Deuteronomy 24–27

Laws Concerning Divorce

24“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and ^ehe writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, ²and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³and the latter man hates 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 man dies, who took her to be his wife, ⁴then ^fher former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Miscellaneous Laws

^5g“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year ^hto be happy with his wife¹ whom he has taken.

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

⁷ⁱ“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he ^jtreats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. ^kSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸“Take care, in ^la case of leprous² disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹Remember what the Lord your God did to ^mMiriam ⁿon the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰“When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. ¹¹You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹²And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. ^13oYou shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and ^pbless you. And ^qit shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

¹⁴“You shall not ^roppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. ^15sYou shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), ^tlest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

^16u“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

^17v“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, ^wor take a widow’s garment in pledge, ¹⁸but ^xyou shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

^19y“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, ^zthat the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ^22xYou shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

25“If there is a ^adispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, ^bacquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, ²then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. ^3cForty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

^4d“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

^5e“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her ^fhusband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that ^ghis name may not be blotted out of Israel. ⁷And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall ^hgo up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ⁱ‘I do not wish to take her,’ ⁹then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and ^jpull his sandal off his foot and ^kspit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not ^lbuild up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰And the name of his house¹ shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

Miscellaneous Laws

¹¹“When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, ¹²then you shall cut off her hand. ^mYour eye shall have no pity.

¹³“You ⁿshall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵A full and fair² weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, ^othat your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶For ^pall who do such things, all who act dishonestly, ^qare an abomination to the Lord your God.

^17r“Remember what Amalek did to you ^son the way as you came out of Egypt, ¹⁸how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and ^tcut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. ¹⁹Therefore ^uwhen the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall ^vblot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

26“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ^2wyou shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall ^xgo to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ^ythat the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A ^zwandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, ^afew in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶And ^bthe Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷Then ^cwe cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸And ^dthe Lord brought us out of Egypt ^ewith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,¹ with signs and wonders. ⁹And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, ^fa land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit 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. ¹¹And ^gyou shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

¹²“When you have finished paying all ^hthe tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ⁱthe year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, ^jnor have I forgotten them. ^14kI have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it ^lto the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ^15mLook down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁶“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷ⁿYou have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. ¹⁸And the Lord has declared today that you are ^oa people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, ¹⁹and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor ^phigh above all nations ^qthat he has made, and that you shall be ^ra people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”

The Altar on Mount Ebal

27Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. ²And on the day ^syou cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with…