DEUTERONOMY - 12
1 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently
observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to
occupy all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom
you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the
hills, and under every leafy tree.
3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred
poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their
name from their places.
4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose
out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go
there,
6 bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your
tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the
firstlings of your herds and flocks.
7 And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you
and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the
Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to
our own desires,
9 for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that
the Lord your God is giving you.
10 When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord
your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all
around so that you live in safety,
11 then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place
that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt
offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your
choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.
12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with
your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who
reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with
you).
13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you
happen to see.
14 But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your
tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do
everything I command you.
15 Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any
of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you;
the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or
deer.
16 The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the
ground like water.
17 Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your
wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your
votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations;
18 these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place
that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your
daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns,
rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.
19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live
in your land.
20 When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised
you, and you say, "I am going to eat some meat," because you wish to
eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.
21 If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name
is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd
or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns
whenever you desire.
22 Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the
unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life,
and you shall not eat the life with the meat.
24 Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like
water.
25 Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children
after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
26 But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive
gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.
27 You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the
blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices
shall be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may
eat.
28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so
that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because
you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your
God.
29 When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you
are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live
in their land,
30 take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they
have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying,
"How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the
same."
31 You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every
abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would
even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not
add to it or take anything from it.
DEUTERONOMY - 13
1 If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and
promise you omens or portents,
2 and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and
they say, "Let us follow other gods" (whom you have not known)
"and let us serve them,"
3 you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine
by dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed
love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
4 The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his
commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and
to him you shall hold fast.
5 But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to
death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God—who brought you out
of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you
from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall
purge the evil from your midst.
6 If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your
father's son or your mother's son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you
embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, "Let us go worship other
gods," whom neither you nor your ancestors have known,
7 any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near
you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other,
8 you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity
or compassion and do not shield them.
9 But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first
against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10 Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery.
11 Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any
such wickedness.
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns that the Lord your God
is giving you to live in,
13 that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the
inhabitants of the town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other
gods," whom you have not known,
14 then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the
charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among
you,
15 you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly
destroying it and everything in it—even putting its livestock to the
sword.
16 All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then
burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the
Lord your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt.
17 Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so
that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in
his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors,
18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping all his
commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight
of the Lord your God.
DEUTERONOMY - 14
1 You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate
yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.
2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord
has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured
possession.
3 You shall not eat any abhorrent thing.
4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the
antelope, and the mountain-sheep.
6 Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two,
and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall
not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the
cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.
8 And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud,
is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their
carcasses.
9 Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and
scales you may eat.
10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it
is unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean birds.
12 But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the
vulture, the osprey,
13 the buzzard, the kite of any kind;
14 every raven of any kind;
15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any
kind;
16 the little owl and the great owl, the water hen
17 and the desert owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant,
18 the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.
19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be
eaten.
20 You may eat any clean winged creature.
21 You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to
aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a
foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a
kid in its mother's milk.
22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in
yearly from the field.
23 In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will
choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your
wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that
you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
24 But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so
great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord
your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you,
25 then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go
to the place that the Lord your God will choose;
26 spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong
drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the
Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.
27 As for the Levites resident in your towns, do not neglect them, because
they have no allotment or inheritance with you.
28 Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your
produce for that year, and store it within your towns;
29 the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with
you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns,
may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the
work that you undertake.
DEUTERONOMY - 15
1 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.
2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall
remit the claim that is held against a neighbour, not exacting it of a neighbour
who is a member of the community, because the Lord's remission has been
proclaimed.
3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on
whatever any member of your community owes you.
4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord
is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a
possession to occupy,
5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing
this entire commandment that I command you today.
6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you
will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many
nations, but they will not rule over you.
7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community
in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do
not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbour.
8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet
the need, whatever it may be.
9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking,
"The seventh year, the year of remission, is near," and therefore
view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might
cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.
10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this
account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you
undertake.
11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth; I
therefore command you "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in
your land."
12 If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew
woman, is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you
shall set that person free.
13 And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you
shall not send him out empty-handed.
14 Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and
your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your
God has blessed you.
15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord
your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today.
16 But if he says to you, "I will not go out from you,"
because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,
17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into
the door, and he shall be your slave forever. You shall do the same with regard
to your female slave.
18 Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free
persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of
hired labourers; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.
19 Every firstling male born of your herd and flock you shall
consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not do work with your firstling ox
nor shear the firstling of your flock.
20 You shall eat it, you together with your household, in the
presence of the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will
choose.
21 But if it has any defect—any serious defect, such as lameness or
blindness—you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God;
22 within your towns you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as
you would a gazelle or deer.
23 Its blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the
ground like water.
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