Deuteronomy 12:32–17:20

³²“^1aWhatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; ^byou shall not add to nor take away from it.

Chapter 13

Shun Idolatry

¹“^1aIf a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘^aLet us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is ^atesting you to find out if ^byou love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴“^aYou shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^bcling to Him.

⁵“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^aput to death, because he has ¹counseled ²rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ³slavery, ^bto seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^cSo you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶“^aIf your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ¹you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘^bLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known,

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end),

^8ayou shall not yield to him or listen to him; ^band your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.

⁹“^aBut you shall surely kill him; ^byour hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

¹⁰“So you shall stone him ¹to death because he has sought ^ato seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ²slavery.

¹¹“Then ^aall Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

¹²“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that

¹³some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘^aLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known),

¹⁴then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you,

^15ayou shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ¹utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶“^aThen you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ^1bruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.

¹⁷“Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from ^aHis burning anger and ^bshow mercy to you, and have compassion on you and ^cmake you increase, just ^das He has sworn to your fathers,

¹⁸¹if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, ²keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ³and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Chapter 14

Clean and Unclean Animals

¹“You are ^athe sons of the Lord your God; ^byou shall not cut yourselves nor ¹shave your forehead for the sake of the dead.

²“For you are ^aa holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a ^bpeople for His ¹own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³“^aYou shall not eat any detestable thing.

⁴“^aThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

⁵¹the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.

⁶“Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in ¹two and ²chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat.

⁷“Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ¹chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in ²two: the camel and the ³rabbit and the ⁴shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.

⁸“The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹“These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat,

¹⁰but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird.

¹²“But ^athese are the ones which you shall not eat: the ¹eagle and the vulture and the ²buzzard,

¹³and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds,

¹⁴and every raven in its kind,

¹⁵and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds,

¹⁶the little owl, the ¹great owl, the white owl,

¹⁷the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

¹⁸the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹“And all the ¹teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.

²⁰“You may eat any clean bird.

²¹“^aYou shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your ¹town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are ^ba holy people to the Lord your God. ^cYou shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²“You ^ashall surely tithe all the produce from ¹what you sow, which comes out of the field every year.

²³“You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, ^aat the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may ^blearn to fear the Lord your God always.

²⁴“If the ¹distance is so great for you that you are not able to ²bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses ^ato set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you,

²⁵then you shall ¹exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

²⁶“You may spend the money for whatever your ¹heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart ²desires; and ^athere you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷“Also you shall not neglect ^athe Levite who is in your ¹town, ^bfor he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸“^aAt the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your ¹town.

²⁹“The Levite, ^abecause he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^bthe alien, the ¹orphan and the widow who are in your ²town, shall come and ^ceat and be satisfied, in order that ^dthe Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Chapter 15

The Sabbatic Year

¹“^aAt the end of every seven years you shall ¹grant a remission of debts.

²“This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed.

³“^aFrom a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.

⁴“However, there will be no poor among you, since ^athe Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,

⁵if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.

⁶“^aFor the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷“If there is ^aa poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your ¹towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^byou shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;

⁸but ^ayou shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

⁹“Beware that there is no base ¹thought in your heart, saying, ‘^aThe seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and ^byour eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^cmay cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you.

¹⁰“You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because ^afor this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all ¹your undertakings.

¹¹“^aFor the poor will never cease to be ¹in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’

¹²“^aIf your ¹kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him ²free.

¹³“When you set him ¹free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.

¹⁴“You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you.

¹⁵“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you ¹this today.

¹⁶“It shall come about ^aif he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you;

¹⁷then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

¹⁸“It shall not seem hard to you when you set him ¹free, for he has given you six years with ²double the service of a hired man; so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹“^aYou shall consecrate to the Lord your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰“^aYou and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses.

²¹“^aBut if it has any ¹defect, such as…