Deuteronomy 16–19

CHAPTER 16

The Passover

¹“Keep ^athe month of Abib and ^1bcelebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

²“And you shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where Yahweh chooses for His name to dwell.

³“^aYou shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt ^ball the days of your life.

⁴“For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and ^anone of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.

⁵“You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you;

⁶but ^aat the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the appointed time that you came out of Egypt.

⁷“And you shall ^acook and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents.

⁸“Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^aon the seventh day there shall be ^ba solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks

⁹“^aYou shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

¹⁰“Then you shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as Yahweh your God blesses you;

¹¹and you shall ^abe glad before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and ^bthe Levite who is within your gates and ^cthe sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell.

¹²“^aAnd you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths

¹³“^aYou shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat;

¹⁴and you shall ^abe glad in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and the Levite and the sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are within your gates.

¹⁵“Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether glad.

¹⁶“^aThree times in a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and ^bthey shall not appear before Yahweh empty-handed.

¹⁷“Every man ¹shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you.

Do Not Distort Justice

¹⁸“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹“^aYou shall not distort justice; ^byou shall not ¹be partial, and ^cyou shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

²⁰“Righteousness! Righteousness, you shall pursue, that ^ayou may live and possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you.

²¹“^aYou shall not plant for yourself an ¹Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourself.

²²“^aAnd you shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which Yahweh your God hates.

CHAPTER 17

¹“^aYou shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep which has a defect or any ¹blemish, for that is an abominable thing to Yahweh your God.

²“^aIf there is found in your midst, in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, by trespassing against His covenant,

³and has gone and ^aserved other gods and worshiped them, ^bor the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^cwhich I have not commanded,

⁴and if it is told to you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the matter is confirmed that this abomination has been done in Israel,

⁵then 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 ^ayou shall stone them, and they will die.

⁶“^aOn the mouth 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 mouth of one witness.

⁷“^aThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^bSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Judging Cases

⁸“^aIf any case is too difficult for you to judge, between ¹one kind of homicide or another, between ²one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ³one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your gates, then you shall arise and go up to ^bthe place which Yahweh your God chooses.

⁹“So you shall come to ^athe 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 judgment in the case.

¹⁰“And you shall do according to the ¹terms of the judgment which they declare to you from that place which Yahweh chooses; and you shall be careful to do according to all that they teach you.

¹¹“^aAccording to the ¹terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the judgment 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“And the man who acts ^apresumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to minister to Yahweh your God, or 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 ^apresumptuously again.

Statutes for the King

¹⁴“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you ^apossess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^bI will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’

¹⁵you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses, one ^afrom among your brothers you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother.

¹⁶“^aMoreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^bcause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. ^cYahweh has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’

¹⁷“^aAnd he shall not multiply wives for himself, ¹or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸“Now it will be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ^1ain the presence of the Levitical priests.

¹⁹“And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^aall the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, ¹to carefully observe all the words of this law and these statutes,

²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers ^aand that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.

CHAPTER 18

The Portion of the Levites

¹“^aThe Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat of the offerings to Yahweh by fire and of His inheritance.

²“^aAnd they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He ¹promised them.

³“^aNow this shall be the legal judgment for the priests taken from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴“You shall give him the ^afirst fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first shearing of your sheep.

⁵“^aFor Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^bstand to minister in the name of Yahweh all the days.

⁶“Now if a Levite comes from any of your gates of the towns throughout Israel where he ^asojourns and comes ¹whenever he desires to the place which Yahweh chooses,

⁷then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before Yahweh.

⁸“^aThey shall eat ¹equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Do Not Imitate Abominations

⁹“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to ^1aimitate the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰“There shall not be found among you anyone ^awho makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^bwho practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer,

¹¹or one who is an enchanter ^aor a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.

¹²“For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh; and ^abecause of these abominations Yahweh your God will dispossess them from before you.

¹³“^aYou shall be ¹blameless before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴“For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^apractice soothsaying and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so.

Yahweh Will Raise up a Prophet

¹⁵“^aYahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him.

¹⁶“This is ^aaccording to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God; let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’

¹⁷“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘They have ¹spoken well.

¹⁸‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and ^aI will put My words in his mouth, and ^bhe…