Deuteronomy 32

The Song of Moses

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. ² “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb. ³ “For I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God! ⁴ “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. ⁵ “They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation. ⁶ “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you. ⁷ “Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you. ⁸ “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. ⁹ “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. ¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. ¹¹ “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. ¹² “The Lord alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him. ¹³ “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And He made him suck honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock, ¹⁴ Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat— And of the blood of grapes you drank wine.

¹⁵ “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— You are grown fat, thick, and sleek— Then he forsook God who made him, And scorned the Rock of his salvation. ¹⁶ “They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. ¹⁷ “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread. ¹⁸ “You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ “The Lord saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. ²⁰ “Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. ²¹ ‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, ²² For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³ ‘I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them. ²⁴ ‘They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust. ²⁵ ‘Outside the sword will bereave, And inside terror— Both young man and virgin, The nursling with the man of gray hair. ²⁶ ‘I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces, I will remove the memory of them from men,” ²⁷ Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, That their adversaries would misjudge, That they would say, “Our hand is triumphant, And the Lord has not done all this.”’

²⁸ “For they are a nation lacking in counsel, And there is no understanding in them. ²⁹ “Would that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would discern their future! ³⁰ “How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had given them up? ³¹ “Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this. ³² “For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter. ³³ “Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴ ‘Is it not laid up in store with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries? ³⁵ ‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.’ ³⁶ “For the Lord will vindicate His people, And will have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free. ³⁷ “And He will say, ‘Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge? ³⁸ ‘Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place! ³⁹ ‘See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand. ⁴⁰ ‘Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, ⁴¹ If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me. ⁴² ‘I will make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’ ⁴³ “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”

⁴⁴ Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with Joshua the son of Nun. ⁴⁵ When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land,which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

⁴⁸ The Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, ⁴⁹ “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. ⁵⁰ Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ⁵¹ because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. ⁵² For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 33

The Blessing of Moses

33 Now this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death. ² He said,

“The Lord came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them. ³ “Indeed, He loves the people; All Your holy ones are in Your hand, And they followed in Your steps; Everyone receives of Your words. ⁴ “Moses charged us with a law, A possession for the assembly of Jacob. ⁵ “And He was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people were gathered, The tribes of Israel together.

⁶ “May Reuben live and not die, Nor his men be few.”

⁷ And this regarding Judah; so he said,

“Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, And bring him to his people. With his hands he contended for them, And may You be a help against his adversaries.”

⁸ Of Levi he said,

“Let Your Thummim and Your Urim belong to Your godly man, Whom You proved at Massah, With whom You contended at the waters of Meribah; ⁹ Who said of his father and his mother, ‘I did not consider them’; And he did not acknowledge his brothers, Nor did he regard his own sons, For they observed Your word, And kept Your covenant. ¹⁰ “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, And Your law to Israel. They shall put incense before You, And whole burnt offerings on Your altar. ¹¹ “O Lord, bless his substance, And accept the work of his hands; Shatter the loins of those who rise up against him, And those who hate him, so that they will not rise again.”

¹² Of Benjamin he said,

“May the beloved of the Lord dwell in security by Him, Who shields him all the day, And he dwells between His shoulders.”

¹³ Of Joseph he said,

“Blessed of the Lord be his land, With the choice things of heaven, with the dew, And from the deep lying beneath, ¹⁴ And with the choice yield of the sun, And with the choice produce of the months. ¹⁵ “And with the best things of the ancient mountains, And with the choice things of the everlasting hills, ¹⁶ And with the choice things of the earth and its fullness, And the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush. Let it come to the head of Joseph, And to the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers. ¹⁷ “As the firstborn of his ox, majesty is his, And his horns are the horns of the wild ox; With them he will push the peoples, All at once, to the ends of the earth. And those are the ten thousands of Ephraim, And those are the thousands of Manasseh.”

¹⁸ Of Zebulun he said,

“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, And, Issachar, in your tents. ¹⁹ “They will call peoples to the mountain; There they will offer righteous sacrifices; For they will draw out the abundance of the seas, And the hidden treasures of the sand.”

²⁰ Of Gad he said,

“Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad; He lies down as a lion, And tears the arm, also the crown of the head. ²¹ “Then he provided the first part for himself, For there the ruler’s portion was reserved; And he came with the leaders of the people; He executed the justice of the Lord, And His ordinances with Israel.”

²² Of Dan he said,

“Dan is a lion’s whelp, That leaps forth from Bashan.”

²³ Of Naphtali he said,

“O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full of the blessing of the Lord, Take possession of the sea and the south.”

²⁴ Of Asher he said,

“More blessed than sons is Asher; May he be favored by his brothers, And may he dip his foot in oil. ²⁵ “Your locks will be iron and bronze, And according to your days, so will your leisurely walk be.

²⁶ “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to your help, And through the skies in His majesty.  “The eternal God is a dwelling place, ²⁷And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy!’ ²⁸ “So Israel dwells in security, The fountain of Jacob secluded, In a land of grain and new wine; His heavens also drop down dew. ²⁹ “Blessed are you, O Israel; Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, Who is the shield of your help And the sword of your majesty! So your enemies will cringe before you, And you will tread upon their high places.”

Deuteronomy 34

The Death of Moses

34 Now Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, ² and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,³ and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.⁴ Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” ⁵ So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. ⁶ And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day. ⁷ Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. ⁸ So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

⁹ Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.¹⁰ Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,¹¹ for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, ¹² and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Deuteronomy 30

Restoration Promised

30 “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, ² and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, ³ then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ⁴ If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.⁵ The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

⁶ “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. ⁷ The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. ⁹ Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; ¹⁰ if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

Choose Life

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Deuteronomy 31

Moses’ Last Counsel

31 So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ² And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ ³ It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken. ⁴ The Lord will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them.⁵ The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

⁷ Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. ⁸ The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

⁹ So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. ¹³ Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

Israel Will Fall Away

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the time for you to die is near; call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting. ¹⁵ The Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood at the doorway of the tent. ¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’¹⁸ But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.

¹⁹ “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel. ²⁰ For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn Me and break My covenant. ²¹ Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants); for I know their intent which they are developing today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.” ²² So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel.

Joshua Is Commissioned

²³ Then He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”

²⁴ It came about, when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book until they were complete, ²⁵ that Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, ²⁶ “Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷ For I know your rebellion and your stubbornness; behold, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against the Lord; how much more, then, after my death? ²⁸ Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger with the work of your hands.”

³⁰ Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were complete:

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Deuteronomy 28

Blessings at Gerizim

28 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God:

³ “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

⁴ “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

⁵ “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

⁶ “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ “The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. ⁸ The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. ⁹ The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. ¹¹ The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, ¹⁴ and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Consequences of Disobedience

¹⁵ “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. ²¹ The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. ²² The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. ²⁴ The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷ “The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; ²⁹ and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. ³⁰ You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. ³³ A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. ³⁶ The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. ³⁷ You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.

³⁸ “You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. ⁴¹ You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. ⁴² The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. ⁴³ The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵ “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.

⁴⁷ “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. ⁵² It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.⁵³ Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns. ⁵⁶ The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement,shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.⁶⁴ Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Deuteronomy 29

The Covenant in Moab

29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

² And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; ³ the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. ⁴ Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. ⁵ I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. ⁶ You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ When you reached this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we defeated them;⁸ and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. ⁹ So keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰ “You stand today, all of you, before the Lord your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,¹² that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God is making with you today, ¹³ in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, ¹⁵ but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here today ¹⁶ (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; ¹⁷ moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); ¹⁸ so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. ¹⁹ It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ ²⁰ The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ Then the Lord will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.

²² “Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say, ²³ ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ ²⁴ All the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them.²⁷ Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; ²⁸ and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Deuteronomy 24

Law of Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, ² and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, ⁴ then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

⁵ “When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

Sundry Laws

⁶ “No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

⁷ “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁸ “Be careful against an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge. ¹¹ You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. ¹³ When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

¹⁴ “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns. ¹⁵ You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

¹⁶ “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷ “You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow’s garment in pledge. ¹⁸ But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

¹⁹ “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

²¹ “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. ²² You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Deuteronomy 25

Sundry Laws

25 “If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case,and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, ² then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. ³ He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.

⁴ “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

⁵ “When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. ⁷ But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ⁹ then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰ In Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

¹¹ “If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.

¹³ “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁶ For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Deuteronomy 26

Offering First Fruits

26 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, ² that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. ⁶ And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. ⁷ Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression;⁸ and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; ⁹ and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; ¹¹ and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹² “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. ¹³ You shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷ You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; ¹⁹ and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”

Deuteronomy 27

The Curses of Mount Ebal

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments which I command you today. ² So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime ³ and write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. ⁴ So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. ⁵ Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. ⁶ You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the Lord your God; ⁷ and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸ You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly.”

⁹ Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the Lord your God. ¹⁰ You shall therefore obey the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”

¹¹ Moses also charged the people on that day, saying, ¹² “When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³ For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ¹⁴ The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁷ ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁸ ‘Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s skirt.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²¹ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

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

²³ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁴ ‘Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

²⁶ ‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Deuteronomy 17

Administration of Justice

17 “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

² “If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, ³ and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, ⁴ and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. ⁶ On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. ⁷ The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ “If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.¹¹ According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. ¹⁶ Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷ He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

Portion of the Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His portion. ² They shall have no inheritance among their countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.

³ “Now this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴ You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your towns throughout Israel where he resides, and comes whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall eat equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Spiritism Forbidden

⁹ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. ¹⁶ This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ² you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess. ³ You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live;⁶ otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give your fathers— ⁹ if you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ “But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ¹³ You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess.

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ¹⁶ If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. ²⁰ The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, ⁴ for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵ The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use its fruit? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use its fruit. ⁷ And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not married her? Let him depart and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ ⁹ When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. ¹⁶ Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?²⁰ Only the trees which you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)