Deuteronomy 18–21

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 shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹‘^aAnd it will be 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 ^apresumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^bwhich he speaks in the name of other gods, ¹that prophet shall die.’

²¹“Now ¹you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’

²²“^aWhen a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

CHAPTER 19

Statutes About Cities of Refuge

¹“^aWhen Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

^2ayou shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess.

³“You shall prepare the ¹roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ²so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴“^aNow this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ¹without premeditation, ²not hating him previously—

⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ¹swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ²handle and ³strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live;

⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ¹angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ²strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

⁷“Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.’

⁸“Now if Yahweh your God ^aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ¹promised to give to your fathers—

⁹if you ¹be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^ato love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^bthen 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 Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^abloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹“But ^aif there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ¹his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

¹²then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

¹³“^1aYou shall not pity him, but ^byou shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses

¹⁴“^aYou shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess.

¹⁵“^aA single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ¹which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established.

¹⁶“^aIf a malicious witness rises up against a man to ¹accuse him of ²wrongdoing,

¹⁷then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^abefore Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

¹⁸“And the judges ^ashall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has ¹accused his brother falsely,

¹⁹then ^ayou shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

²⁰“^aAnd the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

²¹“Thus ^ayour eye shall not show pity: ^blife for life, ^ceye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

CHAPTER 20

Statutes About Warfare

¹“If you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^ahorses and chariots and people more numerous than you, ^bdo not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.

²“Now it will be, when you are drawing near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people.

³“And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart be faint. ^aDo not be afraid, nor be alarmed, nor be in dread before them,

⁴for Yahweh your God ^ais 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 ^adedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁶‘Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not ¹begun to use its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man ²begin to use its fruit.

⁷‘^aAnd who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not ¹married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man ²marry her.’

⁸“Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^aWho is the man that is afraid and whose heart is faint? Let him go and return to his house, so that ¹he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’

⁹“Now it will be that when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰“If you come near a city to fight against it, you shall call for terms of peace.

¹¹“Now it will be that if it ¹agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^aforced 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“And Yahweh your God shall give it into your hand, ^aand you shall strike all the males in it with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴“Only the women and the little ones and ^athe animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies which Yahweh 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 ¹nearby.

¹⁶“^aOnly in the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

¹⁷“But you shall devote them to destruction, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you,

¹⁸so that they may not teach you to do ^aaccording to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, so that you would ^bsin against Yahweh your God.

¹⁹“If you besiege a city for many days, 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. ¹For is the tree of the field a man, that it should ²be besieged by you?

²⁰“Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you shall destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

CHAPTER 21

Atonement for Innocent Blood

¹“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess, and it is not known who has struck him,

²…