database_export
/
json
/Tanakh
/Torah
/Deuteronomy
/English
/THE JPS TANAKH Gender-Sensitive Edition.json
{ | |
"language": "en", | |
"title": "Deuteronomy", | |
"versionSource": "https://jps.org/books/the-jps-tanakh-gender-sensitive-edition/", | |
"versionTitle": "THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition", | |
"versionNotes": "<a href=\"http://purl.org/jps/rjps-preface\">Read the Preface to the Revised JPS Edition</a>\n<br><br>\n<a href=\"http://purl.org/jps/gender\">Read the Notes on Gender in Translation for the Revised JPS Edition</a>\n<br><br>\n<a href=\"https://www.sefaria.org/collections/commentary-on-the-usage-and-rendering-of-%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A9?tab=sheets\">Read a Commentary on the Hebrew word 'ish in the Revised JPS Edition</a>", | |
"shortVersionTitle": "Revised JPS, 2023", | |
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"actualLanguage": "en", | |
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"direction": "ltr", | |
"heTitle": "דברים", | |
"categories": [ | |
"Tanakh", | |
"Torah" | |
], | |
"text": [ | |
[ | |
"These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness, in the Arabah near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab, ", | |
"it is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir route.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Through the wilderness … by the Mount Seir route </b>This passage is unclear; cf. v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:19\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.19\">19</a> and <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 33:16-36\" href=\"Numbers.33.16-36\">Num. 33.16–36</a>.</i>— ", | |
"It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses addressed the Israelites in accordance with the instructions that G<small>OD</small> had given him for them, ", | |
"after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth [and]<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>[and] </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Joshua 12:4\" href=\"Joshua.12.4\">Josh. 12.4</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Joshua 13:12\" href=\"Joshua.13.12\">13.12</a>, <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Joshua 13:31\" href=\"Joshua.13.31\">31</a>.</i> Edrei. ", | |
"On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this Teaching. He said:", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ", | |
"Start out and make your way to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>land of the Canaanites </b>I.e., Phoenicia.</i> and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates. ", | |
"See, I place the land at your disposal. Go, take possession of the land that G<small>OD</small> swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to them and to their heirs after them.", | |
"Thereupon I said to you, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself. ", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has multiplied you until you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky.—", | |
"May the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of your ancestors, increase your numbers a thousandfold, and bless you as promised.— ", | |
"How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering! ", | |
"Pick from each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and experienced, and I will appoint them as your heads.” ", | |
"You answered me and said, “What you propose to do is good.” ", | |
"So I took your tribal leaders, wise and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you: chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens, and officials for your tribes. ", | |
"I charged your magistrates at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger. ", | |
"You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear no one,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>no one </b>Or “none of the parties.”</i> for judgment is God’s. And any matter that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it.” ", | |
"Thus I instructed you, at that time, about the various things that you should do.", | |
"We set out from Horeb and traveled the great and terrible wilderness that you saw, along the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea, ", | |
"I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God is giving to us. ", | |
"See, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has placed the land at your disposal. Go up, take possession, as the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of your fathers, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed.”", | |
"Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send agents ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.” ", | |
"I approved of the plan, and so I selected twelve of you, one representative from each tribe. ", | |
"They made for the hill country, came to the wadi Eshcol, and spied it out. ", | |
"They took some of the fruit of the land with them and brought it down to us. And they gave us this report: “It is a good land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God is giving to us.”", | |
"Yet you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the militia, which ostensibly fights on the nation’s behalf.</i> refused to go up, and flouted the command of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"You sulked<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You sulked </b>Precise meaning of Heb. <i>watteragnu</i> uncertain.</i> in your tents and said, “It is out of hatred for us that G<small>OD</small> brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to wipe us out. ", | |
"What kind of place<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>What kind of place </b>Lit. “Where.”</i> are we going to? Our brothers have taken the heart out of us, saying, ‘We saw there a people stronger and taller than we, large cities with walls sky-high, and even Anakites.’”", | |
"I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. ", | |
"None other than the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, who goes before you, will fight for you—just as [God] did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, ", | |
"and in the wilderness, where you saw how the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God carried you, as a man<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>man </b>A stereotypical head of household, responsible for its continuity.</i> carries his son, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place. ", | |
"Yet for all that, you have no faith in the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, ", | |
"who goes before you on your journeys—to scout the place where you are to encamp—in fire by night and in cloud by day, in order to guide you on the route you are to follow.”", | |
"Upon hearing your loud complaint, G<small>OD</small> became angry and vowed: ", | |
"Not one of those involved, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:8\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.8\">8</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 24:7\" href=\"Genesis.24.7\">Gen. 24.7</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 26:3\" href=\"Genesis.26.3\">26.3</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 50:24\" href=\"Genesis.50.24\">50.24</a>.</i>— ", | |
"none except Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his descendants will I give the land on which he set foot, because he remained loyal to G<small>OD</small>.— ", | |
"Because of you G<small>OD</small> was incensed with me too, saying: You shall not enter it either. ", | |
"Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, he shall enter it. Imbue him with strength, for he shall allot it to Israel.— ", | |
"Moreover, your little ones who you said would be carried off, your children who do not yet know good from bad, they shall enter it; to them will I give it and they shall possess it. ", | |
"As for you, turn about and march into the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds.", | |
"You replied to me, saying, “We stand guilty before G<small>OD</small>. We will go up now and fight, just as the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God commanded us.” And you each girded yourselves with war gear and recklessly<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>recklessly </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>wattahinu</i> uncertain.</i> started for the hill country. ", | |
"But G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Warn them: Do not go up and do not fight, since I am not in your midst; else you will be routed by your enemies.” ", | |
"I spoke to you, but you would not listen; you flouted G<small>OD</small>’s command and willfully marched into the hill country. ", | |
"Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like so many bees and chased you, and they crushed you at Hormah in Seir. ", | |
"Again you wept before G<small>OD</small>; but G<small>OD</small> would not heed your cry or give ear to you.", | |
"Thus, after you had remained at Kadesh all that long time,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>all that long time </b>Lit. “many days, like the days that you remained.”</i> " | |
], | |
[ | |
"we marched back into the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds, as G<small>OD</small> had spoken to me, and skirted the hill country of Seir a long time.", | |
"Then G<small>OD</small> said to me:", | |
"You have been skirting this hill country long enough; now turn north.", | |
"And charge the people as follows: You will be passing through the territory of your kin, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they will be afraid of you, be very careful ", | |
"not to provoke them. For I will not give you of their land so much as a foot can tread on; I have given the hill country of Seir as a possession to Esau.", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Or “You may obtain food from them to eat for money; and you may also procure water from them to drink for money.”</i> What food you eat you shall obtain from them for money; even the water you drink you shall procure from them for money. ", | |
"Indeed, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has blessed you in all your undertakings, watching over your wanderings through this great wilderness; the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has been with you these past forty years: you have lacked nothing.", | |
"We then moved on, away from our kin, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the road of the Arabah, away from Elath and Ezion-geber; and we marched on in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> said to me: Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war. For I will not give you any of their land as a possession; I have assigned Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>descendants of Lot </b>I.e., the Moabites and the Ammonites; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 19:36-38\" href=\"Genesis.19.36-38\">Gen. 19.36–38</a>.</i>—", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">It was formerly inhabited by the Emim, a people great and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Like the Anakites, they are counted as Rephaim; but the Moabites call them Emim. </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Similarly, Seir was formerly inhabited by the Horites; but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, wiping them out and settling in their place, just as Israel did in the land they were to possess, which G<small>OD</small> had given to them.—</span>", | |
"Up now! Cross the wadi Zered!<br>So we crossed the wadi Zered.", | |
"The time that we spent in travel from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as G<small>OD</small> had sworn concerning them. ", | |
"Indeed, G<small>OD</small>’s hand struck them, to root them out from the camp until they were finished off.", | |
"When all the warriors among the people had died off, ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> spoke to me, saying: ", | |
"You are now passing through the territory of Moab, through Ar. ", | |
"You will then be close to the Ammonites; do not harass them or start a fight with them. For I will not give any part of the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession; I have assigned it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>descendants of Lot </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 2:9\" href=\"Deuteronomy.2.9\">9</a>.</i>—", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">It, too, is counted as Rephaim country. It was formerly inhabited by Rephaim, whom the Ammonites call Zamzummim, </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites. G<small>OD</small> wiped them out, so that [the Ammonites] dispossessed them and settled in their place, </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">as [G<small>OD</small>] did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, by wiping out the Horites before them, so that they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as is still the case.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>as is still the case </b>Lit. “until this day.”</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">So, too, with the Avvim who dwelt in villages in the vicinity of Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came from Crete,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Crete </b>Heb. “Caphtor.”</i> wiped them out and settled in their place.—</span>", | |
"Up! Set out across the wadi Arnon! See, I give into your power Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin the occupation: engage him in battle. ", | |
"This day I begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven, so that they shall tremble and quake because of you whenever they hear you mentioned.", | |
"Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace, as follows, ", | |
"“Let me pass through your country. I will keep strictly to the highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left. ", | |
"What food I eat you will supply for money, and what water I drink you will furnish for money; just let me pass through<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>through </b>Lit. “with my feet.”</i>— ", | |
"as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir did for me, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar—that I may cross the Jordan into the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God is giving us.”", | |
"But King Sihon of Heshbon refused to let us pass through, because G<small>OD</small> had stiffened his will and hardened his heart in order to deliver him into your power—as is now the case. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> said to me: See, I begin by placing Sihon and his land at your disposal. Begin the occupation; take possession of his land.", | |
"Sihon with all his troops took the field against us at Jahaz, ", | |
"and the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God delivered him to us and we defeated him and his sons and all his troops.", | |
"At that time we captured all his towns, and we doomed<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>doomed </b>I.e., placed under <i>ḥerem</i>, which meant the annihilation of the population. Cf. note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 21:2\" href=\"Numbers.21.2\">Num. 21.2</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Joshua 6:24\" href=\"Joshua.6.24\">Josh. 6.24</a>.</i> every town—men, women, and children—leaving no survivor. ", | |
"We retained as booty only the cattle and the spoil of the cities that we captured.", | |
"From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon valley, including the town<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>including the town </b>Force of Heb. <i>we-haʻir</i> uncertain.</i> in the valley itself, to Gilead, not a city was too mighty for us; the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God delivered everything to us. ", | |
"But you did not encroach upon the land of the Ammonites, all along the wadi Jabbok and the towns of the hill country, just as the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God had commanded." | |
], | |
[ | |
"We made our way up the road toward Bashan, and King Og of Bashan with all his troops took the field against us at Edrei. ", | |
"But G<small>OD</small> said to me: Do not fear him, for I am delivering him and all his troops and his country into your power, and you will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.", | |
"So the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God also delivered into our power King Og of Bashan, with all his troops, and we dealt them such a blow that no survivor was left. ", | |
"At that time we captured all his towns; there was not a town that we did not take from them: sixty towns, the whole district of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan— ", | |
"all those towns were fortified with high walls, gates,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>gates </b>I.e., two-leaf doors.</i> and bars—apart from a great number of unwalled towns. ", | |
"We doomed them as we had done in the case of King Sihon of Heshbon; we doomed every town—men, women, and children— ", | |
"and retained as booty all the cattle and the spoil of the towns.", | |
"Thus we seized, at that time, from the two Amorite kings, the country beyond the Jordan, from the wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon— ", | |
"Sidonians called Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir— ", | |
"all the towns of the Tableland and the whole of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salcah<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Salcah </b>In contrast to others “Salecah” or “Salchah.”</i> and Edrei, the towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ", | |
"Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit!<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>standard cubit </b>Lit. “forearm of a (typical) person.”</i> ", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Verses <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 3:12-13\" href=\"Deuteronomy.3.12-13\">12–13</a> proceed from south to north; vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 3:14-16\" href=\"Deuteronomy.3.14-16\">14–16</a> from north to south.</i> And this is the land that we apportioned at that time: The part from Aroer along the wadi Arnon, with part of the hill country of Gilead and its towns, I assigned to the Reubenites and the Gadites. ", | |
"The rest of Gilead, and all of Bashan under Og’s rule—the whole Argob district, all that part of Bashan that is called Rephaim country—I assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh. ", | |
"Jair son of Manasseh received the whole Argob district (that is, Bashan) as far as the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and named it after himself: Havvoth-jair<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Havvoth-jair </b>I.e., “villages of Jair.”</i>—as is still the case. ", | |
"To Machir I assigned Gilead.", | |
"And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I assigned the part from Gilead down to the wadi Arnon, the middle of the wadi being the boundary, and up to the wadi Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites.", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Continuing vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 3:8-10\" href=\"Deuteronomy.3.8-10\">8–10</a>; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 4:47-49\" href=\"Deuteronomy.4.47-49\">4.47–49</a>.</i> [We also seized] the Arabah, from the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east, to the edge of the Jordan, and from Chinnereth down to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea.", | |
"At that time I charged you,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the leaders of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 32\" href=\"Numbers.32\">Num. 32</a>.</i> saying, “The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has given you this country to possess. You must go as shock-troops, warriors all, at the head of your fellow Israelites. ", | |
"Only your wives, children, and livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall be left in the towns I have assigned to you, ", | |
"until G<small>OD</small> has granted your kindred a haven such as you have, and they too have taken possession of the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning them, beyond the Jordan. Then you may return each to the homestead that I have assigned to him.”", | |
"I also charged Joshua at that time, saying, “You have seen with your own eyes all that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has done to these two kings; so shall G<small>OD</small> do to all the kingdoms into which you shall cross over. ", | |
"Do not fear them, for it is the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God who will battle for you.”", | |
"I pleaded with G<small>OD</small> at that time, saying, ", | |
"“O my Sovereign G<small>OD</small>, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! ", | |
"Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” ", | |
"But G<small>OD</small> was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen to me. G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again! ", | |
"Go up to the summit of Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it well, for you shall not go across yonder Jordan. ", | |
"Give Joshua his instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he shall allot to them the land that you may only see.”", | |
"Meanwhile we stayed on in the valley near Beth-peor." | |
], | |
[ | |
"And now, O Israel, give heed to the laws and rules that I am instructing you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ", | |
"You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God that I enjoin upon you. ", | |
"You saw with your own eyes what G<small>OD</small> did in the matter of Baal-peor, that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God wiped out from among you every person who followed Baal-peor; ", | |
"while you, who held fast to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, are all alive today.", | |
"See, I have imparted to you laws and rules, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> my God has commanded me, for you to abide by in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. ", | |
"Observe them faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and discernment to other peoples, who on hearing of all these laws will say, “Surely, that great nation is a wise and discerning people.” ", | |
"For what great nation is there that has a god so close at hand as is the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God whenever we call?", | |
"Or what great nation has laws and rules as perfect as all this Teaching that I set before you this day?", | |
"But take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. And make them known to your children and to your children’s children: ", | |
"The day you stood before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God at Horeb, when G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Gather the people to Me that I may let them hear My words, in order that they may learn to revere Me as long as they live on earth, and may so teach their children.” ", | |
"You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with flames to the very skies, dark with densest clouds. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> spoke to you out of the fire; you heard the sound of words but perceived no shape—nothing but a voice.", | |
"The covenant that you were commanded to observe, the Ten Commandments, was declared to you; and [God] inscribed them on two tablets of stone. ", | |
"At the same time G<small>OD</small> commanded me to impart to you laws and rules for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.", | |
"For your own sake, therefore, be most careful—since you saw no shape when G<small>OD</small> spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire— ", | |
"not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>a man or a woman </b>Lit. “a male or a female.”</i> ", | |
"the form of any animal on earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ", | |
"the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters below the earth.— ", | |
"And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven— ", | |
"whereas you were taken and brought out of Egypt, that iron blast furnace, to be G<small>OD</small>’s very own people, as is now the case.", | |
"Now G<small>OD</small> was angry with me on your account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan and enter the good land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning you as a heritage.", | |
"For I must die in this land; I shall not cross the Jordan. But you will cross and take possession of that good land.", | |
"Take care, then, not to forget the covenant that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God concluded with you, and not to make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, against which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has enjoined you. ", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God.", | |
"When you have begotten children and children’s children and are long established in the land, should you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, causing the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God displeasure and vexation, ", | |
"I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you that you shall soon perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure in it, but shall be utterly wiped out. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will scatter you among the peoples, and only a scant few of you shall be left among the nations to which G<small>OD</small> will drive you. ", | |
"There you will serve gods of wood and stone, made by human hands, that cannot see or hear or eat or smell.", | |
"But if you search there, you will find the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, if only you seek with all your heart and soul— ", | |
"when you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, in the end, return to and obey the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is a compassionate God, who will not fail you nor let you perish. The covenant made on oath with your fathers will not be forgotten.", | |
"You have but to inquire about bygone ages that came before you, ever since God created humankind on earth, from one end of heaven to the other: has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known? ", | |
"Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have, and survived? ", | |
"Or has any deity ventured to go and take one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts, by signs and portents, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and awesome power, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ", | |
"It has been clearly demonstrated to you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>It has been clearly demonstrated to you </b>Lit. “You have been shown to know.”</i> that the E<small>TERNAL</small> alone is God; there is none else. ", | |
"From the heavens you could hear the divine voice to discipline you; on earth you could see the great divine fire; and from amidst that fire you heard God’s words.", | |
"And out of love for your ancestors, [God] chose their heirs after them—directly<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>directly </b>Lit. “with His face (or: Presence)”; cf. note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 33:14\" href=\"Exodus.33.14\">Exod. 33.14</a>.</i> leading you out of Egypt with great might, ", | |
"to drive from your path nations greater and more populous than you, to take you into their land and assign it to you as a heritage, as is still the case. ", | |
"Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the E<small>TERNAL</small> alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other.", | |
"Observe God’s laws and commandments, which I enjoin upon you this day, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may long remain in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning to you for all time.", | |
"Then Moses set aside three cities on the east side of the Jordan", | |
"to which a manslayer could escape,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>manslayer could escape </b>I.e., regardless of the victim’s gender. As for a female culprit, the case may have been more complex.</i> one who unwittingly slew another person without having been an enemy in the past; that person could flee to one of these cities and live: ", | |
"Bezer, in the wilderness in the Tableland, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth, in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; and Golan, in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.", | |
"This is the Teaching that Moses set before the Israelites:", | |
"these are the decrees, laws, and rules that Moses addressed to the people of Israel, after they had left Egypt, ", | |
"beyond the Jordan, in the valley at Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they had left Egypt. ", | |
"They had taken possession of his country and that of King Og of Bashan—the two kings of the Amorites—which were on the east side of the Jordan", | |
"from Aroer on the banks of the wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sion,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Sion </b>Cf. “Sirion,” <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 3:9\" href=\"Deuteronomy.3.9\">3.9</a>.</i> that is, Hermon; ", | |
"also the whole Arabah on the east side of the Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the laws and rules that I proclaim to you this day! Study them and observe them faithfully!", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.", | |
"It was not with our ancestors that G<small>OD</small> made this covenant, but with us, the living, every one of us who is here today. ", | |
"Face to face G<small>OD</small> spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire—", | |
"I stood between G<small>OD</small> and you at that time to convey G<small>OD</small>’s words to you, for you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain—saying:", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Tradition varies as to the divisions of the Commandments in vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 5:6-18\" href=\"Deuteronomy.5.6-18\">6–18</a> and the numbering of the verses. Cf. note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 20:1\" href=\"Exodus.20.1\">Exod. 20.1</a>.</i> I the E<small>TERNAL</small> am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: ", | |
"You shall have no other gods beside Me.", | |
"You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. ", | |
"You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, ", | |
"but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.", | |
"You shall not swear falsely by the name of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God; for G<small>OD</small> will not clear one who swears falsely by that name.", | |
"Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded you. ", | |
"Six days you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Including a householder’s (primary) wife, as a co-administrator.</i> shall labor and do all your work, ", | |
"but the seventh day is a sabbath of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your donkey, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. ", | |
"Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.", | |
"Honor your father and your mother, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded you, that you may long endure, and that you may fare well, in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning to you.", | |
"You shall not murder.<br>You shall not commit adultery.<br>You shall not steal.<br>You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>Addressing those whose social position enables them to act on such desires and cravings; i.e., (stereotypically male) householders.</i> shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n spoke those words—those and no more—to your whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds. After inscribing them on two tablets of stone, [God] gave them to me. ", | |
"When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came up to me, all your tribal heads and elders, ", | |
"and said, “The E<small>TERNAL</small> our God has just shown us a majestic Presence, and we have heard God’s voice out of the fire; we have seen this day that humankind may live though addressed by God. ", | |
"Let us not die, then, for this fearsome fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God any longer, we shall die. ", | |
"For what mortal ever heard the voice of the living God speak out of the fire, as we did, and lived? ", | |
"You go closer and hear all that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God says, and then you tell us everything that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God tells you, and we will willingly do it.”", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n heard the plea that you made to me, and G<small>OD</small> said to me, “I have heard the plea that this people made to you; they did well to speak thus. ", | |
"May they always be of such mind, to revere Me and follow all My commandments, that it may go well with them and with their children forever! ", | |
"Go, say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ ", | |
"But you remain here with Me, and I will give you the whole Instruction—the laws and the rules—that you shall impart to them, for them to observe in the land that I am giving them to possess.”", | |
"Be careful, then, to do as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left: ", | |
"follow only the path that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has enjoined upon you, so that you may thrive and that it may go well with you, and that you may long endure in the land you are to possess." | |
], | |
[ | |
"And this is the Instruction—the laws and the rules—that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded [me] to impart to you, to be observed in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ", | |
"so that you, your children, and your children’s children may revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and follow, as long as you live, all the laws and commandments that I enjoin upon you, to the end that you may long endure. ", | |
"Obey, O Israel, willingly and faithfully, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in] a land flowing with milk and honey,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>a land flowing with milk and honey </b>According to Ibn Ezra, this phrase connects with the end of v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 6:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.6.1\">1</a>.</i> as the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of your ancestors, spoke to you.", | |
"Hear, O Israel! The E<small>TERNAL</small> is our God, the E<small>TERNAL</small> alone.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>The E<small>TERNAL</small> is our God, the E<small>TERNAL</small> alone </b>Cf. Rashbam, Ibn Ezra; see <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Zechariah 14:9\" href=\"Zechariah.14.9\">Zech. 14.9</a>. In contrast to others “The L<small>ORD</small> our God, the L<small>ORD</small> is one.”</i> ", | |
"You shall love the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.", | |
"Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day.", | |
"Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. ", | |
"Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>symbol </b>In contrast to others “frontlet”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 13:16\" href=\"Exodus.13.16\">Exod. 13.16</a>.</i> on your forehead;<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>on your forehead </b>Lit. “between your eyes”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 13:9\" href=\"Exodus.13.9\">Exod. 13.9</a>.</i> ", | |
"inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.", | |
"When the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God brings you into the land that was sworn to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to be assigned to you—great and flourishing cities that you did not build, ", | |
"houses full of all good things that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and you eat your fill, ", | |
"take heed that you do not forget G<small>OD</small>, who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. ", | |
"Revere only the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God; worship [God] alone; swear only by God’s name.", | |
"Do not follow other gods, any gods of the peoples about you— ", | |
"for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in your midst is an impassioned God—lest the anger of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God blaze forth against you, wiping you off the face of the earth.", | |
"Do not try the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, as you did at Massah.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>as you did at Massah </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 17:1-7\" href=\"Exodus.17.1-7\">Exod. 17.1–7</a>.</i> ", | |
"Be sure to keep the commandments, decrees, and laws that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has enjoined upon you. ", | |
"Do what is right and good in the sight of G<small>OD</small>, that it may go well with you and that you may be able to possess the good land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God promised on oath to your fathers,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> ", | |
"and that all your enemies may be driven out before you, as G<small>OD</small> has spoken.", | |
"When, in time to come, your children ask you, “What mean the decrees, laws, and rules that the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God has enjoined upon you?”<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Septuagint and rabbinic quotations read “us.”</i> ", | |
"you shall say to your children, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and G<small>OD</small> freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> wrought before our eyes marvelous and destructive signs and portents in Egypt—against Pharaoh and all his household—", | |
"and freed us from there, in order to take us and give us the land promised on oath to our fathers.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> ", | |
"Then the E<small>TERNAL</small> commanded us to observe all these laws, to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God, for our lasting good and for our survival, as is now the case. ", | |
"It will be therefore to our merit before the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God to observe faithfully this whole Instruction, as we have been commanded.”" | |
], | |
[ | |
"When the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God brings you to the land that you are about to enter and possess, and dislodges many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you— ", | |
"and the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God delivers them to you and you defeat them, you must doom them to destruction: grant them no terms and give them no quarter. ", | |
"You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.", | |
"For they will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods, and G<small>OD</small>’s anger will blaze forth against you, promptly wiping you out. ", | |
"Instead, this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>sacred posts </b>Used in worship of the goddess Asherah.</i> and consign their images to the fire.", | |
"For you are a people consecrated to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: of all the peoples on earth, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God chose you to be the treasured one.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the treasured one </b>Lit. “for Him a people of treasure.”</i> ", | |
"It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that G<small>OD</small> grew attached to you and chose you—indeed, you are the smallest of peoples; ", | |
"but it was because G<small>OD</small> favored you and kept the oath made to your fathers that G<small>OD</small> freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.", | |
"Know, therefore, that only the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is God, the steadfast God who keeps this covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who show love and keep the commandments, ", | |
"but who instantly requites with destruction those who are disloyal—never slow with those who are disloyal, but requiting them instantly. ", | |
"Therefore, observe faithfully the Instruction—the laws and the rules—with which I charge you today.", | |
"And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant made on oath with your fathers: ", | |
"[God] will favor you and bless you and multiply you—blessing your issue from the womb and your produce from the soil, your new grain and wine and oil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock, in the land sworn to your fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to be assigned to you. ", | |
"You shall be blessed above all other peoples: there shall be no sterile male or female among you or among your livestock.", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will ward off from you all sickness—and will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies.", | |
"You shall destroy all the peoples that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God delivers to you, showing them no pity. And you shall not worship their gods, for that would be a snare to you. ", | |
"Should you say to yourselves, “These nations are more numerous than we; how can we dispossess them?” ", | |
"You need have no fear of them. You have but to bear in mind what the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptians:", | |
"the wondrous acts that you saw with your own eyes, the signs and the portents, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God liberated you. Thus will the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God do to all the peoples you now fear. ", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will also send a plague<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>plague </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>ṣirʻah</i> uncertain. Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 23:28\" href=\"Exodus.23.28\">Exod. 23.28</a>.</i> against them, until those who are left in hiding perish before you. ", | |
"Do not stand in dread of them, for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will dislodge those peoples before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them at once, else the wild beasts would multiply to your hurt. ", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will deliver them up to you, throwing them into utter panic until they are wiped out. ", | |
"Their kings will be delivered into your hand, and you shall obliterate their name from under the heavens; no one shall stand up to you, until you have wiped them out.", | |
"You shall consign the images of their gods to the fire; you shall not covet the silver and gold on them and keep it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared thereby; for that is abhorrent to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"You must not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be proscribed like it; you must reject it as abominable and abhorrent, for it is proscribed." | |
], | |
[ | |
"You shall faithfully observe all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to possess the land that G<small>OD</small> promised on oath to your fathers.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> ", | |
"Remember the long way that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, in order to test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep the commandments or not. ", | |
"[God] subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, in order to teach you that a human being does not live on bread alone, but that one may live on anything that G<small>OD</small> decrees. ", | |
"The clothes upon you did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these forty years. ", | |
"Bear in mind that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God disciplines you just as a man<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>man </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:31\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.31\">1.31</a>.</i> disciplines his son. ", | |
"Therefore keep the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: walk in God’s ways and show reverence.", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; ", | |
"a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; ", | |
"a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. ", | |
"When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God for the good land given to you.", | |
"Take care lest you forget the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and fail to keep the commandments, rules, and laws that I enjoin upon you today. ", | |
"When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, ", | |
"and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, ", | |
"beware lest<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>lest </b>Heb. <i>pen</i>; moved down from v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 8:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.8.12\">12</a> for clarity.</i> your heart grow haughty and you forget the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; ", | |
"who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its <i>seraph</i><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>seraph </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 21:6\" href=\"Numbers.21.6\">Num. 21.6</a>.</i> serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock; ", | |
"who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end— ", | |
"and you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.” ", | |
"Remember that it is the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case.", | |
"If you do forget the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish; ", | |
"like the nations that G<small>OD</small> will cause to perish before you, so shall you perish—because you did not heed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and more populous than you: great cities with walls sky-high; ", | |
"a people great and tall, the Anakites, of whom you have knowledge; for you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the children of Anak?” ", | |
"Know then this day that none other than the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is crossing at your head, a devouring fire; it is [God] who will wipe them out—subduing them before you, that you may quickly dispossess and destroy them, as G<small>OD</small> promised you. ", | |
"And when the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has thrust them from your path, say not to yourselves, “G<small>OD</small> has enabled us to possess this land because of our virtues”; it is rather because of the wickedness of those nations that G<small>OD</small> is dispossessing them before you. ", | |
"It is not because of your virtues and your rectitude that you will be able to possess their country; but it is because of their wickedness that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is dispossessing those nations before you, and in order to fulfill the oath that G<small>OD</small> made to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.", | |
"Know, then, that it is not for any virtue of yours that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you this good land to possess; for you are a stiffnecked people. ", | |
"Remember, never forget, how you provoked the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God to anger in the wilderness: from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have continued defiant toward G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"At Horeb you so provoked G<small>OD</small> that G<small>OD</small> was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.", | |
"I had ascended the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant that G<small>OD</small> had made with you, and I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. ", | |
"And the E<small>TERNAL</small> gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God, with the exact words that the E<small>TERNAL</small> had addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the Assembly.", | |
"At the end of those forty days and forty nights, G<small>OD</small> gave me the two tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Hurry, go down from here at once, for the people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted wickedly; they have been quick to stray from the path that I enjoined upon them; they have made themselves a molten image.” ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> further said to me, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. ", | |
"Let Me alone and I will destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you a nation far more numerous than they.”", | |
"I started down the mountain, a mountain ablaze with fire, the two Tablets of the Covenant in my two hands. ", | |
"I saw how you had sinned against the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had been quick to stray from the path that G<small>OD</small> had enjoined upon you.", | |
"Thereupon I gripped the two tablets and flung them away with both my hands, smashing them before your eyes. ", | |
"I threw myself down before G<small>OD</small>—eating no bread and drinking no water forty days and forty nights, as before—because of the great wrong you had committed, doing what displeased and vexed G<small>OD</small>. ", | |
"For I was in dread of the fierce anger against you that moved G<small>OD</small> to wipe you out. And that time, too, G<small>OD</small> gave heed to me.— ", | |
"Moreover, G<small>OD</small> was angry enough with Aaron to have destroyed him; so I also interceded for Aaron at that time.— ", | |
"As for that sinful thing you had made, the calf, I took it and put it to the fire; I broke it to bits and ground it thoroughly until it was fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the brook that comes down from the mountain.", | |
"Again you provoked G<small>OD</small> at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.", | |
"And when G<small>OD</small> sent you on from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and take possession of the land that I am giving you,” you flouted the command of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—whom you did not put your trust in nor obey.", | |
"As long as I have known you, you have been defiant toward G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"When I lay prostrate before G<small>OD</small> those forty days and forty nights,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>those forty days and forty nights </b>Lit. “the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate.”</i> because G<small>OD</small> was determined to destroy you, ", | |
"I prayed to G<small>OD</small> and said, “O my Sovereign G<small>OD</small>, do not annihilate Your very own people, whom You redeemed in Your majesty and whom You freed from Egypt with a mighty hand. ", | |
"Give thought to Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and pay no heed to the stubbornness of this people, its wickedness, and its sinfulness. ", | |
"Else the country from which You freed us will say, ‘It was because G<small>OD</small> was powerless to bring them into the land promised to them, and because of having rejected them, that he brought them out to have them die in the wilderness.’ ", | |
"Yet they are Your very own people, whom You freed with Your great might and Your outstretched arm.”" | |
], | |
[ | |
"Thereupon G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make an ark of wood. ", | |
"I will inscribe on the tablets the commandments that were on the first tablets that you smashed, and you shall deposit them in the ark.”", | |
"I made an ark of acacia wood and carved out two tablets of stone like the first; I took the two tablets with me and went up the mountain.", | |
"After inscribing on the tablets the same text as on the first—the Ten Commandments that G<small>OD</small> addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the Assembly—G<small>OD</small> gave them to me.", | |
"Then I left and went down from the mountain, and I deposited the tablets in the ark that I had made, where they still are, as G<small>OD</small> had commanded me.", | |
"From Beeroth-bene-jaakan<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Beeroth-bene-jaakan </b>Lit. “wells of Bene-jaakan”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 33:31-32\" href=\"Numbers.33.31-32\">Num. 33.31–32</a>.</i> the Israelites marched to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried there; and his son Eleazar became priest in his stead. ", | |
"From there they marched to Gudgod,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Gudgod </b>“Hor-haggidgad” in <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 33:32-33\" href=\"Numbers.33.32-33\">Num. 33.32–33</a>.</i> and from Gudgod to Jotbath, a region of running brooks.", | |
"At that time G<small>OD</small> set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of G<small>OD</small>’s Covenant, to stand in attendance upon G<small>OD</small>, and to bless in God’s name, as is still the case. ", | |
"That is why Levi has received no hereditary portion along with its kindred: G<small>OD</small> is its portion, as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God spoke concerning it.", | |
"I had stayed on the mountain, as I did the first time, forty days and forty nights; and G<small>OD</small> heeded me once again: G<small>OD</small> agreed not to destroy you. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> said to me, “Up, resume the march at the head of the people, that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to give them.”", | |
"And now, O Israel, what does the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, to walk only in divine paths, to love and to serve the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with all your heart and soul, ", | |
"keeping G<small>OD</small>’s commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good. ", | |
"Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>to their uttermost reaches </b>Lit. “and the heaven of heavens.”</i> belong to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, the earth and all that is on it! ", | |
"Yet it was to your ancestors that G<small>OD</small> was drawn out of love for them, so that you, their lineal descendants, were chosen from among all peoples—as is now the case. ", | |
"Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts and stiffen your necks no more. ", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is God supreme and Sovereign supreme,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>God supreme and Sovereign supreme </b>Lit. “the God of gods and the Sovereign of sovereigns.”</i> the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, ", | |
"but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing food and clothing.— ", | |
"You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.", | |
"You must revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—whom you shall worship, to whom you shall hold fast, and by whose name you shall swear. ", | |
"[The E<small>TERNAL</small>] is your glory and your God, who wrought for you those marvelous, awesome deeds that you saw with your own eyes. ", | |
"Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Love, therefore, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—and always keep God’s charge, laws, rules, and commandments.", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Syntax of Heb. uncertain.</i> Take thought this day that it was not your children, who neither experienced nor witnessed the lesson of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">the majesty, mighty hand, and outstretched arm; </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">the signs and the deeds that were performed in Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">what was done to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots; how G<small>OD</small> rolled back upon them the waters of the Sea of Reeds when they were pursuing you, thus destroying them once and for all;<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>once and for all </b>Lit. “to this day.”</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">what was done for you in the wilderness before you arrived in this place; </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">and what was done to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, their tents, and every living thing in their train, from amidst all Israel—</span>", | |
"but that it was you who saw with your own eyes all the marvelous deeds that G<small>OD</small> performed.", | |
"Keep, therefore, all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you today, so that you may have the strength to enter and take possession of the land that you are about to cross into and possess, ", | |
"and that you may long endure upon the soil that G<small>OD</small> swore to your fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to assign to them and to their heirs, a land flowing with milk and honey.", | |
"For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>by your own labors </b>Lit. “by your foot.”</i> like a vegetable garden; ", | |
"but the land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. ", | |
"It is a land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God looks after, on which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God always keeps an eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end.", | |
"If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and rendering service with all your heart and soul, ", | |
"I<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>I </b>That is, G<small>OD</small>; Samaritan reads in the 3rd person.</i> will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil— ", | |
"I<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>I </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:14\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.14\">14</a>.</i> will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle—and thus you shall eat your fill. ", | |
"Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them.", | |
"For G<small>OD</small>’s anger will flare up against you, shutting up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that G<small>OD</small> is assigning to you.", | |
"Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart:<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>very heart </b>Lit. “heart and self.”</i> bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>symbol on your forehead </b>See notes on <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 6:8\" href=\"Deuteronomy.6.8\">6.8</a>.</i> ", | |
"and teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; ", | |
"and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates—", | |
"to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that G<small>OD</small> swore to your fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.", | |
"If, then, you faithfully keep all this Instruction that I command you—by loving the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, by walking in all God’s ways, and by holding fast to [God]— ", | |
"the E<small>TERNAL</small> will dislodge before you all these nations: you will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you.", | |
"Every spot on which your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River—the Euphrates—to the Western Sea.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Western Sea </b>I.e., the Mediterranean; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 34:2\" href=\"Deuteronomy.34.2\">34.2</a>.</i> ", | |
"No one shall stand up to you: the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will put the dread and the fear of you over the whole land in which you set foot, as promised.", | |
"See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: ", | |
"blessing, if you obey the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God that I enjoin upon you this day; ", | |
"and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>whom you have not experienced </b>I.e., who have not proved themselves to you; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Hosea 13:4\" href=\"Hosea.13.4\">Hos. 13.4</a>.</i> ", | |
"When the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and possess, you shall pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.— ", | |
"Both are on the other side of the Jordan, beyond the west road that is in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah—near Gilgal, by the terebinths of Moreh.", | |
"For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning to you. When you have occupied it and are settled in it, ", | |
"take care to observe all the laws and rules that I have set before you this day." | |
], | |
[ | |
"These are the laws and rules that you must carefully observe in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small>, God of your ancestors, is giving you to possess, as long as you live on earth.", | |
"You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree. ", | |
"Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>sacred posts </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 7:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.7.5\">7.5</a>.</i> to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site.", | |
"Do not worship the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in like manner, ", | |
"but look only to the site that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation, to establish the divine name there. There you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing each head of a household with a patrimony, or his (primary) wife if he is unavailable; cf vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12</a>, <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:18\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.18\">18</a>.</i> are to go, ", | |
"and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>your…contributions </b>Lit. “the contribution(s) of your hands.”</i> your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ", | |
"Together with your households, you shall feast there before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, happy in all the undertakings in which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has blessed you.", | |
"You shall not act at all as we now act here, everyone<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>everyone </b>I.e., every householder.</i> as they please, ", | |
"because you have not yet come to the allotted haven that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you.", | |
"When you cross the Jordan and settle in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is allotting to you, and you are granted safety from all your enemies around you and you live in security, ", | |
"then you must bring everything that I command you to the site where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose to establish the divine name: your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>your…contributions </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:6\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.6\">6</a>.</i> and all the choice votive offerings that you vow to G<small>OD</small>. ", | |
"And you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">5</a>.</i> shall rejoice before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with your sons and daughters and with your male and female slaves, along with the Levite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>I.e., he and his household.</i> in your settlements, for he has no territorial allotment among you.", | |
"Take care not to sacrifice your burnt offerings in any place you like, ", | |
"but only in the place that G<small>OD</small> will choose in one of your tribal territories. There you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">5</a>.</i> shall sacrifice your burnt offerings and there you shall observe all that I enjoin upon you. ", | |
"But whenever you desire, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your settlements, according to the blessing that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has granted you. The impure and the pure alike may partake of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>gazelle…deer </b>I.e., animals that may be eaten (cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 14:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.14.5\">14.5</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 11:1\" href=\"Leviticus.11.1\">Lev. 11.1ff</a>.), but not sacrificed (<a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 1:1\" href=\"Leviticus.1.1\">Lev. 1.1ff</a>.).</i> ", | |
"But you must not partake of the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.", | |
"You may not partake in your settlements of the tithes of your new grain or wine or oil, or of the firstlings of your herds and flocks, or of any of the votive offerings that you vow, or of your freewill offerings, or of your contributions.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>your contributions </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:6\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.6\">6</a>.</i> ", | |
"These you must consume before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in the place that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose—you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">5</a>.</i> and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">l</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12</a>.</i> in your settlements—happy before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in all your undertakings. ", | |
"Be sure not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.", | |
"When G<small>OD</small> enlarges your territory, as promised, and you say, “I shall eat some meat,” for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish. ", | |
"If the place where G<small>OD</small> has chosen to establish the divine name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that G<small>OD</small> gives you, as I have instructed you; and you may eat to your heart’s content in your settlements. ", | |
"Eat it, however, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten: the impure may eat it together with the pure. ", | |
"But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the life with the flesh. ", | |
"You must not partake of it; you must pour it out on the ground like water:", | |
"you must not partake of it, in order that it may go well with you and with your descendants to come, for you will be doing what is right in G<small>OD</small>’s sight.", | |
"But such sacred and votive donations as you may have shall be taken by you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">m</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>shall be taken by you </b>Lit. “you shall pick up and come.”</i> to the site that G<small>OD</small> will choose. ", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">n</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">5</a>.</i> shall offer your burnt offerings, both the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God; and of your other sacrifices, the blood shall be poured out on the altar of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, and you shall eat the flesh.", | |
"Be careful to heed all these commandments that I enjoin upon you; thus it will go well with you and with your descendants after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"When the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has cut down before you the nations that you are about to enter and dispossess, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their land, ", | |
"beware of being lured into their ways after they have been wiped out before you! Do not inquire about their gods, saying, “How did those nations worship their gods? I too will follow those practices.” ", | |
"You shall not act thus toward the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, for they perform for their gods every abhorrent act that G<small>OD</small> detests; they even offer up their sons and daughters in fire to their gods." | |
], | |
[ | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">This verse is labeled as 12.32 in some editions, and chapter 13 starts with the next verse.</i> Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it.", | |
"If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner, who gives you a sign or a portent, ", | |
"saying, “Let us follow and worship another god”—whom you have not experienced<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>whom you have not experienced </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:28\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.28\">11.28</a>.</i>—even if the sign or portent named to you comes true, ", | |
"do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is testing you to see whether you really love the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with all your heart and soul.", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is the One whom you should follow, whom you should revere, whose commandments you should observe, whose orders you should heed, whom you should worship, and to whom you should hold fast. ", | |
"As for that prophet or dream-diviner, they shall be put to death for having urged disloyalty to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of bondage—to make you stray from the path that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God commanded you to follow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.", | |
"If your brother, your own mother’s son,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>your own mother’s son </b>Samaritan reads, “the son of your father or the son of your mother.”</i> or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your closest friend<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>closest friend </b>Lit. “friend who is as yourself.”</i> entices you in secret, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:28\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.28\">11.28</a>.</i>— ", | |
"from among the gods of the peoples around you, either near to you or distant, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other: ", | |
"do not assent or give heed to any of them. Show no pity or compassion, and do not cover up the matter; ", | |
"but take that person’s life. Let your hand be the first to put them to death, followed by the hand of the rest of the people. ", | |
"Stone them to death for having sought to make you stray from the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ", | |
"Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid, and such evil things will not be done again in your midst.", | |
"If you hear it said, of one of the towns that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you to dwell in, ", | |
"that some scoundrels from among you have gone and subverted the inhabitants of their town, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom you have not experienced— ", | |
"you shall investigate and inquire and interrogate thoroughly. If it is true, the fact is established—that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst— ", | |
"put the inhabitants of that town to the sword and put its cattle to the sword. Doom it and all that is in it to destruction:", | |
"gather all its spoil into the open square, and burn the town and all its spoil as a holocaust to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. And it shall remain an everlasting ruin, never to be rebuilt. ", | |
"Let nothing that has been doomed stick to your hand, in order that G<small>OD</small> may turn from a blazing anger and show you compassion, and in compassion increase you as promised on oath to your fathers— ", | |
"for you will be heeding the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, obeying all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, doing what is right in the sight of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God." | |
], | |
[ | |
"You are children of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads because of the dead.", | |
"For you are a people consecrated to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God chose you from among all other peoples on earth to be the treasured one.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the treasured one </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 7:6\" href=\"Deuteronomy.7.6\">7.6</a>.</i> ", | |
"You shall not eat anything abhorrent.", | |
"These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; ", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\">A number of these creatures cannot be identified with certainty.</i> the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, the mountain sheep, ", | |
"and any other animal that has true hoofs that are cleft in two and brings up the cud—such you may eat.", | |
"But the following, which do bring up the cud or have true hoofs that are cleft through, you may not eat: the camel, the hare, and the daman—for although they bring up the cud, they have no true hoofs—they are impure for you; ", | |
"also the swine—for although it has true hoofs, it does not bring up the cud—is impure for you. You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their carcasses.", | |
"These you may eat of all that live in water: you may eat anything that has fins and scales.", | |
"But you may not eat anything that has no fins and scales: it is impure for you.", | |
"You may eat any pure bird.", | |
"The following<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>The following </b>A number of these creatures cannot be identified with certainty.</i> you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, and the black vulture; ", | |
"the kite, the falcon, and the buzzard of any variety; ", | |
"every variety of raven;", | |
"the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, and the hawk of any variety; ", | |
"the little owl, the great owl, and the white owl; ", | |
"the pelican, the bustard, and the cormorant; ", | |
"the stork, any variety of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.", | |
"All winged swarming things are impure for you: they may not be eaten.", | |
"You may eat only pure winged creatures.", | |
"You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; give it to the stranger in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.<br>You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field. ", | |
"You shall consume the tithes of your new grain and wine and oil, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, in the place where [God] will choose to establish the divine name, so that you may learn to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God forever. ", | |
"Should the distance be too great for you, should you be unable to transport them, because the place where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has chosen to establish the divine name is far from you and because the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has blessed you,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>has blessed you </b>I.e., with abundant crops.</i> ", | |
"you may convert them into money. Wrap up the money and take it with you to the place that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has chosen, ", | |
"and spend the money on anything you want—cattle, sheep, wine, or other intoxicant, or anything you may desire. And you shall feast there, in the presence of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, and rejoice with your household.", | |
"But do not neglect the Levite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12.12</a>.</i> in your community, for he has no hereditary portion as you have. ", | |
"Every third year<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Every third year </b>Lit. “After a period of three years”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 26:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.26.12\">26.12</a>.</i> you shall bring out the full tithe of your yield of that year, but leave it within your settlements. ", | |
"Then the Levite, who has no hereditary portion as you have, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill, so that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God may bless you in all the enterprises you undertake." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Every seventh year<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Every seventh year </b>Lit. “After a period of seven years”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 14:28\" href=\"Deuteronomy.14.28\">14.28</a>.</i> you shall practice remission of debts. ", | |
"This shall be the nature of the remission: all creditors shall remit the due that they claim from their fellow Israelites; they shall not dun their fellow Israelites—their kindred—for the remission proclaimed is of G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"You may dun the foreigner; but you must remit whatever is due you from your kindred.", | |
"There shall be no needy among you—since the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bless you in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you as a hereditary portion—", | |
"if only you heed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and take care to keep all this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day.", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bless you as promised: you will extend loans to many nations, but require none yourself; you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you.", | |
"If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kindred in any of your settlements in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kindred. ", | |
"Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need. ", | |
"Beware lest you harbor the base thought, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,” so that you are mean and give nothing to your needy kindred—who will cry out to G<small>OD</small> against you, and you will incur guilt. ", | |
"Give readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings. ", | |
"For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kindred in your land.", | |
"If any fellow Hebrew, man or woman, is sold to you, they shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall set them free. ", | |
"When you set them free, do not let them go empty-handed: ", | |
"Furnish them out of the flock, threshing floor, and vat, with which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has blessed you. ", | |
"Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.", | |
"But should [your male slave] say to you, “I do not want to leave you”—for he loves you and your household and is happy with you— ", | |
"you shall take an awl and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall become your slave in perpetuity. Do the same with your female slave. ", | |
"When you do set them free, do not feel aggrieved; for in the six years you have been given double the service of a hired worker. Moreover, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bless you in all you do.", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> shall consecrate to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God all male firstlings that are born in your herd and in your flock: you must not work your firstling ox or shear your firstling sheep. ", | |
"You and your household shall eat it annually before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in the place that G<small>OD</small> will choose.", | |
"But if it has a defect, lameness or blindness, any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"Eat it in your settlements, the impure among you no less than the pure, just like the gazelle and the deer. ", | |
"Only you must not partake of its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Observe the month<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>month </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 13:4\" href=\"Exodus.13.4\">Exod. 13.4</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 23:15\" href=\"Exodus.23.15\">23.15</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 34:18\" href=\"Exodus.34.18\">34.18</a>.</i> of Abib and offer a passover sacrifice to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, for it was in the month<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>month </b>See previous note.</i> of Abib, at night, that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God freed you from Egypt. ", | |
"You shall slaughter the passover sacrifice for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where G<small>OD</small> will choose to establish the divine name. ", | |
"You shall not eat anything leavened with it; for seven days thereafter<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>thereafter </b>Lit. “upon it.”</i> you shall eat unleavened bread, bread of distress—for you departed from the land of Egypt hurriedly—so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt as long as you live. ", | |
"For seven days no leaven shall be found with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall be left until morning.", | |
"You are not permitted to slaughter the passover sacrifice in any of the settlements that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you;", | |
"but at the place where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose to establish the divine name, there alone shall you slaughter the passover sacrifice, in the evening, at sundown, the time of day when you departed from Egypt. ", | |
"You shall cook and eat it at the place that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose; and in the morning you may start back on your journey home.", | |
"After eating unleavened bread six days, you shall hold a solemn gathering<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>solemn gathering </b>Precise meaning of Heb. <i>ʻaṣereth</i> uncertain. Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 23:36\" href=\"Leviticus.23.36\">Lev. 23.36</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 29:35\" href=\"Numbers.29.35\">Num. 29.35</a>.</i> for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God on the seventh day: you shall do no work.", | |
"You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain.", | |
"Then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, offering your freewill contribution according as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has blessed you. ", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> shall rejoice before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12.12</a>.</i> in your communities, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your midst, at the place where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose to establish the divine name. ", | |
"Bear in mind that you were slaves in Egypt, and take care to obey these laws.", | |
"After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days. ", | |
"You<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>You </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12.12</a>.</i> the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your communities. ", | |
"You shall hold a festival for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God seven days, in the place that G<small>OD</small> will choose; for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bless all<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>all </b>Lit. “you in all.”</i> your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy.", | |
"Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths—all your males shall appear before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in the place that [God] will choose. They shall not appear before G<small>OD</small> empty-handed, ", | |
"but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has bestowed upon you.", | |
"You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. ", | |
"You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just. ", | |
"Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you.", | |
"You shall not set up a sacred post<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>sacred post </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 7:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.7.5\">7.5</a>.</i>—any kind of pole beside the altar of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God that you may make— ", | |
"or erect a stone pillar; for such the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God detests." | |
], | |
[ | |
"You shall not sacrifice to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect of a serious kind, for that is abhorrent to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"If there is found among you, in one of the settlements that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, a man or woman who has affronted the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and transgressed the covenant— ", | |
"turning to the worship of other gods and bowing down to them, to the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, something I never commanded— ", | |
"and you have been informed or have learned of it, then you shall make a thorough inquiry. If it is true, the fact is established, that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in Israel, ", | |
"you shall take the man or the woman who did that wicked thing out to the public place, and you shall stone them, that man or woman, to death.— ", | |
"A person shall be put to death only on the testimony of two or more<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>more </b>Lit. “three.”</i> witnesses; no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness.— ", | |
"Let the hands of the witnesses be the first to put [the condemned] to death, followed by the hands of the rest of the people.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the rest of the people </b>Lit. “the people”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"I Kings 21:11\" href=\"I_Kings.21.11\">1 Kings 21.11</a>, <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"I Kings 21:13\" href=\"I_Kings.21.13\">13</a>.</i> Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.", | |
"If a case is too baffling for you to decide, be it a controversy over homicide, civil law, or assault—matters of dispute in your courts—you shall promptly repair to the place that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will have chosen, ", | |
"and appear before the levitical priests, or the magistrate in charge at the time, and present your problem. When they have announced to you the verdict in the case, ", | |
"you shall carry out the verdict that is announced to you from that place that G<small>OD</small> chose, observing scrupulously all their instructions to you. ", | |
"You shall act in accordance with the instructions given you and the ruling handed down to you; you must not deviate from the verdict that they announce to you either to the right or to the left.", | |
"Should the [losing] party act presumptuously and disregard the priest charged with serving there the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, or the magistrate, that person shall die. Thus you will sweep out evil from Israel: ", | |
"all the people will hear and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.", | |
"If, after you have entered the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you decide, “I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,” ", | |
"you shall be free to set a king over yourself, one chosen by the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. Be sure to set as king over yourself one of your own people; you must not set a foreigner over you, one who is not your fellow Israelite.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fellow Israelite </b>Lit. “brother.”</i> ", | |
"Moreover, he shall not keep many horses or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since G<small>OD</small> has warned you, “You must not go back that way again.” ", | |
"And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess.", | |
"When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>by </b>Nuance of Heb. <i>milliphne</i> uncertain.</i> the levitical priests. ", | |
"Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching as well as these laws. ", | |
"Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left, to the end that he and his descendants may reign long in the midst of Israel." | |
], | |
[ | |
"The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no territorial portion with Israel. They shall live only off G<small>OD</small>’s offerings by fire as their<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>their </b>Lit. “its,” i.e., the tribe’s.</i> portion, ", | |
"and shall have no portion among their brother tribes: G<small>OD</small> is their portion, as promised.", | |
"This, then, shall be the priests’ due from the people: Everyone who offers a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep, must give the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach to the priest. ", | |
"You shall also give him the first fruits of your new grain and wine and oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. ", | |
"For the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has chosen him and his descendants, out of all your tribes, to be in attendance for service in the name of G<small>OD</small> for all time.", | |
"If a Levite would go, from any of the settlements throughout Israel where he has been residing, to the place that G<small>OD</small> has chosen, he may do so whenever he pleases. ", | |
"He may serve in the name of the E<small>TERNAL</small> his God like all his fellow Levites who are there in attendance before G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"They shall receive equal shares of the dues, without regard to personal gifts or patrimonies.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>without regard to personal gifts or patrimonies </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> ", | |
"When you enter the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. ", | |
"Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, ", | |
"one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead. ", | |
"For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to G<small>OD</small>, and it is because of these abhorrent things that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is dispossessing them before you. ", | |
"You must be wholehearted with the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"Those nations that you are about to dispossess do indeed resort to soothsayers and augurs; to you, however, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has not assigned the like.", | |
"From among your own people, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself—whom you shall heed. ", | |
"This is just what you asked of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, saying, “Let me not hear the voice of the E<small>TERNAL</small> my God any longer or see this wondrous fire anymore, lest I die.” ", | |
"Whereupon G<small>OD</small> said to me, “They have done well in speaking thus. ", | |
"I will raise up for them from among their own people a prophet like yourself, in whose mouth I will put My words and who will speak to them all that I command; ", | |
"and anybody who fails to heed the words spoken in My name, I Myself will call to account. ", | |
"But any prophet who presumes to speak in My name an oracle that I did not command to be uttered, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.” ", | |
"And should you ask yourselves, “How can we know that the oracle was not spoken by G<small>OD</small>?”— ", | |
"if the prophet speaks in G<small>OD</small>’s name and the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by G<small>OD</small>; the prophet has uttered it presumptuously: do not stand in dread of them." | |
], | |
[ | |
"When the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has cut down the nations whose land the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning to you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and homes, ", | |
"you shall set aside three cities in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you to possess.", | |
"You shall survey the distances, and divide into three parts the territory of the country that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has allotted to you, so that any manslayer may have a place to flee to.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>any manslayer … place to flee to </b>I.e., regardless of the victim’s gender. As for a female culprit, the case may have been more complex.</i>— ", | |
"Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: one who has slain another unwittingly, without having been an enemy in the past. ", | |
"For instance, a man goes with another fellow into a grove to cut wood; as his hand swings the ax to cut down a tree, the ax-head flies off the handle and strikes the other so that he dies. That man shall flee to one of these cities and live.— ", | |
"Otherwise, when the distance is great, the blood-avenger, pursuing the manslayer in hot anger, may overtake him and strike him down; yet he did not incur the death penalty, since he had never been the other’s enemy. ", | |
"That is why I command you: set aside three cities.", | |
"And when the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God enlarges your territory, as was sworn to your fathers,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> and gives you all the land that was promised to be given to your fathers— ", | |
"if you faithfully observe all this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day, to love the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and to walk in God’s ways at all times—then you shall add three more towns to those three. ", | |
"Thus blood of the innocent will not be shed, bringing bloodguilt upon you in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is allotting to you.", | |
"If, however, [for instance,] a man who is the enemy of another lies in wait for him and sets upon him and strikes a fatal blow and then flees to one of these towns, ", | |
"the elders of his town shall have him brought back from there and shall hand him over to the blood-avenger to be put to death;", | |
"you must show him no pity. Thus you will purge Israel of the blood of the innocent,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>purge Israel of the blood of the innocent </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 35:33-34\" href=\"Numbers.35.33-34\">Num. 35.33–34</a>.</i> and it will go well with you.", | |
"You shall not move your neighbor’s landmarks, set up by previous generations, in the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you to possess.", | |
"A single witness may not validate against another party any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>more </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 17:6\" href=\"Deuteronomy.17.6\">17.6</a>.</i> ", | |
"If someone appears against another party to testify maliciously and gives incriminating yet false testimony, ", | |
"the two parties to the dispute shall appear before G<small>OD</small>, before the priests or magistrates in authority at the time, ", | |
"and the magistrates shall make a thorough investigation. If the one who testified is a false witness, having testified falsely against a fellow Israelite, ", | |
"you shall do to the one as the one schemed to do to the other. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst;", | |
"others will hear and be afraid, and such evil things will not again be done in your midst. ", | |
"Nor must you show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." | |
], | |
[ | |
"When you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the militia, as acting on the nation’s behalf.</i> take the field against your enemies, and see horses and chariots—forces larger than yours—have no fear of them, for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. ", | |
"Before you join battle, the priest shall come forward and address the troops. ", | |
"He shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel! You are about to join battle with your enemy. Let not your courage falter. Do not be in fear, or in panic, or in dread of them. ", | |
"For it is the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God who marches with you to do battle for you against your enemy, to bring you victory.”", | |
"Then the officials shall address the troops, as follows: “Is there anyone who has built a new house but has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it. ", | |
"Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard but has never harvested it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another harvest it. ", | |
"Is there anyone who has paid the bride-price for a wife,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>paid the bride-price for a wife </b>Thereby making her his wife legally, even though she has not yet moved in.</i> but who has not yet taken her [into his household]? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another take her to wife.” ", | |
"The officials shall go on addressing the troops and say, “Is there anyone afraid and disheartened? Let him go back to his home, lest the courage of his comrades flag like his.” ", | |
"When the officials have finished addressing the troops, army commanders shall assume command of the troops.", | |
"When you approach a town to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>offer it terms of peace </b>Or “call on it to surrender.”</i> ", | |
"If it responds peaceably and lets you in, all the people present there shall serve you at forced labor. ", | |
"If it does not surrender to you, but would join battle with you, you shall lay siege to it; ", | |
"and when the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. ", | |
"You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, the livestock, and everything in the town—all its spoil—and enjoy the use of the spoil of your enemy, which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God gives you.", | |
"Thus you shall deal with all towns that lie very far from you, towns that do not belong to nations hereabout. ", | |
"In the towns of the latter peoples, however, which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you as a heritage, you shall not let a soul remain alive. ", | |
"No, you must proscribe<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>proscribe </b>See <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 27:29\" href=\"Leviticus.27.29\">Lev. 27.29</a>.</i> them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—as the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has commanded you, ", | |
"lest they lead you into doing all the abhorrent things that they have done for their gods and you stand guilty before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? ", | |
"Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced." | |
], | |
[ | |
"If, in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, ", | |
"your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns.", | |
"The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer that has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke; ", | |
"and the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to an everflowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There, in the wadi, they shall break the heifer’s neck. ", | |
"The priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has chosen them for divine service and to pronounce blessing in the name of G<small>OD</small>, and every lawsuit and case of assault<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>assault </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 17:8\" href=\"Deuteronomy.17.8\">17.8</a>. Or “skin affection”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 24:8\" href=\"Deuteronomy.24.8\">24.8</a>.</i> is subject to their ruling. ", | |
"Then all the elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi.", | |
"And they shall make this declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. ", | |
"Absolve, O E<small>TERNAL</small> One, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel.” And they will be absolved of bloodguilt. ", | |
"Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in G<small>OD</small>’s sight.", | |
"When you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.1\">20.1</a>.</i> take the field against your enemies, and the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God delivers them into your power and you take some of them captive, ", | |
"and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and would take her to wife;", | |
"and you bring her into your household, and she trims her hair, pares her nails, ", | |
"and discards her captive’s garb; and she spends a month’s time in your household lamenting her father and mother: after that you may come to her and thus become her husband, and she shall be your wife. ", | |
"Then, should you no longer want her, you must release her outright. You must not sell her for money: since you had your will of her, you must not enslave her.", | |
"If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, but the first-born is the son of the unloved one— ", | |
"when he wills his property to his sons, he may not treat as first-born the son of the loved one in disregard of the son of the unloved one who is older. ", | |
"Instead, he must accept the first-born, the son of the unloved one, and allot to him a double portion<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>double portion </b>Lit. two-thirds.</i> of all he possesses; since he is the first fruit of his vigor, the birthright is his due.", | |
"If a man has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him, ", | |
"his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the public place of his community.", | |
"They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is disloyal and defiant; he does not heed us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ", | |
"Thereupon the people of his town<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the people of his town </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"I Kings 21:11\" href=\"I_Kings.21.11\">1 Kings 21.11</a>.</i> shall stone him to death. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst: all Israel will hear and be afraid.", | |
"If someone is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you impale the body on a stake, ", | |
"you must not let the corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury it the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God: you shall not defile the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you to possess." | |
], | |
[ | |
"If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your peer. ", | |
"If your fellow Israelite does not live near you or you do not know who [the owner] is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your peer claims it; then you shall give it back. ", | |
"You shall do the same with their donkey; you shall do the same with their garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Israelite loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent.", | |
"If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must raise it together.", | |
"A woman must not put on man’s apparel,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>apparel </b>Or “weapons”; so Targum.</i> nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. ", | |
"Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.", | |
"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.", | |
"You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, else the crop—from the seed you have sown—and the yield of the vineyard may not be used. ", | |
"You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.", | |
"You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.", | |
"You shall make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.", | |
"A man takes a woman to wife and cohabits with her. Then he takes an aversion to her", | |
"and makes up charges against her and defames her, saying, “This is the woman I took to wife; but when I approached her, I found that she was not a virgin.” ", | |
"In such a case, the father and mother of the young woman shall produce the evidence of the young woman’s virginity before the elders of the town at the gate. ", | |
"And the young woman’s father shall say to the elders, “To this man I gave my own daughter to wife, but he has taken an aversion to her; ", | |
"so he has made up charges, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter a virgin.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town. ", | |
"The elders of that town shall then take that man and flog him, ", | |
"and they shall fine him a hundred [shekels of] silver and give it to the young woman’s father; for [that man] has defamed a virgin in Israel. Moreover, she shall remain his wife; he shall never have the right to divorce her.", | |
"But if the charge proves true, the young woman was found not to have been a virgin, ", | |
"then the young woman shall be brought out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the people of her town<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the people of her town </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 21:21\" href=\"Deuteronomy.21.21\">21.21</a>.</i> shall stone her to death; for she did a shameful thing in Israel, committing fornication while under her father’s authority. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst.", | |
"If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both of them—the man and the woman with whom he lay—shall die. Thus you will sweep away evil from Israel.", | |
"In the case of a virgin who is engaged to someone<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>who is engaged to someone </b>I.e., for whom a bride-price has been paid; see <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:7\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.7\">20.7</a>.</i>—if another man comes upon her in town and lies with her, ", | |
"you shall take the two of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death: the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst. ", | |
"But if the man comes upon the engaged woman in the open country, and he lies with her by force, only the man who lay with her shall die, ", | |
"but you shall do nothing to the young woman. The young woman did not incur the death penalty, for this case is like that of one party attacking and murdering another. ", | |
"He came upon her in the open; though the engaged woman cried for help, there was no one to save her.", | |
"If a man comes upon a virgin who is not engaged and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, ", | |
"the man who lay with her shall pay the young woman’s father fifty [shekels of] silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he has violated her, he can never have the right to divorce her." | |
], | |
[ | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">This verse is labeled as 22.30 in some editions, and chapter 23 starts with the next verse.</i> No man shall marry his father’s former wife, so as to remove his father’s garment.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>remove his father’s garment </b>I.e., lay claim to what his father had possessed. Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 18:8\" href=\"Leviticus.18.8\">Lev. 18.8</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 20:11\" href=\"Leviticus.20.11\">20.11</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Ezekiel 16:8\" href=\"Ezekiel.16.8\">Ezek. 16.8</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Ruth 3:9\" href=\"Ruth.3.9\">Ruth 3.9</a>.</i> ", | |
"No [man] whose testes are crushed or whose member is cut off shall be admitted into the congregation<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>congregation </b>Gender force of Heb. <i>qahal</i> uncertain; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 5:19\" href=\"Deuteronomy.5.19\">5.19</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 31:30\" href=\"Deuteronomy.31.30\">31.30</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Joshua 8:35\" href=\"Joshua.8.35\">Josh. 8.35</a>.</i> of G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"No one misbegotten<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>misbegotten </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>mamzer</i> uncertain; in Jewish law, the offspring of adultery or incest between Jews. Social-gender force uncertain.</i> shall be admitted into the congregation of G<small>OD</small>; no descendant of such, even in the tenth generation, shall be admitted into the congregation of G<small>OD</small>.", | |
"No Ammonite or Moabite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>No Ammonite or Moabite </b>Gender force uncertain; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"I Kings 11:1-2\" href=\"I_Kings.11.1-2\">1 Kings 11.1–2</a>.</i> shall be admitted into the congregation of G<small>OD</small>; no descendants of such, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of G<small>OD</small>, ", | |
"because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.— ", | |
"But the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God refused to heed Balaam; instead, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God loves you.— ", | |
"You shall never concern yourself with their welfare or benefit as long as you live.", | |
"You shall not abhor an Edomite, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in their land. ", | |
"Children born to them may be admitted into the congregation of G<small>OD</small> in the third generation.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>in the third generation </b>Of residence in Israel’s territory.</i> ", | |
"When you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.1\">20.1</a>.</i> go out as a troop against your enemies, be on your guard against anything untoward. ", | |
"If anyone among you has been rendered impure by a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp, and he must not reenter the camp. ", | |
"Toward evening he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp. ", | |
"Further, there shall be an area for you outside the camp, where you may relieve yourself. ", | |
"With your gear you shall have a spike, and when you have squatted you shall dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement. ", | |
"Since the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you, let your camp be holy; let [God] not find anything unseemly among you and turn away from you.", | |
"You shall not turn over to their master a slave who seeks refuge with you from their master.", | |
"They shall live with you in any place they may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever they please; you must not ill-treat them.", | |
"No Israelite woman shall be a consecrated worker,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>consecrated worker </b>Or “retainer”; meaning of Heb. <i>qedeshah</i> uncertain. In contrast to others “cult prostitute.”</i> nor shall any Israelite man be a consecrated worker.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>consecrated worker </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>qadesh</i> uncertain. See previous note.</i> ", | |
"You shall not bring the fee of a whore or the pay of a dog<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>dog </b>I.e., a male prostitute.</i> into the house of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both are abhorrent to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"You shall not deduct interest from loans to your fellow Israelites, whether in money or food or anything else that can be deducted as interest; ", | |
"but you may deduct interest from loans to foreigners. Do not deduct interest from loans to your fellow Israelites, so that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.", | |
"When you make a vow to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, do not put off fulfilling it, for the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will require it of you, and you will have incurred guilt; ", | |
"whereas you incur no guilt if you refrain from vowing.", | |
"You must fulfill what has crossed your lips and perform what you have voluntarily vowed to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, having made the promise with your own mouth.", | |
"When you enter a fellow Israelite’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want, until you are full, but you must not put any in your vessel. ", | |
"When you enter a fellow Israelite’s field of standing grain, you may pluck ears with your hand; but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain." | |
], | |
[ | |
"A man takes a woman [into his household] and becomes her husband. She fails to please him because he finds something obnoxious about her, and he writes her a bill of divorcement, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house; ", | |
"she leaves his household and becomes the wife of another man;", | |
"then this latter man rejects her, writes her a bill of divorcement, hands it to her, and sends her away from his household; or the man who married her last dies. ", | |
"Then the first husband who divorced her shall not take her to wife again, since she has been disqualified for him<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>disqualified for him </b>Lit. “defiled.”</i>—for that would be abhorrent to G<small>OD</small>. You must not bring sin upon the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you as a heritage.", | |
"When a man has taken a bride, he shall not go out with the army or be assigned to it for any purpose; he shall be exempt one year for the sake of his household, to give happiness to the woman he has married.", | |
"A hand mill or an upper millstone shall not be taken in pawn, for that would be taking someone’s life in pawn.", | |
"If anyone is found to have kidnapped—and then enslaved or sold—a fellow Israelite, that kidnapper shall die; thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.", | |
"In cases of a skin affection<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>skin affection </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Leviticus 13:1\" href=\"Leviticus.13.1\">Lev. 13.1ff</a>.</i> be most careful to do exactly as the levitical priests instruct you. Take care to do as I have commanded them. ", | |
"Remember what the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>did to Miriam … after you left Egypt </b>See <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 12:10\" href=\"Numbers.12.10\">Num. 12.10ff</a>.</i> ", | |
"When you make a loan of any sort to your compatriot, you must not enter the house to seize the pledge. ", | |
"You must remain outside, while the party to whom you made the loan brings the pledge out to you. ", | |
"And if they are needy, you shall not go to sleep in their pledge; ", | |
"you must return the pledge at sundown, that they may sleep in their cloth and bless you; and it will be to your merit before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. ", | |
"You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for they are needy and urgently depend on it; else a cry to G<small>OD</small> will be issued against you and you will incur guilt.", | |
"Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: they shall be put to death only for their own crime.", | |
"You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn.", | |
"Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God redeemed you from there; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment.", | |
"When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow—in order that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God may bless you in all your undertakings.", | |
"When you beat down the fruit of your olive trees, do not go over them again; that shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. ", | |
"When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not pick it over again; that shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. ", | |
"Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment." | |
], | |
[ | |
"When there is a dispute between two parties and they take it to court, and a decision is rendered declaring the one in the right and the other in the wrong— ", | |
"if the guilty one is to be flogged, the magistrate shall have them lie down and shall supervise the giving of lashes, by count, as warranted by the offense. ", | |
"They may be given up to forty lashes, but not more, lest being flogged further, to excess, your peer be degraded before your eyes.", | |
"You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.", | |
"When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no offspring,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>offspring </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 27:1-11\" href=\"Numbers.27.1-11\">Num. 27.1–11</a>.</i> the wife of the deceased shall not be married to a stranger, outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty. ", | |
"The first child that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out in Israel. ", | |
"But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, his brother’s widow shall appear before the elders in the gate and declare, “My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name in Israel for his brother; he will not perform the duty of a levir.” ", | |
"The elders of his town shall then summon him and talk to him. If he insists, saying, “I do not want to marry her,” ", | |
"his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and make this declaration: Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house! ", | |
"And he shall go in Israel by the name of “the family of the unsandaled one.”", | |
"If two parties are fighting—one man with another—and the wife of one comes up to save her husband from his antagonist and puts out her hand and seizes him by his genitals, ", | |
"you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.", | |
"You shall not have in your pouch alternate weights, larger and smaller. ", | |
"You shall not have in your house alternate measures, a larger and a smaller. ", | |
"You must have completely honest weights and completely honest measures, if you are to endure long on the soil that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you. ", | |
"For everyone who does those things, everyone who deals dishonestly, is abhorrent to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— ", | |
"how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. ", | |
"Therefore, when the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!" | |
], | |
[ | |
"When you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> enter the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, ", | |
"you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will choose to establish the divine name. ", | |
"You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, “I acknowledge this day before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God that I have entered the land that G<small>OD</small> swore to our fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to assign us.”", | |
"The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God.", | |
"You shall then recite as follows before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation.", | |
"The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us.", | |
"We cried to the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of our ancestors, and the E<small>TERNAL</small> heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, ", | |
"bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ", | |
"And so I now bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O E<small>TERNAL</small> One, have given me.”<br>You shall leave the basket<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the basket </b>Heb. “it.”</i> before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and bow low before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12.12</a>.</i> and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has bestowed upon you and your household.", | |
"When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield—in the third year, the year of the tithe<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>in the third year, the year of the tithe </b>See <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 14:28-29\" href=\"Deuteronomy.14.28-29\">14.28–29</a>.</i>—and have given it to the Levite,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Levite </b>See the second note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:12\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.12\">12.12</a>.</i> the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements, ", | |
"you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 12:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.12.5\">12.5</a>.</i> shall declare before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandments: ", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Meaning of first part of verse uncertain.</i> I have not eaten of it while in mourning, I have not cleared out any of it while I was impure, and I have not deposited any of it with the dead.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>deposited any of it with the dead </b>No part of the tithe may be left as food for the dead.</i> I have obeyed the E<small>TERNAL</small> my God; I have done just as You commanded me. ", | |
"Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.”<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> ", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God commands you this day to observe these laws and rules; observe them faithfully with all your heart and soul.", | |
"You have affirmed<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>affirmed </b>Exact nuance of Heb. <i>heʼemarta</i> uncertain.</i> this day that the E<small>TERNAL</small> is your God—in whose ways you will walk, whose laws and commandments and rules you will observe, and whom you will obey. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> has affirmed<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">l</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>affirmed </b>See note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 26:17\" href=\"Deuteronomy.26.17\">17</a>.</i> this day that you are, as promised, God’s treasured people who shall observe all the commandments, ", | |
"and that you will be set in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that [God] has made; and that you shall be, as promised, a holy people to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying: Observe all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day. ", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Construction of vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 27:2-4\" href=\"Deuteronomy.27.2-4\">2–4</a> is uncertain.</i> As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones. Coat them with plaster ", | |
"and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching. When you cross over to enter the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of your ancestors, promised you— ", | |
"upon crossing the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I charge you this day, on Mount Ebal, and coat them with plaster. ", | |
"There, too, you shall build an altar to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, an altar of stones. Do not wield an iron tool over them; ", | |
"you must build the altar of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God of unhewn<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>unhewn </b>Lit. “whole.”</i> stones. You shall offer on it burnt offerings to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, ", | |
"and you shall sacrifice there offerings of well-being and eat them, rejoicing before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"And on those stones you shall inscribe every word of this Teaching most distinctly.", | |
"Moses and the levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying: Silence! Hear, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: ", | |
"Heed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and observe the commandments and laws that I enjoin upon you this day.", | |
"Thereupon Moses charged the people, saying: ", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Construction of vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 27:12-13\" href=\"Deuteronomy.27.12-13\">12–13</a> is uncertain.</i> After you have crossed the Jordan, the following shall stand on Mount Gerizim when the blessing for the people is spoken: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ", | |
"And for the curse, the following shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ", | |
"The Levites shall then proclaim in a loud voice to the entire body of Israel:", | |
"Cursed be anyone who makes a sculptured or molten image, abhorred by G<small>OD</small>, a craftsman’s handiwork, and sets it up in secret.—And all the people shall respond, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who insults their father or mother.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who moves a neighbor’s landmark.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who misdirects a blind person who is underway.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who subverts the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who lies with his father’s wife, for he has removed his father’s garment.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>removed his father’s garment </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 23:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.23.1\">23.1</a>.</i>—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who lies with any animal.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who lies with his sister, whether daughter of his father or of his mother.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who lies with his mother-in-law.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who strikes down a fellow Israelite in secret.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be the one who accepts a bribe in the case of the murder of<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>in the case of the murder of </b>I.e., to acquit the murderer of; in contrast to others “to slay.”</i> an innocent person.—And all the people shall say, Amen.", | |
"Cursed be whoever will not uphold the terms of this Teaching and observe them.—And all the people shall say, Amen." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Now, if you obey the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, to observe faithfully all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ", | |
"All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God:", | |
"Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country.", | |
"Blessed shall be your issue from the womb, your produce from the soil, and the offspring of your cattle, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock.", | |
"Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.", | |
"Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings.", | |
"G<small>OD</small>\n will put to rout before you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the nation’s militia.</i> the enemies who attack you; they will march out against you by a single road, but flee from you by many<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>many </b>Lit. “seven.”</i> roads. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and upon all your undertakings: you will be blessed in the land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is giving you.", | |
"As the E<small>TERNAL</small> swore to you, you will be established as a holy people if you keep the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, walking in those ways. ", | |
"And all the peoples of the earth shall see that G<small>OD</small>’s name is proclaimed over you,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>G<small>OD</small>’s name is proclaimed over you </b>I.e., G<small>OD</small> is responsible for your protection; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Isaiah 4:1\" href=\"Isaiah.4.1\">Isa. 4.1</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Jeremiah 14:9\" href=\"Jeremiah.14.9\">Jer. 14.9</a>; <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"II Samuel 12:28\" href=\"II_Samuel.12.28\">2 Sam. 12.28</a>.</i> and they shall stand in fear of you. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will give you abounding prosperity in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil in the land that G<small>OD</small> swore to your fathers<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> to assign to you. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will open for you that bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season and to bless all your undertakings. You will be creditor to many nations, but debtor to none.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n will make you the head, not the tail; you will always be at the top and never at the bottom—if only you obey and faithfully observe the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God that I enjoin upon you this day, ", | |
"and do not deviate to the right or to the left from any of the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day and turn to the worship of other gods.", | |
"But if you do not obey the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God to observe faithfully all the commandments and laws that I enjoin upon you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and take effect:", | |
"Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country.", | |
"Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.", | |
"Cursed shall be your issue from the womb and your produce from the soil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock.", | |
"Cursed shall you be in your comings and cursed shall you be in your goings.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evildoing in forsaking Me. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will make pestilence cling to you, thus putting an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>consumption, fever, and inflammation </b>Exact nature of these afflictions uncertain.</i> with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish. ", | |
"The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron.", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out.", | |
"G<small>OD</small>\n will put you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>See the first note at v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 28:7\" href=\"Deuteronomy.28.7\">7</a>.</i> to rout before your enemies; you shall march out against them by a single road, but flee from them by many<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>many </b>Lit. “seven.”</i> roads; and you shall become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ", | |
"Your carcasses shall become food for all the birds of the sky and all the animals of the earth, with none to frighten them off.", | |
"G<small>OD</small>\n will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the Egyptian inflammation </b>See <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 9:9-10\" href=\"Exodus.9.9-10\">Exod. 9.9–10</a>.</i> with hemorrhoids, boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover.", | |
"G<small>OD</small>\n will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>dismay </b>Lit. “numbness of heart.”</i> ", | |
"You shall grope at noon as the blind grope in the dark; you shall not prosper in your ventures, but shall be constantly abused and robbed, with none to give help.", | |
"If you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the typical man among you; see note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 5:18\" href=\"Deuteronomy.5.18\">5.18</a> and cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:7\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.7\">20.7</a>.</i> pay the bride-price for a wife, another man shall enjoy her.<br>If you<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>you </b>Addressing the head of a stereotypical household; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.5\">20.5</a>.</i> build a house, you shall not live in it. If you plant a vineyard, you shall not harvest it.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">l</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>If you plant a vineyard … harvest it </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 20:6\" href=\"Deuteronomy.20.6\">20.6</a>.</i> ", | |
"Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be seized in front of you, and it shall not be returned to you; your flock shall be delivered to your enemies, with none to help you. ", | |
"Your sons and daughters shall be delivered to another people, while you look on; and your eyes shall strain for them constantly, but you shall be helpless. ", | |
"A people you do not know shall eat up the produce of your soil and all your gains; you shall be abused and downtrodden continually, ", | |
"until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold.", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will afflict you at the knees and thighs with a severe inflammation, from which you shall never recover—from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone. ", | |
"You shall be a consternation, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to which G<small>OD</small> will drive you.", | |
"Though you take much seed out to the field, you shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. ", | |
"Though you plant vineyards and till them, you shall have no wine to drink or store, for the worm shall devour them. ", | |
"Though you have olive trees throughout your territory, you shall have no oil for anointment, for your olives shall drop off. ", | |
"Though you beget sons and daughters, they shall not remain with you, for they shall go into captivity. ", | |
"The cricket shall take over all the trees and produce of your land.", | |
"The strangers in your midst shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower: ", | |
"they shall be your creditors, but you shall not be theirs; they shall be the head and you the tail.", | |
"All these curses shall befall you; they shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are wiped out, because you did not heed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and keep the commandments and laws enjoined upon you. ", | |
"They shall serve as signs and proofs against you and your offspring for all time.", | |
"Because you would not serve the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything, ", | |
"you shall have to serve—in hunger and thirst, naked and lacking everything—the enemies whom G<small>OD</small> will let loose against you. An iron yoke will be put upon your neck until you are wiped out.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, that will swoop down like the eagle—a nation whose language you do not understand, ", | |
"a ruthless nation, that will show the old no regard and the young<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">m</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the old…the young </b>Or “the influential…the vulnerable.”</i> no mercy. ", | |
"It shall devour the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your soil, until you have been wiped out, leaving you nothing of new grain, wine, or oil, of the calving of your herds and the lambing of your flocks, until it has brought you to ruin. ", | |
"It shall shut you up in all your towns throughout your land until every mighty, towering wall in which you trust has come down. And when you are shut up in all your towns throughout your land that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has assigned to you, ", | |
"you shall eat your own issue, the flesh of your sons and daughters that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has assigned to you, because of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you. ", | |
"The man<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">n</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>man </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:31\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.31\">1.31</a>.</i> who is most tender and fastidious among you shall be too mean to his brother and his mate<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">o</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>his mate </b>Lit. “the wife of his bosom.”</i> and the children he has spared ", | |
"to share with any of them the flesh of the children that he eats, because he has nothing else left as a result of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in all your towns. ", | |
"And she who is most tender and dainty among you, so tender and dainty that she would never venture to set a foot on the ground, shall begrudge her mate,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">p</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>her mate </b>Lit. “the husband of her bosom.”</i> and her son and her daughter, ", | |
"the afterbirth that issues from between her legs and the babies she bears; she shall eat them secretly, because of utter want, in the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in your towns.", | |
"If you fail to observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching that are written in this book, to reverence this honored and awesome Name, the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, ", | |
"the E<small>TERNAL</small> will inflict extraordinary plagues upon you and your offspring, strange and lasting plagues, malignant and chronic diseases— ", | |
"bringing back upon you all the sicknesses of Egypt that you dreaded so, and they shall cling to you. ", | |
"Moreover, G<small>OD</small> will bring upon you all the other diseases and plagues that are not mentioned in this book of Teaching, until you are wiped out. ", | |
"You shall be left a scant few, after having been as numerous as the stars in the skies, because you did not heed the command of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God. ", | |
"And as G<small>OD</small> once delighted in making you prosperous and many, so will G<small>OD</small> now delight in causing you to perish and in wiping you out; you shall be torn from the land that you are about to enter and possess.", | |
"G<small>OD</small>\n will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">q</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:28\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.28\">11.28</a>.</i> ", | |
"Yet even among those nations you shall find no peace, nor shall your foot find a place to rest. G<small>OD</small> will give you there an anguished heart and eyes that pine and a despondent spirit. ", | |
"The life you face shall be precarious; you shall be in terror, night and day, with no assurance of survival. ", | |
"In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of what your heart shall dread and your eyes shall see. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a route that I told you you should not see again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but none will buy.", | |
"<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">r</sup><i class=\"footnote\">This verse is labeled as 29.1 in some editions.</i> These are the terms of the covenant that G<small>OD</small> commanded Moses to conclude with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that was made with them at Horeb." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:<br>You have seen all that G<small>OD</small> did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his courtiers and to his whole country: ", | |
"the wondrous feats that you saw with your own eyes, those prodigious signs and marvels. ", | |
"Yet to this day G<small>OD</small> has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.", | |
"I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet; ", | |
"you had no bread to eat and no wine or other intoxicant to drink—that you might know that I the E<small>TERNAL</small> am your God.", | |
"When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to engage us in battle, but we defeated them. ", | |
"We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their heritage. ", | |
"Therefore observe faithfully all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.", | |
"You stand this day, all of you, before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God: your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, the entire body of Israel,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>the entire body of Israel </b>As the ratifying party to the pending covenant with G<small>OD</small>; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"I Kings 8:2\" href=\"I_Kings.8.2\">1 Kings 8.2.</a> In contrast to others “all the men of Israel.”</i> ", | |
"your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer, ", | |
"to enter into the covenant of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions;<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>its sanctions </b>I.e., the curses that covenant violations will entail.</i> ", | |
"in order to establish you this day as God’s people and in order to be your God, as promised you and as sworn to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ", | |
"I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, ", | |
"but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God and with those who are not with us here this day.", | |
"Well you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of various other nations;", | |
"and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they keep. ", | |
"Perchance there is among you some man or woman, or some clan or tribe, whose heart is even now turning away from the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God to go and worship the gods of those nations—perchance there is among you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood. ", | |
"When hearing the words of these sanctions, they may imagine a special immunity, thinking, “I shall be safe, though I follow my own willful heart”—to the utter ruin of moist and dry alike.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>moist and dry alike </b>I.e., everything.</i> ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will never forgive them. Rather, G<small>OD</small>’s anger and passion will rage against them, till every sanction recorded in this book comes down upon them, and G<small>OD</small> blots out their name from under heaven.", | |
"[As for such a clan or tribe,] G<small>OD</small> will single it out from all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the sanctions of the covenant recorded in this book of Teaching. ", | |
"And later generations will ask—the children who succeed you, and foreigners who come from distant lands and see the plagues and diseases that G<small>OD</small> has inflicted upon that land, ", | |
"all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt, beyond sowing and producing, no grass growing in it, just like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which G<small>OD</small> overthrew in fierce anger— ", | |
"all nations will ask, “Why did G<small>OD</small> do thus to this land? Wherefore that awful wrath?” ", | |
"They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that the E<small>TERNAL</small>, God of their ancestors, made with them upon freeing them from the land of Egypt; ", | |
"they turned to the service of other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not experienced<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>whom they had not experienced </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:28\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.28\">11.28</a>.</i> and who had not been allotted<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>allotted </b>See <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 4:19-20\" href=\"Deuteronomy.4.19-20\">4.19–20</a>.</i> to them. ", | |
"So G<small>OD</small> was incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in this book.", | |
"G<small>OD</small> uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case.”", | |
"Concealed acts concern the E<small>TERNAL</small> our God; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching." | |
], | |
[ | |
"When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has banished you, ", | |
"and you return to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, ", | |
"then the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>take you back in love </b>As a householder readmits a former outcast back into his household.</i> You will be brought together again from all the peoples where the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God has scattered you. ", | |
"Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>world </b>Lit. “sky.”</i> from there the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will gather you—from there you will be fetched. ", | |
"And the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors possessed, and you shall possess it; and you will be made more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors.", | |
"Then the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will open up<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>open up </b>Lit. “circumcise.”</i> your heart and the hearts of your offspring—to love the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live. ", | |
"The E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you.", | |
"You, however, will again heed G<small>OD</small> and obey all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day. ", | |
"And the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and your produce from the soil. For G<small>OD</small> will again delight in your well-being as in that of your ancestors, ", | |
"since you will be heeding the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and keeping the commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching—once you return to the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God with all your heart and soul.", | |
"Surely, this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. ", | |
"It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” ", | |
"Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” ", | |
"No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.", | |
"See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity. ", | |
"For<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>For </b>Septuagint reads “If you obey the commandments of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, which.”</i> I command you this day, to love the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, to walk in God’s ways, and to keep God’s commandments, laws, and rules—that you may thrive and increase, and that the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God may bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess. ", | |
"But if your heart turns away and you give no heed, and are lured into the worship and service of other gods, ", | |
"I declare to you this day that you shall certainly perish; you shall not long endure on the soil that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.", | |
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—if you and your offspring would live— ", | |
"by loving the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, by heeding God’s commands, and by holding fast to [God]. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that G<small>OD</small> swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them." | |
], | |
[ | |
"Moses went and spoke<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Moses went and spoke </b>An ancient Heb. ms. and the Septuagint read “When Moses had finished speaking…”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 29:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.29.1\">29.1</a>.</i> these things to all Israel. ", | |
"He said to them:<br>I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer be active.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>be active </b>Lit. “come and go.”</i> Moreover, G<small>OD</small> has said to me, “You shall not go across yonder Jordan.” ", | |
"It is indeed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God who will cross over before you, and who will wipe out those nations from your path; and you shall dispossess them.—Joshua is the one who shall cross before you, as G<small>OD</small> has spoken.— ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will do to them as was done to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their countries, when they were wiped out. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> will deliver them up to you, and you shall deal with them in full accordance with the Instruction that I have enjoined upon you. ", | |
"Be strong and resolute; be not in fear or in dread of them, for it is indeed the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God who marches with you—who will not fail you or forsake you.", | |
"Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel: “Be strong and resolute, for it is you who shall go with this people into the land that G<small>OD</small> swore to their fathers to give them, and it is you who shall apportion it to them. ", | |
"And it is indeed G<small>OD</small> who will go before you, and be with you—and not fail you or forsake you. Fear not and be not dismayed!”", | |
"Moses wrote down this Teaching and gave it to the priests, sons of Levi, who carried the Ark of G<small>OD</small>’s Covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.", | |
"And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Every seventh year </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 15:1\" href=\"Deuteronomy.15.1\">15.1</a>.</i> the year set for remission, at the Feast of Booths, ", | |
"when all Israel comes to appear before the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God in the place that [God] will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel. ", | |
"Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching. ", | |
"Their children, too, who have not had the experience, shall hear and learn to revere the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God as long as they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n said to Moses: The time is drawing near for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may instruct him. Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. ", | |
"G<small>OD</small> appeared in the Tent, in a pillar of cloud, the pillar of cloud having come to rest at the entrance of the tent.", | |
"\nG<small>OD</small>\n said to Moses: You are soon to rest with your ancestors. This people will thereupon go astray after the alien gods in their midst, in the land that they are about to enter; they will forsake Me and break My covenant that I made with them. ", | |
"Then My anger will flare up against them, and I will abandon them and hide My countenance from them. They shall be ready prey; and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they shall say on that day, “Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.” ", | |
"Yet I will keep My countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods. ", | |
"Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel. ", | |
"When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>fathers </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 1:35\" href=\"Deuteronomy.1.35\">1.35</a>.</i> and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant, ", | |
"and the many evils and troubles befall them—then this poem shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring. For I know what plans they are devising even now, before I bring them into the land that I promised on oath.", | |
"That day, Moses wrote down this poem and taught it to the Israelites.", | |
"And [God] charged Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and resolute: for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you.”", | |
"When Moses had put down in writing the words of this Teaching to the very end, ", | |
"Moses charged the Levites who carried the Ark of the Covenant of G<small>OD</small>, saying: ", | |
"Take this book of Teaching and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the E<small>TERNAL</small> your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you. ", | |
"Well I know how defiant and stiffnecked you are: even now, while I am still alive in your midst, you have been defiant toward G<small>OD</small>; how much more, then, when I am dead! ", | |
"Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, that I may speak all these words to them and that I may call heaven and earth to witness against them. ", | |
"For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in G<small>OD</small>’s sight and provoking anger by your deeds.", | |
"Then Moses recited the words of this poem to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Israel:" | |
], | |
[ | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Let the earth hear the words I utter!</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">May my discourse come down as the rain,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">My speech distill as the dew,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Like showers on young growth,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Like droplets on the grass.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>May my discourse … on the grass </b>I.e., may my words be received eagerly; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Job 29:22-23\" href=\"Job.29.22-23\">Job 29.22–23</a>.</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For the name of the E<small>TERNAL</small> I proclaim;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Give glory to our God!</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Yea, all of whose ways are just;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">A faithful God, never false,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">True and upright indeed.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Meaning of verse uncertain.</i> Unworthy children—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">That crooked, perverse generation—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Their baseness has played God false.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Do you thus requite G<small>OD</small>,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">O dull and witless people?</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Is not this the Father<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Father </b>I.e., the One who conveys legitimacy and provides ongoing support, in return for loyalty.</i> who created you—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Fashioned you and made you endure!</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Remember the days of old,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Consider the years of ages past;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Ask your parent, who will inform you,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Your elders, who will tell you:</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">When the Most High gave nations their homes</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And set the divisions of humankind,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The boundaries of peoples were fixed</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">In relation to Israel’s numbers.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For the E<small>TERNAL</small>’s portion is this people;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Jacob, God’s own allotment.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">[God] found them<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>them </b>Heb. “him,” i.e., Israel/Jacob as the personified nation; and similarly through v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 32:15\" href=\"Deuteronomy.32.15\">15</a>.</i> in a desert region,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">In an empty howling waste—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Then engirded them, watched over them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Guarded them as the pupil of one’s eye.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Gliding down to its young,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">So did [God] spread wings and take them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Bear them along on pinions;</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The E<small>TERNAL</small> alone did guide them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">No alien deity alongside.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">[God] set them atop the highlands,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">To feast on the yield of the earth;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Nursing them with honey from the crag,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And oil from the flinty rock,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Curd of kine and milk of flocks;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">With the best<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>best </b>Lit. “fat.”</i> of lambs,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With the very finest<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>very finest </b>Lit. “kidney fat of.”</i> wheat—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And foaming grape-blood was your drink.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">So Jeshurun<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Jeshurun </b>A poetic name for Israel.</i> grew fat and kicked—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">You grew fat and gross and coarse<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>coarse </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>kasitha</i> uncertain.</i>—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They forsook the God who made them</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And spurned the Rock of their support.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They kindled wrath with alien things,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Provoked anger with abominations.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They sacrificed to demons, no-gods,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Gods they had never known,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">New ones, who came but lately,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Who stirred not your forebears’ fears.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Who stirred not your forebears’ fears </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain; Arabic <i>shaʻara</i> suggests the rendering “Whom your forebears did not know.”</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">You neglected the Rock who begot you,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Forgot the God who labored to bring you forth.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">\nG<small>OD</small>\n saw and was vexed</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And spurned these sons and daughters.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">[God] said:</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I will hide My countenance from them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And see how they fare in the end.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For they are a treacherous breed,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Children with no loyalty in them.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They incensed Me with no-gods,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Vexed Me with their futilities;<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>futilities </b>I.e., idols.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I’ll incense them with a no-folk,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Vex them with a nation of fools.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For a fire has flared in My wrath</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And burned to the bottom of Sheol,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Has consumed the earth and its increase,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Eaten down to the base of the hills.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I will sweep misfortunes on them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Use up My arrows on them:</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Wasting famine, ravaging plague,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Deadly pestilence, and fanged beasts</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Will I let loose against them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">With venomous creepers in dust.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The sword shall deal death without,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">As shall the terror within,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">To youth and maiden alike,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">The suckling as well as the aged.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I might have reduced them to naught,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>I might have reduced them to naught </b>Lit. “I said, I will reduce…”; meaning of Heb. <i>ʼaphʼehem</i> uncertain.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Made their memory cease among humankind,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">But for fear of the taunts of the foe,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Their enemies who might misjudge</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And say, “Our own hand has prevailed;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">None of this was wrought by G<small>OD</small>!”</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">l</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Here, apparently, Moses is the speaker; God resumes in v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 32:32\" href=\"Deuteronomy.32.32\">32</a>.</i> For they are a folk void of sense,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Lacking in all discernment.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Were they wise, they would think upon this,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Gain insight into their future:</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">“How could one have routed a thousand,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Or two put ten thousand to flight,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Unless their Rock had sold them,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\"> \nG<small>OD</small>\n had given them up?”</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For their rock is not like our Rock,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">In our enemies’ own estimation.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">m</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>In our enemies’ own estimation </b>I.e., as everyone must admit. For Heb. <i>pelilim</i> (“own estimation”) see <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 21:22\" href=\"Exodus.21.22\">Exod. 21.22</a>; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 48:11\" href=\"Genesis.48.11\">Gen. 48.11</a>.</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Ah! The vine for them is from Sodom,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">From the vineyards of Gomorrah;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The grapes for them are poison,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">A bitter growth their clusters.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Their wine is the venom of asps,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">The pitiless poison of vipers.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Lo, I have it all put away,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Sealed up in My storehouses,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">To be My vengeance and recompense,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">At the time that their foot falters.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Yea, their day of disaster is near,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And destiny rushes upon them.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For G<small>OD</small> will vindicate this people</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And take revenge for<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">n</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>And take revenge for </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Isaiah 1:24\" href=\"Isaiah.1.24\">Isa. 1.24</a>.</i> these servants,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Upon seeing that their might is gone,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And neither bond nor free is left.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">[God] will say: Where are their gods,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">The rock in whom they sought refuge,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Who ate the fat of their offerings</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And drank their libation wine?</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Let them rise up to your help,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And let them be a shield unto you!</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">See, then, that I, I am the One;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">There is no god beside Me.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I deal death and give life;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">I wounded and I will heal:</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">None can deliver from My hand.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Lo, I raise My hand to heaven</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And say: As I live forever,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">When I whet My flashing blade</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And My hand lays hold on judgment,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Vengeance will I wreak on My foes,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">Will I deal to those who reject Me.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">I will make My arrows drunk with blood—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">As My sword devours flesh—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Blood of the slain and the captive</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">From the long-haired enemy chiefs.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">O nations, acclaim this people!</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">For [God] will avenge the blood of these servants,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Wreak vengeance on opponents,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAllDouble\">And cleanse this people’s land.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">o</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>And cleanse this people’s land </b>Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Numbers 35:33\" href=\"Numbers.35.33\">Num. 35.33</a>. Meaning of Heb. uncertain; Ugaritic <i>ʼudmʻt</i> “tears” suggests the rendering “And wipe away the tears of God’s people.” Cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Isaiah 25:8\" href=\"Isaiah.25.8\">Isa. 25.8</a>.</i> </span>", | |
"Moses came, together with Hosea son of Nun, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people.", | |
"And when Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, ", | |
"he said to them: Take to heart all the words with which I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children, that they may observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching. ", | |
"For this is not a trifling thing for you: it is your very life; through it you shall long endure on the land that you are to possess upon crossing the Jordan.", | |
"That very day G<small>OD</small> spoke to Moses:", | |
"Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. ", | |
"You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; ", | |
"for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. ", | |
"You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people." | |
], | |
[ | |
"This is the blessing with which Moses, the agent of God, bade the Israelites farewell before he died. ", | |
"He said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\"> \nG<small>OD</small>\n came from Sinai,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And shone upon them from Seir—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Appearing from Mount Paran,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And approaching from Ribeboth-kodesh,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Ribeboth-kodesh </b>Cf. Meribath-kadesh, <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 32:51\" href=\"Deuteronomy.32.51\">32.51</a>.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Lightning flashing at them from [God’s] right.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">b</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Lightning flashing…from [God’s] right </b>Meaning of Heb. <i>mi-ymino ʼesh dath</i> uncertain, perhaps a place name.</i> </span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">c</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The meaning of vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 33:3-5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.33.3-5\">3–5</a> is uncertain. An alternative rendering, with v. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 33:3\" href=\"Deuteronomy.33.3\">3</a> apostrophizing Moses, is: “<sup>3</sup>Then were, O lover of the people, / All [God’s] worshipers in your care; / They followed your lead, / Accepted your precepts. / <sup>4</sup>Moses charged us with the Teaching / As the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. / <sup>5</sup>Thus was he king in Jeshurun….”</i> Lover, indeed, of the people,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Their hallowed are all in Your hand.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They followed in Your steps,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Accepting Your pronouncements,</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">When Moses charged us with the Teaching</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">As the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Then [God] became King<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">d</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>King </b>I.e., the One who provides protection and caring help, in return for loyalty.</i> in Jeshurun,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">e</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Jeshurun </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 32:15\" href=\"Deuteronomy.32.15\">32.15</a>.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">When the heads of the people assembled,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The tribes of Israel together.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">May Reuben live and not die,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Though few be his numbers.</span>", | |
"And this he said of Judah:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Hear, O E<small>TERNAL</small> One, the voice of Judah</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And restore him to his people.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Though his own hands strive for him,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">f</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Though his own hands strive for him </b>Better (vocalizing <i>rab</i> with <i>pathaḥ</i>) “Make his hands strong for him.” Cf. <i>rabbeh</i>, <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Judges 9:29\" href=\"Judges.9.29\">Judg. 9.29</a>.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Help him against his foes.</span>", | |
"And of Levi he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Let Your Thummim and Urim</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Be with Your faithful one,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Whom You tested at Massah,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Challenged at the Waters of Meribah;</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Who said of his father and mother,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">“I consider them not.”</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">His brothers he disregarded,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Ignored his own children.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Your precepts alone they observed,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And kept Your covenant.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They shall teach Your laws to Jacob</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And Your instructions to Israel.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They shall offer You incense to savor<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">g</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>They shall offer You incense to savor </b>Lit. “They shall place incense in Your nostril.”</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And whole-offerings on Your altar.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Bless, O E<small>TERNAL</small> One, his substance,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And favor his undertakings.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Smite the loins of his foes;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Let his enemies rise no more.</span>", | |
"Of Benjamin he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Beloved of G<small>OD</small>,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">He rests securely close by,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Ever protected,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">As he rests between God’s shoulders.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">h</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>As he rests between God’s shoulders </b>Or “He dwells amid God’s slopes.”</i> </span>", | |
"And of Joseph he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Blessed of G<small>OD</small> be his land</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With the bounty of dew from heaven,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">i</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>With the bounty of dew from heaven </b>Targum Onkelos and two Hebrew manuscripts: “With the bounty of heaven above,” reading <i>meʻal</i> (“above”) for <i>miṭṭal</i> (lit. “from dew”), cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Genesis 49:25\" href=\"Genesis.49.25\">Gen. 49.25</a>.</i> </span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And of the deep that couches below;</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With the bounteous yield of the sun,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And the bounteous crop of the moons;</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With the best from the ancient mountains,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And the bounty of hills immemorial;</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With the bounty of earth and its fullness,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And the favor of the Presence<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">j</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Presence </b>Lit. “Dweller”; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Exodus 3:1\" href=\"Exodus.3.1\">Exod. 3.1ff</a>.</i> in the Bush.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">May these rest on the head of Joseph,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">On the crown of the elect of his brothers.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Like a firstling bull in his majesty,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">He has horns like the horns of the wild-ox;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">With them he gores the peoples,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">The ends of the earth one and all.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">These<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">k</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>These </b>I.e., one of the wild-ox’s horns.</i> are the myriads of Ephraim,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Those<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">l</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Those </b>I.e., the other horn.</i> are the thousands of Manasseh.</span>", | |
"And of Zebulun he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Rejoice, O Zebulun, on your journeys,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And Issachar, in your tents.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">They invite their kin to the mountain,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Where they offer sacrifices of success.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For they draw from the riches of the sea</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And the hidden hoards of the sand.</span>", | |
"And of Gad he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Blessed be the One who enlarges Gad!</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Poised is he like a lion</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">To tear off arm and scalp.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">m</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Meaning of verse uncertain; cf. vv. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 33:3-5\" href=\"Deuteronomy.33.3-5\">3–5</a> (with note there), and <i>saphun</i> “esteemed” in post-biblical Heb.</i> He chose for himself the best,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">For there is the portion of the revered chieftain,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Where the heads of the people come.</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">He executed G<small>OD</small>’s judgments</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And decisions for Israel.</span>", | |
"And of Dan he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Dan is a lion’s whelp</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">That leaps forth from Bashan.</span>", | |
"And of Naphtali he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">O Naphtali, sated with favor</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And full of G<small>OD</small>’s blessing,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Take possession on the west and south.</span>", | |
"And of Asher he said:<br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Most blessed of sons be Asher;</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">May he be the favorite of his brothers,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">May he dip his foot in oil.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">n</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Meaning of verse uncertain.</i> May your doorbolts be iron and copper,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And your security last all your days.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">O Jeshurun,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">o</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Jeshurun </b>See note at <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 32:15\" href=\"Deuteronomy.32.15\">32.15</a>.</i> there is none like God,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Riding through the heavens to help you,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Through the skies in heavenly majesty.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\"><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">p</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Meaning of verse uncertain.</i> The ancient God is a refuge,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">A support are the arms everlasting—</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Driving out the enemy before you</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">By a command: Destroy!</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Thus Israel dwells in safety,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Untroubled is Jacob’s abode,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">In a land of grain and wine,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Under heavens dripping dew.</span>", | |
"<span class=\"poetry indentAll\">O happy Israel! Who is like you,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">A people delivered by G<small>OD</small>,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Your protecting Shield, your Sword triumphant!</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">Your enemies shall come cringing before you,</span><br><span class=\"poetry indentAll\">And you shall tread on their backs.</span>" | |
], | |
[ | |
"Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and G<small>OD</small> showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan; ", | |
"all Naphtali; the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; the whole land of Judah as far as the Western<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">a</sup><i class=\"footnote\"><b>Western </b>I.e., Mediterranean; cf. <a class=\"refLink\" data-ref=\"Deuteronomy 11:24\" href=\"Deuteronomy.11.24\">11.24</a>.</i> Sea; ", | |
"the Negeb; and the Plain—the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. ", | |
"And G<small>OD</small> said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will assign it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there.”", | |
"So Moses the servant of G<small>OD</small> died there, in the land of Moab, at the command of G<small>OD</small>, ", | |
"who buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, near Beth-peor; and no one knows his burial place to this day. ", | |
"Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.", | |
"And the Israelites bewailed Moses in the steppes of Moab for thirty days.<br>The period of wailing and mourning for Moses came to an end.", | |
"Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the Israelites heeded him, doing as G<small>OD</small> had commanded Moses.", | |
"Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom G<small>OD</small> singled out, face to face, ", | |
"for the various signs and portents that G<small>OD</small> sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country, ", | |
"and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel." | |
] | |
], | |
"sectionNames": [ | |
"Chapter", | |
"Verse" | |
] | |
} |