 The greatness of his children will be his beauty, and the mighty works done for him from before the Omnipotent and the Most High, by whose strength he will slay nations together to the ends of the earth; and these are the myriads of the house of Ephraim, and these are the thousands of the house of Menasheh. 18 And to Zebulon he said: Rejoice, Zebulon, when you go out to war against your adversaries, and you, Issakar, when you go to compute the time of the festivals in Jerusalem. 19 They shall assemble the tribes of Israel at the mountain of the sanctuary, to offer there the holy sacrifices with free will; for they will eat the victims of the Gentiles, and the treasures hidden in the sand shall be disclosed for them. 20 And of Gad he said: Blessed is He who enlarges Gad. He dwells as a lioness; he will kill sultans with kings: 21 and he shall receive his own at the beginning: for there, in his inheritance, Mosheh the scribe-prince of Israel is (to be) buried; he who came out and went in at the head of the people, who has done righteousness before the Lord and His judgments with Israel. 22 And of Dan he said: Dan is strong as a lion"s whelp; his land is watered by the streams that flow from Mathnan. 23 And of Naphtali he said: Naphtali, satisfied with favour and full of blessings from the Lord, shall inherit from the western sea, Genesar, to the south. 24 And of Asher he said: Blessed shall be Asher with the blessings of children: let him be acceptable to his brothers, and be nourished with the dainties of kings: 25 strong shall you be as iron and brass, and as the days of your youth shall be your strength. 26 There is no God like the God of Israel, whose Shekinah in the skies is your help, and whose power is in the heaven of heavens. 27 The habitation of Eloha is from eternity, and the world was made by His Word; and He will drive out your enemies from before you, and will say, Destroy. [7] 28 And Israel shall dwell securely by themselves, according to the benediction with which Jakob their father blessed them in the land producing grain and wine; the heavens also above them shall drop down with dew. 29 Happy are you, Israel; none is like to you, a people whose salvation is from the Lord, who is the strength of your help, and from whom is the might of your victory: your enemies shall be liars to you, and you shall tread upon the necks of their kings.

34And Mosheh went up from the plains of Moab to the mountains of Nebo, to the summit of the height which is over against Jericho; and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2 and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Menasheh, and all the land of Jehudah to the hinder sea, 3 and the south, and the country of the plain of Jericho, the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 4 And the Lord said to him, This is the land which I covenanted to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, saying, To your children will I give it; you have seen it with your eyes, but to it you are not to pass over. 5 And Mosheh the servant of the Lord died there, in the land of Moab, by the Word of the Lord. 6 And He buried him in a valley (or cavity, becheltha) in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knows his sepulchre to this day. 7 And Mosheh was a son of a hundred and twenty years when he died: his eye had not dimmed, neither was the radiance of his face changed. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Mosheh in the fields of Moab thirty days; and the days of the mourning for Mosheh were completed. 9 And Jehoshua bar Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom; for Mosheh had laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel obeyed him, and did as the Lord had commanded (by) Mosheh. 10 But no prophet has arisen in Israel like to Mosheh, to whom the Lord revealed Himself face to face, 11 in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Mizraim upon Pharoh, and on all his servants, and on all his land, 12 and all the Mighty Hand, and all the great manifestations which Mosheh performed in the eyes of all Israel.

Glossary