Bible in 90 Days

Remember the Lord

8 “You must obey all the commands that I give you today, because then you will live and grow to become a great nation. You will get the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ² And you must remember the entire trip that the Lord your God has led you through these 40 years in the desert. He was testing you. He wanted to make you humble. He wanted to know what is in your heart. He wanted to know if you would obey his commands. ³ He humbled you and let you be hungry. Then he fed you with manna—something you did not know about before. It was something your ancestors had never seen. Why did the Lord do this? Because he wanted you to know that it is not just bread that keeps people alive. People’s lives depend on what the Lord says. ⁴ These past 40 years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell. ⁵ You must remember that the Lord your God teaches and corrects you as a father teaches and corrects his son.

⁶ “You must obey the commands of the Lord your God. Follow him and respect him. ⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with rivers and pools of water. Water flows out of the ground in the valleys and hills. ⁸ It is a land with wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It is a land with olive oil and honey. ⁹ There you will have plenty of food and everything you need. It is a land where the rocks are iron. You can dig copper out of the hills. ¹⁰ You will have all you want to eat. Then you will praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Don’t Forget What the Lord Did

¹¹ “Be careful. Don’t forget the Lord your God! Be careful to obey the commands, laws, and rules that I give you today. ¹² Then you will have plenty to eat, and you will build good houses and live in them. ¹³ Your cattle, sheep, and goats will grow large. You will get plenty of gold and silver. You will have plenty of everything. ¹⁴ When that happens, you must be careful not to become proud. You must not forget the Lord your God. You were slaves in Egypt, but he made you free and brought you out of that land. ¹⁵ He led you through that great and terrible desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. The ground was dry, and there was no water anywhere. But he gave you water out of a solid rock. ¹⁶ In the desert he fed you manna—something your ancestors had never seen. He tested you to make you humble so that everything would go well for you in the end. ¹⁷ Don’t ever say to yourself, ‘I got all this wealth by my own power and ability.’ ¹⁸ Remember the Lord your God is the one who gives you power to do these things. He does this because he wants to keep the agreement that he made with your ancestors, as he is doing today!

¹⁹ “Don’t ever forget the Lord your God. Don’t ever follow other gods or worship and serve them. If you do that, I warn you today: You will surely be destroyed! ²⁰ The Lord is destroying other nations for you. But if you stop listening to the Lord your God, you will be destroyed just like them!

The Lord Will Be With Israel

9 “Listen, you Israelites! You will go across the Jordan River today. You will go into that land to force out nations greater and stronger than you. Their cities are big and have walls as high as the sky! ² The people there are tall and strong. They are the Anakites. You know about them. You heard our spies say, ‘No one can win against the Anakites.’ ³ But you can be sure that it is the Lord your God who goes across the river before you—and God is like a fire that destroys! He will destroy those nations and make them fall before you. You will force those nations out and quickly destroy them. The Lord has promised you that this will happen.

⁴ “The Lord your God will force those nations out for you. But don’t say to yourselves, ‘The Lord brought us to live in this land because we are such good people.’ No, the Lord forced those nations out because they were evil, not because you were good. ⁵ You are going in to take their land, but not because you are good and live right. You are going in, and the Lord your God is forcing those people out because of the evil way they lived. And the Lord wants to keep the promise he made to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ The Lord your God is giving you that good land to live in, but you should know that it is not because you are good. The truth is that you are very stubborn people!

Remember the Lord’s Anger

⁷ “Remember how you made the Lord your God angry in the desert. Never forget that! From the day you left the land of Egypt to the day you came to this place, you have refused to obey the Lord. ⁸ You made the Lord angry at Mount Horeb. The Lord was angry enough to destroy you! ⁹ I went up the mountain to get the stone tablets. The agreement that the Lord made with you was written on those stones. I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat any food or drink any water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two stone tablets. He wrote his commands on the stones with his finger. The Lord wrote everything he said to you from the fire when you were gathered together at the mountain.

¹¹ “So at the end of 40 days and 40 nights, the Lord gave me two stone tablets—the stones of the agreement. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and quickly go down from here. The people you brought out of Egypt have ruined themselves. They stopped obeying my commands so quickly. They melted gold and made an idol for themselves.’

¹³ “The Lord also said to me, ‘I have watched these people. They are very stubborn! ¹⁴ Let me destroy these people completely, so no one will even remember their names. Then I will make another nation from you that is stronger and greater than these people.’

The Golden Calf

¹⁵ “Then I turned and came down from the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire. And the two stone tablets of the agreement were in my hands. ¹⁶ I looked and I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God. I saw the calf you made from melted gold! You stopped obeying the Lord so quickly. ¹⁷ So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down. There before your eyes I broke the stones into pieces. ¹⁸ Then I bowed down before the Lord with my face to the ground for 40 days and 40 nights, as I did before. I did not eat any food or drink any water. I did this because you had sinned so badly. You did the thing that is evil to the Lord, and you made him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the Lord’s terrible anger. He was angry enough to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰ The Lord was very angry with Aaron—enough to destroy him! So I also prayed for Aaron at that time. ²¹ I took that terrible thing, the calf you made, and burned it in the fire. I broke it into small pieces. And I crushed the pieces until they were dust. Then I threw the dust into the river that came down from the mountain.

Moses Asks God to Forgive Israel

²² “Also, at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah you made the Lord angry. ²³ And you did not obey when the Lord told you to leave Kadesh Barnea. He said, ‘Go up and take the land I am giving you.’ But you refused to obey the Lord your God. You did not trust him. You did not listen to his command. ²⁴ All the time that I have known you, you have refused to obey the Lord.

²⁵ “So I bowed down before the Lord 40 days and 40 nights, because the Lord said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord. I said, ‘Lord God, don’t destroy your people. They belong to you. You freed them and brought them out of Egypt with your great power and strength. ²⁷ Remember your promise to your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Forget how stubborn these people are. Don’t look at their evil ways or their sins. ²⁸ If you punish your people, the Egyptians might say, “The Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them. And he hated them. So he took them into the desert to kill them.” ²⁹ But they are your people, Lord. They belong to you. You brought them out of Egypt with your great power and strength.’

New Stone Tablets

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘You must cut out two stone tablets like the first two stones. Then you must come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden box. ² I will write on the stone tablets the same words that were on the first stones—the stones you broke. Then you must put these new stones in the Box.’

³ “So I made a box from acacia wood. I cut two stone tablets like the first two stones. Then I went up on the mountain. I had the two stone tablets in my hand. ⁴ And the Lord wrote on the stones the same words he had written before—the Ten Commandments he spoke to you from the fire, when you were gathered together at the mountain. Then the Lord gave the two stone tablets to me. ⁵ I came back down from the mountain. I put the stones in the Box I had made. The Lord commanded me to put them there. And the stones are still there in that Box.”

⁶ (The Israelites traveled from the wells of the people of Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried. Aaron’s son Eleazar served in Aaron’s place as priest. ⁷ Then the Israelites went from Moserah to Gudgodah. And they went from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers. ⁸ At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi from the other tribes for his special work. They had the work of carrying the Lord’s Box of the Agreement. They also served as priests before the Lord. And they had the work of blessing people in the Lord’s name. They still do this special work today. ⁹ That is why the people from the tribe of Levi did not get any share of land like the other tribes did. They have the Lord for their share. That is what the Lord your God promised them.)

¹⁰ “I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, like the first time. The Lord also listened to me at that time. He decided not to destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, ‘Go and lead the people on their trip. They will go in and live in the land that I promised to give to their ancestors.’

What the Lord Really Wants

¹² “Now, Israelites, listen! What does the Lord your God really want from you? The Lord your God wants you to respect him and do what he says. He wants you to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹³ So obey the laws and commands of the Lord that I am giving you today. These laws and commands are for your own good.

¹⁴ “Everything belongs to the Lord your God. The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to him. The earth and everything on it belong to him. ¹⁵ The Lord loved your ancestors very much. He loved them so much that he chose you, their descendants, to be his people. He chose you instead of any other nation, and you are still his chosen people today.

¹⁶ “Stop being stubborn. Give your hearts to God. ¹⁷ The Lord is your God. He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great God. He is the amazing and powerful fighter. To him everyone is the same. He does not accept money to change his mind. ¹⁸ He defends widows and orphans. He loves even the strangers living among us. He gives them food and clothes. ¹⁹ So you must also love them, because you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ “You must respect the Lord your God and worship only him. Never leave him. When you make promises, you must use his name only. ²¹ He is the one you should praise. He is your God. He has done great and amazing things for you. You have seen them with your own eyes. ²² When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only 70 people. Now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.

Remember the Lord

11 “So you must love the Lord your God. You must do what he tells you to do and always obey his laws, rules, and commands. ² Remember today all the great things the Lord your God has done to teach you. It was you, not your children, who saw those things happen and lived through them. You saw how great he is. You saw how strong he is, and you saw the powerful things he does. ³ You, not your children, saw the miracles he did in Egypt. You saw what he did to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his whole country. ⁴ You, not your children, saw what he did to the Egyptian army—to their horses and chariots. They were chasing you, but you saw him cover them with the water from the Red Sea. You saw how the Lord completely destroyed them. ⁵ It was you, not your children, who saw everything he did for you in the desert until you came to this place. ⁶ You saw what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab from Reuben’s family. All the Israelites watched as the ground opened up like a mouth and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and all of their servants and animals. ⁷ It was you, not your children, who saw all the great things the Lord did.

⁸ “So you must obey every command I tell you today. Then you will be strong. And you will be able to go across the Jordan River and take the land that you are ready to enter. ⁹ Then you will live a long life in that country. The Lord promised to give that land to your ancestors and all their descendants. It is a land filled with many good things.^{[a] 10} The land that you will get is not like the land of Egypt that you came from. In Egypt you planted your seeds and used your feet to pump water from the canals to water your fields like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land that you will soon get is not like that. In Israel there are mountains and valleys, and the land gets its water from the rain that falls from the sky. ¹² The Lord your God cares for that land. The Lord your God watches over it, from the beginning to the end of the year.

¹³ “The Lord says, ‘You must listen carefully to the commands I give you today: You must love the Lord your God, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul. If you do that, ¹⁴ I will send rain for your land at the right time. I will send the autumn rain and the spring rain. Then you can gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵ And I will make grass grow in your fields for your cattle. You will have plenty to eat.’

¹⁶ “He says, ‘Be careful! Don’t be fooled. Don’t turn away from me to serve other gods and to bow down to them.’ ¹⁷ If you do that, the Lord will become very angry with you. He will shut the skies, and there will be no rain. The land will not make a harvest, and you will soon die in the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Remember these commands I give you. Keep them in your hearts. Write them down and tie them on your hands and wear them on your foreheads as a way to remember my laws. ¹⁹ Teach these laws to your children. Talk about these things when you sit in your houses, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. ²⁰ Write these commands on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. ²¹ Then both you and your children will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised to give to your ancestors. You will live there as long as the skies are above the earth.

²² “Be careful to obey every command I have told you to follow: Love the Lord your God, follow all his ways, and be faithful to him. ²³ Then, when you go into the land, the Lord will force all those other nations out. You will take the land from nations that are larger and more powerful than you. ²⁴ All the land you walk on will be yours. Your land will go from the desert in the south all the way to Lebanon in the north. It will go from the Euphrates River in the east all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will make the people fear you wherever you go in that land. That is what he promised you before.

Israel’s Choice: Blessings or Curses

²⁶ “Today I am giving you a choice. You may choose the blessing or the curse. ²⁷ You will get the blessing if you listen and obey the commands of the Lord your God that I have told you today. ²⁸ But you will get the curse if you refuse to listen and obey the commands of the Lord your God. So don’t stop living the way I command you today, and don’t follow other gods that you don’t know.

²⁹ “The Lord your God will lead you to your land. You will soon go in and take that land. At that time you must go to the top of Mount Gerizim and read the blessings to the people from there. And then you must go to the top of Mount Ebal and read the curses to the people from there. ³⁰ These mountains are on the other side of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites living in the Jordan Valley. These mountains are toward the west, not far from the oak trees of Moreh near the town of Gilgal. ³¹ You will go across the Jordan River. You will take the land that the Lord your God is giving you. This land will belong to you. When you are living in this land, ³² you must carefully obey all the laws and rules I give you today.

The Place for Worshiping God

12 “These are the laws and rules that you must obey in your new land. You must carefully obey them as long as you live in this land. The Lord is the God of your ancestors, and he is giving this land to you. ² You will take that land from the nations that live there now. You must completely destroy all the places where the people of these nations worship their gods. These places are on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. ³ You must smash their altars and break their memorial stones into pieces. You must burn their Asherah poles and cut down the statues of their gods. Wipe out everything that would remind you of those gods.

⁴ “You must not worship the Lord your God in the same way these people worship their gods. ⁵ The Lord your God will choose a special place among your tribes. That will be the home for his name. You must go to that place to worship him. ⁶ There you must bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your crops and animals,^[b] your special gifts, any gifts you promised to him, any special gift you want to give, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. ⁷ You and your families will eat together at that place, and the Lord your God will be there with you. You will enjoy sharing the things you worked for there. You will remember that the Lord your God blessed you and gave you these good things.

⁸ “You must not continue to worship the way we have been worshiping. Until now each of us has been worshiping God any way we wanted. ⁹ This is because we have not yet entered the peaceful land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But you will go across the Jordan River and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. There he will give you rest from all your enemies, and you will be safe. ¹¹ Then the Lord your God will choose a place that will be the home for his name. You must bring everything I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your crops and animals, your special gifts, and any gifts that you promised to give to the Lord. ¹² Come to that place with all your people—your children, all your servants, and the Levites living in your towns. (These Levites will not have a share of the land for their own.) Enjoy yourselves together there with the Lord your God. ¹³ Be sure you don’t offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see. ¹⁴ The Lord will choose his special place among your tribes. Offer your burnt offerings and do everything else I told you only in that place.

¹⁵ “Whenever you want to eat meat, you can enjoy that blessing from the Lord your God wherever you live. You can butcher the animal just as you do gazelles and deer, and anyone, clean or unclean, can eat it. ¹⁶ But you must not eat the blood. You must pour the blood on the ground like water.

¹⁷ “Also, the things you are offering to God must not be eaten where you live. These include the part of your grain that belongs to God, the part of your new wine and oil that belongs to God, the first animals born in your herd or flock, any gift that you promised to God, any special gifts you want to give, or any other gifts for God. ¹⁸ You must eat these offerings only in his presence at the special place that the Lord your God will choose. You must go there and eat together with your sons, your daughters, all your servants, and the Levites living in your towns. Enjoy yourselves there with the Lord your God. Enjoy what you have worked for. ¹⁹ But be sure that you always share these meals with the Levites. Do this as long as you live in your land.

^20-21 “The Lord your God promised to make your country larger. When he does this, you might live too far from the place the Lord your God chooses to be the home for his name. If it is too far, and you are hungry for meat, you may eat any meat you have. You may kill any animal from the herd or flock that he has given you. Do this the way I have commanded you. You may eat this meat there where you live any time you want. ²² You may eat this meat the same as you would eat gazelle or deer meat. Anyone can do this—people who are clean and people who are unclean. ²³ But be especially careful not to eat the blood, because the life is in the blood. You must not eat meat that still has its life in it. ²⁴ Don’t eat the blood. Pour it out like water onto the ground. ²⁵ So don’t eat blood. You must do what the Lord says is right, and good things will happen to you and to your descendants.

²⁶ “If you decide to give something special to God, you must go to the special place that the Lord your God will choose. And if you make a special promise, you must go to that place to give that gift to God. ²⁷ You must offer your burnt offerings in that place. Offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. For your other sacrifices, you must pour the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. Then you may eat the meat. ²⁸ Carefully obey all the commands that I give you. When you do what is good and right—what pleases the Lord your God—then everything will go well for you and for your descendants forever.

²⁹ “You are going to take your land from other people. The Lord your God will destroy these people for you. You will force them out of that land, and then you will live there. ³⁰ But be careful that you don’t fall into the same trap they did! Don’t go to their false gods for help. Don’t say to yourself, ‘They worshiped these gods, so I will worship them too.’ ³¹ Don’t do that to the Lord your God! These people do all kinds of bad things that the Lord hates. They even burn their children as sacrifices to their gods!

³² “You must be careful to do everything I command you. Don’t add anything to what I tell you, and don’t take anything away.

Don’t Serve Other Gods

13 “A prophet or someone who explains dreams might come to you and tell you that they will show you a sign or a miracle. ² And the sign or miracle they told you about might come true. Then they might ask you to follow other gods (gods you don’t know) and say to you, ‘Let’s serve these gods!’ ³ Don’t listen to them, because the Lord your God is testing you. He wants to know if you love him with all your heart and all your soul. ⁴ You must follow the Lord your God. Respect him. Obey his commands and do what he tells you. Serve the Lord your God, and never leave him. ⁵ Also, you must kill that prophet or person who explains dreams, because they told you to turn against the Lord your God. And it was the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. They tried to pull you away from the life he commanded you to live, so you must kill them to remove this evil from your people.

⁶ “Someone close to you might secretly persuade you to worship other gods. It might be your own brother, your son, your daughter, the wife you love, or your closest friend. They might say, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These are gods that you and your ancestors never knew. ⁷ They are the gods of the people who live in the other lands around you, some near and some far away.) ⁸ You must not agree with them. Don’t listen to them or feel sorry for them. Don’t let them go free or protect them. ^9-10 No, you must kill them with stones. You be the first one to pick up stones and throw at them. Then everyone must throw stones to kill them, because they tried to pull you away from the Lord your God. And it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹ Then all the Israelites will hear about it and be afraid. And they will not do those evil things any more.

¹² “The Lord your God has given you cities to live in. Sometimes you might hear some bad news about one of these cities. You might hear that ¹³ some troublemakers from your own nation are persuading the people of their city to do bad things. They might say to the people of their city, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These gods would be gods that you never knew before.) ¹⁴ If you hear this kind of news, you must do all you can to learn if it is true. If you learn that it is true, if you prove that such a terrible thing really did happen, ¹⁵ then you must kill all the people of that city and their animals too. You must destroy that city completely. ¹⁶ You must gather up everything of value and take it to the center of the city. Burn the whole city and everything in it as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. You must turn that city into an empty pile of rocks forever, and that city must never be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Everything in that city must be destroyed as an offering to God. So you must not keep any of the things for yourselves. If you follow this command, the Lord will stop being so angry with you. He will be kind to you. He will feel sorry for you. He will let your nation grow larger, as he promised your ancestors. ¹⁸ This will happen if you listen to the Lord your God—if you obey all his commands that I give you today. You must do what the Lord your God says is right.

Israel, God’s Special People

14 “You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, you must not cut yourselves or shave your heads^[c] to show your sadness. ² This is because you are different from other people. You belong to the Lord your God. From all the people in the world, the Lord chose you to be his own special people.

Food the Israelites Are Allowed to Eat

³ “Don’t eat anything that the Lord hates. ⁴ You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, gazelles, roe deer, wild sheep, wild goats, antelopes, and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat any animal that has hooves divided into two parts and that chews the cud. ⁷ But don’t eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they don’t have split hooves. So these animals are not a clean food for you. ⁸ And you must not eat pigs. Their hooves are divided, but they don’t chew the cud. So pigs are not a clean food for you. Don’t eat any meat from pigs. Don’t even touch a pig’s dead body.

⁹ “You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But don’t eat anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales. It is not a clean food for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But don’t eat any of these birds: eagles, vultures, buzzards, ¹³ red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷ desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸ storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, or bats.

¹⁹ “All insects with wings are unclean, so don’t eat them. ²⁰ But you may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “Don’t eat any animal that has died by itself. You may give the dead animal to the foreigner in your town, and he can eat it. Or you may sell the dead animal to a foreigner. But you yourselves must not eat the dead animal, because you belong to the Lord your God. You are his special people.

“Don’t cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One-Tenth

²² “Every year you must be sure to save one-tenth of all the crops that grow in your fields. ²³ Then you must go to the place the Lord chooses to be the home for his name. You will go there to be with the Lord your God. At that place you will eat the tenth of your crops—one-tenth of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. In this way you will always remember to respect the Lord your God. ²⁴ But that place might be too far for you to travel to. Maybe you will not be able to carry one-tenth of all the crops that the Lord has blessed you with. If that happens, ²⁵ sell that part of your crops and take the money with you to the special place the Lord has chosen. ²⁶ Use the money to buy anything you want—cattle, sheep, wine or beer or any other food. Then you and your family should eat and enjoy yourselves there in that place with the Lord your God. ²⁷ But don’t forget the Levites living in your town. Share your food with them because they don’t have a share of the land like you have.

²⁸ “At the end of every three years, you must gather one-tenth of your harvest for that year. Store this food in your towns. ²⁹ Keep this food for the Levites, because they don’t have any land of their own. Also keep this food for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. This will provide enough for them to come and eat all they want. If you do this, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

The Special Year of Canceling Debts

15 “At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. ² This is the way you must do this: Everyone who has lent money to another Israelite must cancel the debt. He should not ask a fellow Israelite to repay the debt, because the Lord said to cancel debts during that year. ³ You may require a foreigner to repay you, but you must cancel any debt another Israelite owes you. ⁴ There should not be any poor people in your country, because the Lord your God is giving you this land. And the Lord will greatly bless you. ⁵ But this will happen only if you obey the Lord your God. You must be careful to obey every command that I have told you today. ⁶ Then the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised. And you will have enough money to make loans to many nations. But you will not need to borrow from anyone. You will rule over many nations. But none of these nations will rule over you.

⁷ “When you are living in the land the Lord your God is giving you, there might be some poor people living among you. You must not be selfish. You must not refuse to give help to them. ⁸ You must be willing to share with them. You must lend them whatever they need.

⁹ “Don’t ever refuse to help someone simply because the seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near. Don’t let an evil thought like that enter your mind. You must never have bad thoughts about someone who needs help. You must not refuse to help them. If you don’t help the poor, they might complain to the Lord, and he will judge you guilty of sin.

¹⁰ “So be sure to give to the poor. Don’t hesitate to give to them, because the Lord your God will bless you for doing this good thing. He will bless you in all your work and in everything you do. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. That is why I command you to be ready to help your brother or sister. Give to the poor in your land who need help.

Letting Slaves Go Free

¹² “You might buy a Hebrew man or woman to serve you as a slave. You may keep that person as a slave for six years. But in the seventh year, you must let that person go free. ¹³ But when you let your slave go free, don’t send him away with nothing. ¹⁴ You must give him some of your animals, grain, and wine. The Lord your God blessed you and gave you plenty of good things. In the same way you must give plenty of good things to your slave. ¹⁵ Remember, you were slaves in Egypt. And the Lord your God set you free. So that is why I am giving you this command today.

¹⁶ “But one of your slaves might say to you, ‘I will not leave you.’ He might say this because he loves you and your family and because he has a good life with you. ¹⁷ Make this servant put his ear against your door and use a sharp tool to make a hole in his ear. This will show that he is your slave forever. You must do this even to the women slaves who want to stay with you.

¹⁸ “Don’t regret letting your slave go free. Remember, he served you six years for half of what you would have paid a hired worker.^[d] The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Rules About Firstborn Animals

¹⁹ “All the first male animals born in your herd and flock are special. You must give them to the Lord. Don’t use any of these animals for your work and don’t cut wool from any of these sheep. ²⁰ Every year you must take these animals to the place the Lord your God will choose. There with the Lord, you and your family will eat these animals.

²¹ “But if an animal has something wrong with it—if it is crippled or blind or has something else wrong with it—then you must not sacrifice that animal to the Lord your God. ²² But you may eat the meat from that animal at home. Anyone may eat it—people who are clean and people who are unclean. The rules for eating this meat are the same as the rules for eating gazelles and deer. ²³ But you must not eat the blood from the animal. You must pour the blood out on the ground like water.

Passover

16 “Remember, in the month of Abib you must celebrate Passover to honor the Lord your God. It was that night in Abib when the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt. ² You must go to the place the Lord your God will choose to be the home for his name. There you must offer the Passover sacrifice to honor the Lord. You must offer the cattle and goats. ³ Don’t eat bread that has yeast in it with this sacrifice. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. This bread is called ‘Bread of Trouble.’ It will help you remember the troubles you had in Egypt. Remember how quickly you had to leave that country. You must remember that day as long as you live. ⁴ There must be no yeast in anyone’s house anywhere in the country for seven days. And all the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day must be eaten before morning.

⁵ “You must not sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the Lord your God gives you. ⁶ You must sacrifice the Passover animal only at the place that the Lord your God will choose to be the home for his name. There you must sacrifice the Passover animal in the evening when the sun goes down. This is the festival when you remember that God brought you out of Egypt. ⁷ You must cook the meal and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning you may go back home. ⁸ You must eat unleavened bread six days. On the seventh day you must not do any work. On this day the people will come together for a special meeting to honor the Lord your God.

Festival of Harvest

⁹ “You must count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest for the Lord your God. Do this by bringing him some special gift you want to bring. Decide how much to give by thinking about how much the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹¹ Go to the place the Lord will choose to be the home for his name. You and your people should enjoy yourselves together there with the Lord your God. Take all your people with you—your sons, your daughters, and all your servants. And take the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows living in your towns. ¹² Remember, you were slaves in Egypt. So be sure to obey these laws.

Festival of Shelters

¹³ “Seven days after you have gathered your harvest in from your threshing floor and from your winepress, you should celebrate the Festival of Shelters. ¹⁴ Enjoy yourselves at this festival—you, your sons, your daughters, all your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows living in your towns. ¹⁵ Celebrate this festival for seven days at the special place the Lord will choose. Do this to honor the Lord your God. The Lord your God blessed your harvest and all the work you did, so be very happy!

¹⁶ “Three times a year all your men must come to meet with the Lord your God at the special place he will choose. They must come for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. Everyone who comes to meet with the Lord must bring a gift. ¹⁷ Each man should give as much as he can. He should decide how much to give by thinking about how much the Lord has given him.

Judges and Officers for the People

¹⁸ “Choose men to be judges and officers in every town that the Lord your God gives you. Every tribe must do this. And these men must be fair in judging the people. ¹⁹ You must always be fair. You must not favor some people over other people. You must not take money to change your mind in judgment. Money blinds the eyes of wise people and changes what a good person will say. ²⁰ Goodness and Fairness! You must try very hard to be good and fair all the time. Then you will live and keep the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

God Hates Idols

²¹ “When you set up an altar for the Lord your God, you must not place beside the altar any of the wooden poles that honor the goddess Asherah. ²² You must not set up special stones for worshiping false gods. The Lord your God hates them.

Use Only Good Animals for Sacrifices

17 “You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep that has anything wrong with it. The Lord your God would hate that.

Punishment for Worshiping Idols

² “You might hear about an evil thing that happens in one of the cities that the Lord your God is giving you. You might hear that a man or woman in your group has sinned against the Lord your God. You might hear that they have broken his agreement or ³ that they have worshiped other gods or maybe the sun, the moon or the stars. I never told you to do that! ⁴ If you hear bad news like this, you must check it carefully. You must learn if it is true that this terrible thing has really happened in Israel. If you prove that it is true, ⁵ you must punish the person who did this evil thing. You must take that man or woman out to a public place near the city gates and kill them with stones. ⁶ But no one should be punished with death if only one witness says that person did that evil thing. But if two or three witnesses say it is true, the person must be killed. ⁷ The witnesses must throw the first stones to kill that person. Then the other people should throw stones to finish killing that person. In this way you will remove this evil from your group.

Difficult Court Decisions

⁸ “There might be some problems that are too hard for your courts to judge. It might be a murder case or an argument between two people. Or it might be a fight in which someone was hurt. When these cases are argued in your towns, your judges there might not be able to decide what is right. Then you must go to the special place that the Lord your God will choose. ⁹ You must go to the priests who are Levites and to the judge on duty at that time. They will decide what to do about that problem. ¹⁰ There at the Lord’s special place they will tell you their decision. You must do whatever they say. Be sure to do everything they tell you to do. ¹¹ You must accept their decision and follow their instructions exactly—don’t change anything!

¹² “You must punish anyone who refuses to obey the judge or the priest who is there at that time serving the Lord your God. That person must die. You must remove this evil person from Israel. ¹³ All the people will hear about this punishment and be afraid. Then they will not be stubborn anymore.

How to Choose a King

¹⁴ “You will enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You will take that land and live in it. Then you will say, ‘We will put a king over us, like all the nations around us.’ ¹⁵ When that happens, you must be sure to choose the king that the Lord your God chooses. The king over you must be one of your own people. You must not make a foreigner your king. ¹⁶ The king must not get more and more horses for himself. And he must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because the Lord has told you, ‘You must never go back that way.’ ¹⁷ Also, the king must not have too many wives, because that will make him turn away from the Lord. And he must not make himself rich with silver and gold.

¹⁸ “When the king begins to rule, he must write a copy of the law for himself in a book. He must make that copy from the books that the priests from the tribe of Levi keep. ¹⁹ He must keep that book with him and read from it all his life, because he must learn to respect the Lord his God. He must learn to completely obey everything the law commands. ²⁰ Then the king will not think that he is better than any of his own people. He will not turn away from the law, but he will follow it exactly. Then he and his descendants will rule the kingdom of Israel a long time.

Supporting the Priests and Levites

18 “The tribe of Levi will not get any share of land in Israel. The priests come from that tribe and they will eat the special sacrifices that are offered as gifts to the Lord. That is the share for the people from the tribe of Levi. ² The tribe of Levi will not get any share of land like the other tribes. Their share is the Lord himself, as he said to them.

³ “When you kill one of your sheep or cattle for a sacrifice, you must give the priests these parts: the shoulder, both cheeks, and the stomach. ⁴ You must give the priests the first part of your harvest. You must give them the first part of your grain, your new wine, and your oil. You must give the Levites the first wool cut from your sheep. ⁵ This is because the Lord your God looked at all your tribes and chose Levi and his descendants to serve him as priests forever.

⁶ “Any Levite living in any town anywhere in Israel may leave his home and come to the Lord’s special place. He may do this anytime he wants. ⁷ And this Levite may serve in the name of the Lord his God, the same as all his brother Levites who are on duty before the Lord. ⁸ And that Levite will get an equal share with the other Levites, in addition to the share his family normally gets.^[e]

Israel Must Not Live Like Other Nations

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t learn to do the terrible things the people of the other nations there do. ¹⁰ Don’t sacrifice your sons or daughters in the fires on your altars. Don’t try to learn what will happen in the future by talking to a fortuneteller or by going to a magician, a witch, or a sorcerer. ¹¹ Don’t let anyone try to put magic spells on other people. Don’t let any of your people become a medium or a wizard. And no one should try to talk with someone who has died. ¹² The Lord hates anyone who does these things. And because these other nations do these terrible things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land as you enter it. ¹³ You must be faithful to the Lord your God, never doing anything he considers wrong.

The Lord’s Special Prophet

¹⁴ “You will force the other nations out of your land. They listen to people who use magic and try to tell the future. But the Lord your God will not let you do these things. ¹⁵ The Lord your God will send to you a prophet. This prophet will come from among your own people, and he will be like me. You must listen to him. ¹⁶ God will send you this prophet because that is what you asked him to do. When you were gathered together at Mount Horeb, you became frightened and said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God again! Don’t let us see that great fire or we will die!’

¹⁷ “The Lord said to me, ‘What they ask for is good. ¹⁸ I will send them a prophet like you. This prophet will be one of their own people. I will tell him what he must say, and he will tell the people everything I command. ¹⁹ This prophet will speak for me, and I will punish anyone who refuses to listen to my commands.’

How to Know False Prophets

²⁰ “But a prophet might say something that I did not tell him to say. And he might tell people that he is speaking for me. If this happens, that prophet must be killed. Also a prophet might come that speaks for other gods. That prophet must also be killed. ²¹ You might be thinking, ‘How can we know if something a prophet says is not from the Lord?’ ²² If a prophet says he is speaking for the Lord, but what he says does not happen, you will know that the Lord did not say it. You will know that this prophet was speaking his own ideas. You don’t need to be afraid of him.

Cities of Safety

19 “The Lord your God is giving you land that belongs to other nations. The Lord your God will destroy those nations. You will live where these people lived. You will take their cities and their houses. When that happens, ^2-3 you must divide the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Divide it into three parts and choose a city in the middle of each part that can be a place of safety. You must also build good roads to these cities. Then whoever kills another person may run to the closest city of safety.

⁴ “This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these three cities for safety: It must be someone who killed another person accidentally, not out of hatred. ⁵ Here is an example: A man goes into the forest with another person to cut wood. The man swings his ax to cut down a tree, but the head of the ax separates from the handle. The ax head hits the other person and kills him. The man who swung the ax may then run to one of these three cities and be safe. ⁶ But if the city is too far away, he might not be able to run there fast enough. A close relative^[f] of the person he killed might run after him and catch him before he reaches the city. The relative might kill the man in anger, even though he did not deserve to die because he did not mean to harm anyone. ⁷ That is why I commanded you to choose three special cities.

⁸ “The Lord your God promised your fathers that he would make your land larger. He will give you all the land that he promised to give to your ancestors. ⁹ He will do this if you completely obey his commands that I give you today—if you love the Lord your God and always live the way he wants. Then, when he gives you more land, you should choose three more cities for safety. They should be added to the first three cities. ¹⁰ Then innocent people will not be killed in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And you will not be guilty for any such deaths.

¹¹ “But suppose there is a man who hates his neighbor. That man might hide and wait to kill the person he hates. If he kills that person and runs to one of these cities of safety, ¹² the elders in his hometown must send someone to get him and take him away from the city of safety. These leaders must hand him over to the close relative. He is a murderer and he must die. ¹³ Don’t feel sorry for him. He is guilty of killing an innocent person, and you must remove that guilt from Israel. Then everything will go well for you.

Property Lines

¹⁴ “You must not move the stones that mark your neighbor’s property. People put them there in the past to mark each person’s property. These stones mark the land that the Lord your God gave you.

Witnesses

¹⁵ “If someone is accused of doing something against the law, one witness is not enough to prove that the person is guilty. There must be two or three witnesses to prove that the person really did wrong.

¹⁶ “A witness might try to hurt another person by lying and saying that this person did wrong. ¹⁷ If that happens, both of them must go to the Lord’s special house and be judged by the priests and judges who are on duty at that time. ¹⁸ When the judges carefully ask their questions, they might find that the witness lied against the other person. If the witnesses tell lies, ¹⁹ you must punish them with the same punishment the other person would have received. In this way you will remove this evil from your group. ²⁰ Other people will hear about this and be afraid, and people will not do evil things like that again.

²¹ “Don’t feel sorry about punishing someone who does wrong. If a life is taken, a life must be paid for it. The rule is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot—the punishment must equal the crime.

Rules for War

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horses, chariots, and many more people than you have, you must not be afraid of them. The Lord your God is with you—and he brought you out of Egypt.

² “When you go to the battle, the priest must go to the soldiers and speak to them. ³ The priest will say, ‘Men of Israel, listen to me! Today you are going against your enemies in battle. Don’t lose your courage. Don’t be troubled or upset. Don’t be afraid of the enemy. ⁴ The Lord your God is going with you to help you fight against your enemies. He will help you win!’

⁵ “The Levite officials will say to the soldiers, ‘Is there any man here who has built a new house but has not yet dedicated it? That man should go back home. He might be killed in the battle, and then another person will dedicate that man’s house. ⁶ Is there any man here who has planted a vineyard but has not yet gathered any of the grapes? That man should go back home. If that man dies in the battle, someone else will enjoy the fruit from his field. ⁷ Is there any man here who is engaged to be married? That man should go back home. If he dies in the battle, another man will marry the woman he is engaged to.’

⁸ “These Levite officials must also say to the people, ‘Is there any man here who has lost his courage and is afraid? He should go back home. Then he will not cause the other soldiers to lose their courage too.’ ⁹ Then, after the officers have finished speaking to the army, they must choose captains to lead the soldiers.

¹⁰ “When you go to attack a city, you must first offer peace to the people there. ¹¹ If they accept your offer and open their gates, all the people in that city will become your slaves and be forced to work for you. ¹² But if the city refuses to make peace with you and fights against you, you should surround the city. ¹³ And when the Lord your God lets you take the city, you must kill all the men in it. ¹⁴ But you may take for yourselves the women, the children, the cattle, and everything else in the city. You may use all these things. The Lord your God has given these things to you. ¹⁵ That is what you must do to all the cities that are very far from you—the cities that are not in the land where you will live.

¹⁶ “But when you take cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you must kill everyone. ¹⁷ You must completely destroy all the people—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. The Lord your God has commanded you to do this. ¹⁸ So then they will not be able to teach you to sin against the Lord your God or to do any of the terrible things they do when they worship their gods.

¹⁹ “When you are making war against a city, you might surround that city for a long time. You must not cut down the fruit trees around that city. You may eat the fruit from these trees, but you must not cut them down. These trees are not the enemy, so don’t make war against them. ²⁰ But you may cut down the trees that you know are not fruit trees. You may use these trees to build weapons for making war against that city. You may use them until the city falls.

If Someone Is Found Murdered

21 “In the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you might find a dead body in a field, but no one knows who killed that person. ² Your leaders and judges must come out and measure the distance to the towns around the dead body. ³ When you learn which town is nearest to the dead body, the leaders of that town must take a cow from their herds. It must be a cow that never had a calf and that has never been used for work. ⁴ The leaders of that town must then bring the cow down to a valley with running water. It must be a valley that has never been plowed or had anything planted in it. Then the leaders must break the cow’s neck there in that valley. ⁵ The priests, the descendants of Levi, must also go there. (The Lord your God has chosen these priests to serve him and to bless people in the name of the Lord. The priests will decide who is right in every lawsuit and whenever someone is hurt.) ⁶ All the leaders of the town nearest the dead body must wash their hands over the cow that had its neck broken in the valley. ⁷ These leaders must say, ‘We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen. ⁸ Lord, you saved your people Israel. Now make us pure. Don’t blame us for killing an innocent person.’ In this way these men will not be blamed for killing an innocent person. ⁹ In this way you will remove that guilt from your group by doing what the Lord said.

Women Captured in War

¹⁰ “You might fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God might let you defeat them and take them as captives. ¹¹ You might see a beautiful woman among the captives who you want to be your wife. ¹² You must then bring her into your house where she will shave her head and cut her nails. ¹³ She must change her clothes and take off the clothes she was wearing when she was captured in war. She will stay in your house and be sad about losing her father and her mother for a full month. After that you may go to her to be her husband, and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her and choose to divorce her, set her free. You cannot sell her. You had sexual relations with her, so you must not treat her like a slave.

The Oldest Son

¹⁵ “A man might have two wives. He might love one wife more than the other. Both wives might have children for him, but the firstborn son might be from the wife he does not love. ¹⁶ When the man divides his property among his children, he cannot give the rights of the firstborn to the son of his favorite wife. ¹⁷ The man must accept the firstborn son from the wife he does not love. The man must give that son a double share of everything he owns because that son is his first child. The right of the firstborn belongs to that son.

Children Who Refuse to Obey

¹⁸ “A man might have a son who is stubborn and refuses to obey. This son does not obey his father or mother. They punish the son, but he still refuses to listen to them. ¹⁹ His father and mother must then take him to the leaders of the town at the town meeting place. ²⁰ They must say to the leaders of the town: ‘Our son is stubborn and refuses to obey. He does not do anything we tell him to do. He eats and he drinks too much.’ ²¹ Then the men in the town must kill the son with stones. By doing this you will remove this evil from your group. Everyone in Israel will hear about this and be afraid.

Criminals Killed and Hanged on a Tree

²² “A man might be guilty of a sin that must be punished by death. People might kill him and hang his body on a tree. ²³ You must not let that body stay on the tree overnight. You must be sure to bury this man on the same day, because the one who hangs on a tree is cursed by God, and you must not let the land that the Lord your God is giving you become unclean.

Other Laws

22 “If you see that your neighbor’s ox or sheep is loose, you must not ignore it. Be sure to take it back to its owner. ² If the owner does not live near you or if you don’t know who it belongs to, take the ox or sheep to your house. Keep it there until the owner comes looking for it; then give it back. ³ You must do the same thing when you find anything that your neighbor might have lost. Don’t try selling it to your neighbor—you must give it back.

⁴ “If your neighbor’s donkey or ox has fallen down on the road, you must not ignore it. You must help your neighbor lift it up again.

⁵ “A woman must not wear men’s clothes, and a man must not wear women’s clothes. That is disgusting to the Lord your God.

⁶ “You might be walking along a path and find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground. If the mother bird is sitting with her baby birds or on the eggs, you must not take the mother bird with the babies. ⁷ You may take the babies for yourself, but you must let the mother go. If you obey these laws, things will go well for you, and you will live a long time.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you must build a wall around your roof.^[g] Then you will not be guilty for the death of a person who falls from the house.

Things That Must Not Be Put Together

⁹ “You must not plant seeds of grain in the same fields as your grapevines. Why? Because then they become useless^[h]—both the grapes and the grain produced by the seeds you planted.

¹⁰ “You must not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹ “You must not wear clothes made by weaving together wool and linen.

¹² “Tie several pieces of thread together. Then put these tassels^[i] on the four corners of the robes you wear.

Marriage Laws

¹³ “A man might marry a woman and have sexual relations with her. Then he might decide that he does not like her. ¹⁴ He might accuse her of doing wrong and say, ‘I married this woman, but when we had sexual relations, I found she was not a virgin.’ By saying this against her, people might think bad things about her. ¹⁵ If this happens, the girl’s father and mother must bring the proof that the girl was a virgin to the town elders at the meeting place of the town. ¹⁶ The girl’s father must say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her. ¹⁷ This man accused my daughter of doing wrong and said, “I did not find the proof that your daughter is a virgin.” But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin.’ Then they should show the cloth^[j] to the town leaders. ¹⁸ Then the leaders of that town must take that man and punish him. ¹⁹ They must fine him 40 ounces of silver.^[k] They will give the money to the girl’s father because her husband brought shame to an Israelite girl. And the girl will continue to be the man’s wife. He cannot divorce her for the rest of his life.

²⁰ “But what the husband said about his wife might be true. The wife’s parents might not have the proof that she was a virgin. If this happens, ²¹ the town leaders must bring the girl to the door of her father’s house. Then the men of the town must kill her with stones, because she has done a shameful thing in Israel. She has acted like a prostitute in her father’s house. You must remove this evil from your group.

Sexual Sins

²² “If a man is found having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both of them must die—the woman and the man who had sexual relations with her. You must remove this evil from Israel.

²³ “A man might meet a virgin girl engaged to another man. He might have sexual relations with her. If this happens in the city, ²⁴ you must bring them both out to the public place near the gate of that city, and you must kill them with stones. You must kill the man, because he used another man’s wife for sexual sin. And you must kill the girl, because she was in the city but did not call for help. You must remove this evil from your people.

²⁵ “But if a man finds an engaged girl out in the field and forces her to have sexual relations with him, only the man must die. ²⁶ You must do nothing to the girl. She did nothing that deserves the punishment of death. This is like someone attacking their neighbor and killing them. ²⁷ The man found the engaged girl out in the field and attacked her. Maybe she called for help, but there was no one to help her.

²⁸ “A man might find a virgin girl who is not engaged and force her to have sexual relations with him. If other people see this happen, ²⁹ he must pay the girl’s father 20 ounces of silver.^[l] And the girl will become the man’s wife, because he used her for sexual sin. He cannot divorce her all his life.

³⁰ “A man must not bring shame to his father by marrying his father’s wife.

People Who Cannot Join in Worship

23 “A man with a crushed testicle or part of his sex organ cut off may not join with the men of Israel to worship the Lord. ² If a man’s parents were not legally married, that man may not join with the men of Israel to worship the Lord. And none of his descendants to the tenth generation—may join in that group.

³ “An Ammonite or Moabite may not join with the men of Israel when they gather to worship the Lord. And none of their descendants, to the tenth generation, may join in the worship of the Lord. ⁴ The Ammonites and Moabites refused to give you bread and water on your trip at the time you came from Egypt. They also tried to hire Balaam, the son of Beor from the Mesopotamian city of Pethor, to curse you. ⁵ But the Lord your God refused to do what Balaam asked. Instead, the Lord changed the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶ You must never try to make peace with the Ammonites or Moabites. As long as you live, don’t be friendly to them.

People the Israelites Must Accept

⁷ “You must not hate Edomites, because they are your relatives. You must not hate Egyptians, because you were a stranger in their land. ⁸ The children of the third generation born to the Edomites and Egyptians may join with the people of Israel to worship the Lord.

Keeping the Army Camp Clean

⁹ “When your army goes to fight against your enemies, stay away from everything that would make you unclean. ¹⁰ If there is any man who is unclean because he had a flow of semen during the night, he must go out of the camp. He must stay away from the camp. ¹¹ Then, when evening comes, the man must bathe himself in water. And when the sun goes down, he may come into the camp again.