Deuteronomy 11–12

Therefore thou shalt ^alove the Lord thy God, and ^bkeep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments alway. ²And know you this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen ^cthe chastisement of the Lord your God, ^dhis greatness, ^ehis mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, ^3fand his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; ⁴and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; ^ghow he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day; ⁵and what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; ⁶and ^hwhat he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the ⁱsubstance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: ⁷but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did. ⁸Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may ^kbe strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; ⁹And ^lthat ye may prolong your days in the land, ^mwhich the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, ⁿa land that floweth with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and ^owateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: ^11pbut the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: ¹²a land which the Lord thy God careth for: ^qthe eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. ¹³And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, ^rto love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴that ^sI will give you the rain of your land in his due season, ^tthe first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. ^15uAnd I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest ^xeat and be full. ¹⁶Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not ^ydeceived, and ye turn aside, and ^zserve other gods, and worship them; ¹⁷and then ^athe Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and ^bhe shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that ^cthe land yield not her fruit; and lest ^dye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. ¹⁸Therefore ^eshall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and ^fbind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19gAnd ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ^20hAnd thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: ²¹That ⁱyour days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, ^kas the days of heaven upon the earth. ²²For if ^lye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and ^mto cleave unto him; ²³then will the Lord ⁿdrive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall ^opossess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. ^24pEvery place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: ^qfrom the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto ^rthe uttermost sea shall your coast be. ^25sThere shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay ^tthe fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, ^uas he hath said unto you.

^26wBehold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; ^27xa blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: ²⁸and a ^ycurse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, ^zto go after other gods, which ye have not known. ²⁹And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put ^athe blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. ³⁰Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside ^bthe plains of ^cMoreh? ³¹For ye ^dshall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. ³²And ye shall observe ^eto do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

XII.^aThese are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, ^ball the days that ye live upon the earth. ²Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, ^cupon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: ³and you shall overthrow their altars, and break ^dtheir pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ^eyou shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. ^4fYe shall not do so unto the Lord your God. ⁵But ^gunto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: ⁶and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your ^htithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and ⁱthe firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: ⁷and ^jthere ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^kye shall rejoice in all ^lthat you put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. ⁸Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, ^mevery man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. ⁹For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. ¹⁰But when ⁿye go over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; ¹¹then there shall be ^oa place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord: ¹²and ^pye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as ^qhe hath no part nor inheritance with you. ^13rTake heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: ^14sbut in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. ¹⁵Notwithstanding ^tthou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee: ^uthe unclean and the clean may eat thereof, ^xas of the roebuck, and as of the hart. ^16yOnly ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. ¹⁷Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: ^18zbut thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all ^lthat thou puttest thine hands unto. ^19aTake heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. ²⁰When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, ^bas he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, ^cwhatsoever thy soul lusteth after. ²¹If the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates ^cwhatsoever thy soul lusteth after. ^22cEven as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. ^23dOnly be sure that thou eat not the blood: ^efor the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. ²⁵Thou shalt not eat it; ^fthat it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, ^gwhen thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶Only thy ^hholy things which thou hast, and ⁱthy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose: ²⁷and ^kthou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. ²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, ^lthat it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. ²⁹When ^mthe Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them,…