Deuteronomy 7-13
New American Standard Bible
Chapter 7
1When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2and when the Lord your God turns them over to you and you defeat them, you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them nor be gracious to them. 3Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5But this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire. 6For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7The Lord did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples,
8but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10but He repays those who hate Him to their faces, to eliminate them; He will not hesitate toward him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
11Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.
12Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep His covenant with you and His faithfulness which He swore to your forefathers.
13And He will love you, bless you, and make you numerous; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the newborn of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.
14You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no sterile male or infertile female among you or among your cattle.
15And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not inflict upon you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you.
16You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will turn over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’
18you are not to be afraid of them; you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Indeed, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.
21You are not to be terrified of them, because the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
22And the Lord your God will drive away these nations from you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.
23But the Lord your God will turn them over to you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24And He will hand over their kings to you, so that you will eliminate their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
25The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
26And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become designated for destruction, like it; you are to utterly detest it, and you are to utterly loathe it, for it is something designated for destruction.
Chapter 8
1All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. 2And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5So you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
11Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today;
12otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them,
13and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases,
14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
15He who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who brought water for you out of the rock of flint.
16In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test, to do good for you in the end.
17Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’
18But you are to remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
19And it shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish.
20Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
Chapter 9
1Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and fortified to heaven, 2a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ 3So be aware today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.
4Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.
7Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.
8Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you.
9When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.
10The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’
13The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people.
14Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you.
17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes!
18Then I fell down before the Lord like the first time, for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
19For I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; but the Lord listened to me that time as well.
20The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.
21And I took your sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22Then at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger.
23And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice.
24You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.
25So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord said He would destroy you.
26And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand!
27Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin.
28Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, 'Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!'
29Yet they are Your people, and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’
Chapter 10
1At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first two, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself. 2Then I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you smashed to pieces, and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the first two, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4Then He wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. 5Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and I put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and they are there, just as the Lord commanded me.'
6(Now the sons of Israel set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and there he was buried, and his son Eleazar served as priest in his place.
7From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.
8At that time the Lord singled out the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him and to bless in His name, until this day.
9Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him.)
10I, moreover, stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the Lord listened to me that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you.
11Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
12And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13and to keep the Lord’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?
14Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
15Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day.
16So circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck any longer.
17For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.
18He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing.
19So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
20You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.
21He is your glory and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.
22Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Chapter 11
1You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. 2Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm, 3and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; 4and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord completely eliminated them; 5and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 6and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel— 7but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.
8You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;
9and so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it by your foot like a vegetable garden.
11But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,
12a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.
13And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,
14that He will provide rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, so that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
15He will also provide grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them.
17Otherwise, the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then you will quickly perish from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
18You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.
19You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.
20And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21so that your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
22For if you are careful to keep all of this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and cling to Him,
23then the Lord will dispossess all these nations from you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
24Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.
25No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will instill the dread of you and the fear of you in all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.
26See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse:
27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today;
28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.
29And it shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
31For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it,
32and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am placing before you today.
Chapter 12
1These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully follow in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. 2You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you are going to dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. 3And you shall tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones to pieces, and burn their Asherim in the fire, and cut to pieces the carved images of their gods; and you shall eliminate their name from that place. 4You shall not act this way toward the Lord your God. 5But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and you shall come there. 6You shall bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7There you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes;
9for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.
10When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,
11then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring everything that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings which you will vow to the Lord.
12And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any cultic place that you see,
14but only in the place which the Lord chooses in one of your tribes: there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything that I command you.
15However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.
16Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
17You are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your vowed offerings which you vow, or your voluntary offerings, or the contribution of your hand.
18But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your undertakings.
19Be careful that you do not abandon the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20When the Lord your God extends your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever you desire.
21If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter animals from your herd and flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates whatever you desire.
22Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
23Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
25You shall not eat it, so that it may go well for you and your sons after you, since you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord.
26Only your holy things which you may have and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses.
27And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the flesh.
29When the Lord your God cuts off from you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land,
30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from your presence, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’
31You shall not behave this way toward the Lord your God, because every abominable act which the Lord hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.
Chapter 13
1If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes true, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let’s follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let’s serve them,’ 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken falsely against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to drive you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
6If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is like your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known,
7of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end),
8you shall not consent to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.
9Instead, you shall most certainly kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
10So you shall stone him to death, because he has attempted to drive you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
11Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and will not do such a wicked thing among you again.
12If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that
13some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known),
14then you shall investigate, search out, and inquire thoroughly. And if it is true and the matter is certain that this abomination has been committed among you,
15you shall most certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. Utterly destroy it and all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
16Then you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its public square, and burn the city and all its plunder with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.
17Nothing at all from what is designated for destruction is to cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers,
18if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
King James Version
Chapter 7
1When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 6For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. 11Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
12Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
13And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
14Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
16And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
17If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
18Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
19The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
20Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
21Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
22And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
23But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
24And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
25The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
26Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
Chapter 8
1All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. 2And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. 4Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. 5Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. 6Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; 9A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
10When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
11Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
12Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
13And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
14Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
15Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
16Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
17And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
18But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
19And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
20As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
Chapter 9
1Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, 2A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! 3Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. 4Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
8Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.
9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
10And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
12And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
14Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.
17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
18And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.
20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
21And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.
23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
25Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
28Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.
Chapter 10
1At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. 4And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. 5And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me. 6And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead. 7From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. 8At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. 9Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him. 10And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also, and the LORD would not destroy thee. 11And the LORD said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.
12And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
13To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
15Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
17For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
18He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
19Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
20Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.
21He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.
22Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Chapter 11
1Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. 2And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, 3And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; 4And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day; 5And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; 6And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: 7But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
8Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
9And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
11But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
12A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
13And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
18Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
21That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
22For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
23Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
24Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
25There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
26Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
28And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
30Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
31For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.
32And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
Chapter 12
1These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 4Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.
5But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
6And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:
7And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.
8Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.
9For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.
10But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;
11Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:
12And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.
13Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:
14But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
15Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.
16Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
17Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand:
18But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.
19Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.
20When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.
21If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.
22Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.
23Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
24Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.
25Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
26Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose:
27And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.
28Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.
29When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
30Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
31Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
32What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Chapter 13
1If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. 5And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
9But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
11And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
12If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
15Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
16And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.
17And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;
18When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.
Christian Standard Bible
Chapter 7
1"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you--the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you-- 2and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. 3You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will swiftly destroy you. 5Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images. 6For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7"The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands.
10But he directly pays back and destroys those who hate him. He will not hesitate to pay back directly the one who hates him.
11So keep the command--the statutes and ordinances--that I am giving you to follow today.
12"If you listen to and are careful to keep these ordinances, the Lord your God will keep his covenant loyalty with you, as he swore to your ancestors.
13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless your offspring, and the produce of your land--your grain, new wine, and fresh oil--the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks, in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.
14You will be blessed above all peoples; there will be no infertile male or female among you or your livestock.
15The Lord will remove all sickness from you; he will not put on you all the terrible diseases of Egypt that you know about, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.
16You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God is delivering over to you and not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17"If you say to yourself, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I drive them out? '
18do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:
19the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.
20The Lord your God will also send hornets against them until all the survivors and those hiding from you perish.
21Don't be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, a great and awesome God, is among you.
22The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will become too numerous for you.
23The Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.
25Burn up the carved images of their gods. Don't covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.
26Do not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You are to abhor and detest it utterly because it is set apart for destruction.
Chapter 8
1"Carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your ancestors. 2Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. 7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. 10When you eat and are full, you will bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11"Be careful that you don't forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today.
12When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in,
13and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases,
14be careful that your heart doesn't become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
15He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint rock for you.
16He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper.
17You may say to yourself, 'My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,'
18but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish.
20Like the nations the Lord is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the Lord your God.
Chapter 9
1"Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. 2The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said about them, 'Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? ' 3But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you. 4When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, 'The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.' Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 5You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7"Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place.
8You provoked the Lord at Horeb, and he was angry enough with you to destroy you.
9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat food or drink water.
10On the day of the assembly the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by God's finger. The exact words were on them, which the Lord spoke to you from the fire on the mountain.
11The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, at the end of the forty days and forty nights.
12"The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go down immediately from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast image for themselves.'
13The Lord also said to me, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.
14Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.'
15"So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.
16I saw how you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made a calf image for yourselves. You had quickly turned from the way the Lord had commanded for you.
17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
18I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and angering him.
19I was afraid of the fierce anger the Lord had directed against you, because he was about to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me on that occasion.
20The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.
21I took the sinful calf you had made and burned it. I crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust, and threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22"You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.
23When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, he said, 'Go up and possess the land I have given you'; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe or obey him.
24You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you.
26I prayed to the Lord:Lord God, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people's stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.
28Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, 'Because the Lord wasn't able to bring them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.'
29But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.
Chapter 10
1"The Lord said to me at that time, 'Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to me on the mountain and make a wooden ark. 2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you are to place them in the ark.' 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4Then on the day of the assembly, the Lord wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that he had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. The Lord gave them to me, 5and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. And they have remained there, as the Lord commanded me."
6The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar his son became priest in his place.
7They traveled from there to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.
8"At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord's covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to pronounce blessings in his name, as it is today.
9For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God told him.
10"I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time. The Lord also listened to me on this occasion; he agreed not to annihilate you.
11Then the Lord said to me, 'Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to give their ancestors.'
12"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?
13Keep the Lord's commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.
14The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.
15Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them. He chose their descendants after them--he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.
16Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don't be stiff-necked any longer.
17For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.
18He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing.
19You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.
20You are to fear the Lord your God and worship him. Remain faithful to him and take oaths in his name.
21He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.
22Your ancestors went down to Egypt, seventy people in all, and now the Lord your God has made you numerous, like the stars of the sky.
2Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God:His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;
3his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;
4what he did to Egypt's army, its horses and chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and he destroyed them completely;
5what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place;
6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.
8"Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit,
9and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.
11But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.
12It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.
13"If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul,
14I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil.
15I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied.
16Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve, and bow in worship to other gods.
17Then the Lord's anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you.
18"Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads.
19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates,
21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
22For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, and remain faithful to him--
23the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are.
24Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
25No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.
26"Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse:
27there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today,
28and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the Lord your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.
29When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.
30Aren't these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?
31For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you possess it and settle in it,
32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.
Chapter 12
1"Be careful to follow these statutes and ordinances in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess all the days you live on the earth. 2Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods--on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. 4Don't worship the Lord your God this way. 5Instead, turn to the place the Lord your God chooses from all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling and go there. 6You are to bring there your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tenths and personal contributions, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7You will eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with your household in everything you do, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8"You are not to do as we are doing here today; everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own sight.
9Indeed, you have not yet come into the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you.
10When you cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security,
11then the Lord your God will choose the place to have his name dwell. Bring there everything I command you: your burnt offerings, sacrifices, offerings of the tenth, personal contributions, and all your choice offerings you vow to the Lord.
12You will rejoice before the Lord your God--you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your city gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.
13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see.
14You must offer your burnt offerings only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I command you.
15"But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your city gates, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer,
16but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
17Within your city gates you may not eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, or fresh oil; the firstborn of your herd or flock; any of your vow offerings that you pledge; your freewill offerings; or your personal contributions.
18You are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God chooses--you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who is within your city gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do,
19and be careful not to neglect the Levite, as long as you live in your land.
20"When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, 'I want to eat meat' because you have a strong desire to eat meat, you may eat it whenever you want.
21If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of your herd or flock he has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your city gates whenever you want.
22Indeed, you may eat it as the gazelle and deer are eaten; both the clean and the unclean may eat it.
23But don't eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
24Do not eat blood; pour it on the ground like water.
25Do not eat it, so that you and your children after you will prosper, because you will be doing what is right in the Lord's sight.
26"But you are to take the holy offerings you have and your vow offerings and go to the place the Lord chooses.
27Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your other sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.
28Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that you and your children after you may prosper forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
29"When the Lord your God annihilates the nations before you, which you are entering to take possession of, and you drive them out and live in their land,
30be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, 'How did these nations worship their gods? I'll also do the same.'
31You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice every detestable act, which the Lord hates, for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32Be careful to do everything I command you; do not add anything to it or take anything away from it.
Chapter 13
1"If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, 2and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, 'Let's follow other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let's worship them,' 3do not listen to that prophet's words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. 4You must follow the Lord your God and fear him. You must keep his commands and listen to him; you must worship him and remain faithful to him. 5That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has urged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slavery, to turn you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to walk. You must purge the evil from you.
6"If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, 'Let's go and worship other gods'--which neither you nor your ancestors have known,
7any of the gods of the peoples around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other--
8do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.
9Instead, you must kill him. Your hand is to be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
11All Israel will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer do anything evil like this among you.
12"If you hear it said about one of your cities the Lord your God is giving you to live in,
13that wicked men have sprung up among you, led the inhabitants of their city astray, and said, 'Let's go and worship other gods,' which you have not known,
14you are to inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable act has been done among you,
15you must strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Completely destroy everyone in it as well as its livestock with the sword.
16You are to gather all its spoil in the middle of the city square and completely burn the city and all its spoil for the Lord your God. The city is to remain a mound of ruins forever; it is not to be rebuilt.
17Nothing set apart for destruction is to remain in your hand, so that the Lord will turn from his burning anger and grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as he swore to your ancestors.
18This will occur if you obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commands I am giving you today, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
New Living Translation
Chapter 7
1When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. 2When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. 3You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, 4for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. 5This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. 6For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.
7The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!
8Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
9Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
10But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him.
11Therefore, you must obey all these commands, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today.
12If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the Lord your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors.
13He will love you and bless you, and he will give you many children. He will give fertility to your land and your animals. When you arrive in the land he swore to give your ancestors, you will have large harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil, and great herds of cattle, sheep, and goats.
14You will be blessed above all the nations of the earth. None of your men or women will be childless, and all your livestock will bear young.
15And the Lord will protect you from all sickness. He will not let you suffer from the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all your enemies!
16You must destroy all the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Show them no mercy, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you.
17Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’
18But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt.
19Remember the great terrors the Lord your God sent against them. You saw it all with your own eyes! And remember the miraculous signs and wonders, and the strong hand and powerful arm with which he brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will use this same power against all the people you fear.
20And then the Lord your God will send terror to drive out the few survivors still hiding from you!
21No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God.
22The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you.
23But the Lord your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed.
24He will put their kings in your power, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all.
25You must burn their idols in fire, and you must not covet the silver or gold that covers them. You must not take it or it will become a trap to you, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.
26Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be destroyed, just like them. You must utterly detest such things, for they are set apart for destruction.
Chapter 8
1Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 2Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
6So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.
7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills.
8It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey.
9It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills.
10When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
12For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
13and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful!
14Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
15Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
16He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
17He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
18Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
19But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed.
20Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God.
Chapter 9
1Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! 2The people are strong and tall — descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’ 3But recognize today that the Lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has promised.
4After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way.
5It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not — you are a stubborn people.
7Remember and never forget how angry you made the Lord your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him.
8Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord so angry he was ready to destroy you.
9This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.
10The Lord gave me the two tablets on which God had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain.
11At the end of the forty days and nights, the Lord handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant.
12Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!’
13The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.
14Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’
15So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.
16There below me I could see that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow!
17So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.
18Then, as before, I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger.
19I feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.
20The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the Lord spared him.
21I took your sin — the calf you had made — and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.
22You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.
23And at Kadesh-barnea the Lord sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him.
24Yes, you have been rebelling against the Lord as long as I have known you.
25That is why I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights — for the Lord said he would destroy you.
26I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, do not destroy them. They are your own people. They are your special possession, whom you redeemed from Egypt by your mighty power and your strong hand.
27Please overlook the stubbornness and the awful sin of these people, and remember instead your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
28If you destroy these people, the Egyptians will say, 'The Israelites died because the Lord wasn’t able to bring them to the land he had promised to give them.' Or they might say, 'He destroyed them because he hated them; he deliberately took them into the wilderness to slaughter them.'
29But they are your people and your special possession, whom you brought out of Egypt by your great strength and powerful arm.’
Chapter 10
1At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. Also make a wooden Ark — a sacred chest to store them in. Come up to me on the mountain, 2and I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the ones you smashed. Then place the tablets in the Ark.’
3So I made an Ark of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first two. Then I went up the mountain with the tablets in my hand.
4Once again the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets and gave them to me. They were the same words the Lord had spoken to you from the heart of the fire on the day you were assembled at the foot of the mountain.
5Then I turned and came down the mountain and placed the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant, which I had made, just as the Lord commanded me. And the tablets are still there in the Ark.'
6(The people of Israel set out from the wells of the people of Jaakan and traveled to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried. His son Eleazar ministered as high priest in his place.
7Then they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from there to Jotbathah, a land with many brooks and streams.
8At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, and to stand before the Lord as his ministers, and to pronounce blessings in his name. These are their duties to this day.
9That is why the Levites have no share of property or possession of land among the other Israelite tribes. The Lord himself is their special possession, as the Lord your God told them.)
10As for me, I stayed on the mountain in the Lord’s presence for forty days and nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to my pleas and agreed not to destroy you.
11Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and resume the journey, and lead the people to the land I swore to give to their ancestors, so they may take possession of it.’
12And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul.
13And you must always obey the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.
14Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God.
15Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love. And he chose you, their descendants, above all other nations, as is evident today.
16Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.
17For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.
18He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing.
19So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.
20You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone.
21He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.
22When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky!
Chapter 11
1You must love the Lord your God and always obey his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands. 2Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the Lord your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm. 3They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. 4They didn’t see what the Lord did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots — how he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you. He destroyed them, and they have not recovered to this very day!
5Your children didn’t see how the Lord cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here.
6They didn’t see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened its mouth in the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.
7But you have seen the Lord perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!
8Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.
9If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants — a land flowing with milk and honey!
10For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
11Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain —
12a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!
13If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul,
14then he will send the rains in their proper seasons — the early and late rains — so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.
15He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
16But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods.
17If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.
18So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
19Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
22Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.
23Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land.
24Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
25No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.
26Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!
27You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.
28But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.
29When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.
30(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.)
31For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it,
32you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.
2When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods — high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree.
3Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Completely erase the names of their gods!
4Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.
5Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes — the place where his name will be honored.
6There you will bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your herds and flocks.
7There you and your families will feast in the presence of the Lord your God, and you will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8Your pattern of worship will change. Today all of you are doing as you please,
9because you have not yet arrived at the place of rest, the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession.
10But you will soon cross the Jordan River and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you. When he gives you rest from all your enemies and you’re living safely in the land,
11you must bring everything I command you — your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and your offerings to fulfill a vow — to the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored.
12You must celebrate there in the presence of the Lord your God with your sons and daughters and all your servants. And remember to include the Levites who live in your towns, for they will receive no allotment of land among you.
13Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you like.
14You may do so only at the place the Lord will choose within one of your tribal territories. There you must offer your burnt offerings and do everything I command you.
15But you may butcher your animals and eat their meat in any town whenever you want. You may freely eat the animals with which the Lord your God blesses you. All of you, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as you now eat gazelle and deer.
16But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
17But you may not eat your offerings in your hometown — neither the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your flocks and herds, nor any offering to fulfill a vow, nor your voluntary offerings, nor your sacred offerings.
18You must eat these in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. Eat them there with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns, celebrating in the presence of the Lord your God in all you do.
19And be very careful never to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
20When the Lord your God expands your territory as he has promised, and you have the urge to eat meat, you may freely eat meat whenever you want.
21It might happen that the designated place of worship — the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored — is a long way from your home. If so, you may butcher any of the cattle, sheep, or goats the Lord has given you, and you may freely eat the meat in your hometown, as I have commanded you.
22Anyone, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as you do now with gazelle and deer.
23But never consume the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat.
24Instead, pour out the blood on the ground like water.
25Do not consume the blood, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what pleases the Lord.
26Take your sacred gifts and your offerings given to fulfill a vow to the place the Lord chooses.
27You must offer the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.
28Be careful to obey all my commands, so that all will go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and pleasing to the Lord your God.
29When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land,
30do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’
31You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.
Chapter 13
1Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, 2and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’ — gods you have not known before — 3do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. 4Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. 5The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the Lord your God, who redeemed you from slavery and brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since they try to lead you astray from the way the Lord your God commanded you to live, you must put them to death. In this way you will purge the evil from among you.
6Suppose someone secretly entices you — even your brother, your son or daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend — and says, ‘Let us go worship other gods’ — gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known.
7They might suggest that you worship the gods of peoples who live nearby or who come from the ends of the earth.
8But do not give in or listen. Have no pity, and do not spare or protect them.
9You must put them to death! Strike the first blow yourself, and then all the people must join in.
10Stone the guilty ones to death because they have tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery.
11Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and no one will act so wickedly again.
12When you begin living in the towns the Lord your God is giving you, you may hear
13that scoundrels among you are leading their fellow citizens astray by saying, ‘Let us go worship other gods’ — gods you have not known before.
14In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find that the report is true and such a detestable act has been committed among you,
15you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock.
16Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the open square and burn it. Burn the entire town as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt.
17Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a large nation, just as he swore to your ancestors.
English Standard Version
Chapter 7
1“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, 2and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
6“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
8but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
10and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
11You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.
13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
14You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
15And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.
16And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’
18you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.
21You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
22The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.
23But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
25The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
26And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
Chapter 8
1“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
11“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,
12lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them,
13and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied,
14then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
15who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
16who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
17Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’
18You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
19And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
20Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Chapter 9
1“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
4“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
5Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6“Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
7Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
8Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
9When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
10And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’
13“Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people.
14Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
18Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger.
19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.
20And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
21Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
22“At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.
23And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.
24You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
25“So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin,
28lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”
29For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
Chapter 10
1“At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. 5Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me.”
6(The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place.
7From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water.
8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.
9Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God said to him.)
10“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD was unwilling to destroy you.
11And the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and 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 the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?
14Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
15Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
18He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
19Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
20You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
21He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
22Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Chapter 11
1“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day, 5and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did.
8“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,
9and that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.
11But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,
12a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
13“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
15And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
16Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
17then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.
18“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
20You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
22For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
23then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.
25No one shall be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.
26“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
27the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today,
28and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
29And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
31For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,
32you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
Chapter 12
1“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. 5But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
8“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,
9for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.
10But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,
11then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.
12And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,
14but at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
16Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
17You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,
18but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake.
19Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20“When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.
21If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.
22Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.
23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
25You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
26But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the LORD will choose,
27and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat.
28Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
29“When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
30take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’
31You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
Chapter 13
1“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
6“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
7some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
8you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
9But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
10You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
11And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
12“If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to dwell there,
13that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known,
14then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
15you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
16You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
17None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
18if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
New International Version
Chapter 7
1When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations--the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you-- 2and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
12If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors.
13He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land--your grain, new wine and olive oil--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
14You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.
15The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.
16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17You may say to yourselves, 'These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?'
18But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
19You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.
20Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.
21Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.
22The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.
23But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.
25The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
26Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
Chapter 8
1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
6Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.
7For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;
8a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;
9a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
11Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
15He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.
16He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
17You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.'
18But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
20Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
Chapter 9
1Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 2The people are strong and tall--Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: 'Who can stand up against the Anakites?' 3But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
4After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, 'The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.' No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you.
5It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
8At Horeb you aroused the LORD's wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you.
9When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.
10The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
11At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
12Then the LORD told me, 'Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.'
13And the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!
14Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.'
15So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.
16When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
17So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
18Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so arousing his anger.
19I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.
20And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.
21Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
23And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, 'Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.' But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him.
24You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.
25I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26I prayed to the LORD and said, 'Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.
28Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, 'Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.'
29But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.'
Chapter 10
1At that time the LORD said to me, 'Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. 2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.'
3So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.
4The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
5Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.
6(The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.
7From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.
8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.
9That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.)
10Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.
11Go,' the LORD said to me, 'and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.'
12And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
14To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
15Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations--as it is today.
16Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
18He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
19And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
20Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.
21He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.
22Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Chapter 11
1Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; 3the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; 4what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. 5It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.
8Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
9and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
11But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.
12It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--
14then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
15I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
17Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.
18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,
21so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
22If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him--
23then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
24Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
25No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse--
27the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;
28the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
29When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
30As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.
31You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,
32be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
Chapter 12
1These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess--as long as you live in the land. 2Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
4You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.
5But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;
6there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
7There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
8You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,
9since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.
10But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.
11Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name--there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD.
12And there rejoice before the LORD your God--you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
13Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.
14Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
15Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the LORD your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
16But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
17You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.
18Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose--you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns--and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in everything you put your hand to.
19Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
20When the LORD your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, 'I would like some meat,' then you may eat as much of it as you want.
21If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.
22Eat them as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat.
23But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
24You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
26But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place the LORD will choose.
27Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.
28Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
29The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,
30and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.'
31You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
Chapter 13
1If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, 'Let us follow other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and let us worship them,' 3you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.
6If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and worship other gods' (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known,
7gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other),
8do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them.
9You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
11Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
12If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in
13that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, 'Let us go and worship other gods' (gods you have not known),
14then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you,
15you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.
16You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt,
17and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors--
18because you obey the LORD your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.
