Bible in 90 Days
12 You are to have a designated area[a] outside the camp where you can go. 13 In addition to your weapon, you must have a scraper with you so that when you squat out there, you can dig a hole with it and then proceed to cover up what comes out. 14 Since the Lord your God is moving within your camp to save you and to defeat your enemies before you, your camp is to be holy. Do not let him see anything indecent among you so that he turns away from you.
15 Do not return a slave who escaped to you from his master. 16 Let him live with you, among your people, in the place he chooses within one of your cities that he thinks is good for him. Do not mistreat him.
17 The daughters of Israel must not become female temple prostitutes, and neither are the sons of Israel to become male temple prostitutes.
18 Do not bring the fee earned by a whore or the pay earned by a “dog”[b] to the house of the Lord your God to fulfill any vow, because it is an abomination to the Lord. Yes, both of them are.
19 Do not make your brother Israelite pay interest, whether interest of money or of food, or of anything that may be loaned out for interest. 20 You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your brother you are not to charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you do in the land that you are coming to possess.
21 When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not delay fulfilling it, because the Lord your God will require it of you and you will be guilty. 22 But if you do not make a vow at all, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever has passed from your lips you must be careful to do, because with your own mouth you vowed to make an offering to the Lord your God with your mouth.
24 When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes to satisfy your appetite, but you must not put any into your container. 25 When you come into a field of standing grain belonging to your neighbor and you pluck the heads of grain with your hand, you are not allowed to use a sickle to cut his standing grain.
Restrictions on Divorce
24 When a man takes a woman and marries her, if she is not pleasing to him because he has found something indecent about her, and he writes her a divorce document and hands it to her and sends her out of his house, 2 and she leaves and moves on and becomes the wife of another man, 3 and then that second man hates her and writes her a divorce document and hands it to her and sends her out of his house, or perhaps the second man that took her as a wife dies, 4 in these circumstances her first husband, who sent her away, cannot take her again as his wife after she was stigmatized as impure, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not attach guilt to the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
More Miscellaneous Laws
5 When a man takes a new wife, he must not go out with the army, and no one is to impose any duty on him. He is to be freed from duty for one year for the sake of his homelife so that he may make the woman whom he has married happy.
6 No person is to hold as security a mill or an upper millstone, because he would be holding someone’s livelihood as security.
7 If a man is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and enslaving him or selling him, that kidnapper must die, and you will purge the evil from among you.
8 Be careful during an outbreak of an impure skin disease[c] by being very conscientious about doing everything that the priests, who are Levites, instruct you to do. Take care to do exactly as I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your journey after coming out of Egypt.
10 When you make a loan to your neighbor, a loan of any kind, do not go into his house to take his security pledge. 11 Stand outside, and the man to whom you are making the loan will bring the pledged object out to you. 12 If he is a poor man, do not sleep in a garment he has pledged as security. 13 You are certainly to return the pledged object to him at sundown so he can sleep in his garment and bless you. Righteousness will be yours before the Lord your God.
14 Do not oppress a hired person who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brother Israelites or one of the aliens who reside in your land inside your gates. 15 Each day, before the sun goes down, pay him his wages, because he is poor and his life depends on it. If you do not, he will cry out against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
16 Fathers are not to be put to death because of their sons, and sons are not to be put to death because of their fathers. Each man is to be put to death because of his own crime.
17 Do not neglect justice for an alien who lives among you or for a fatherless child, and do not take the clothing of a widow as a pledge.
18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, but the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.
19 When you harvest the crops in your field and you forget a bundle in the field, do not return to get it. It will be for the benefit of the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything your hands do.
20 When you beat your olives off the tree, do not strip the boughs clean of olives. Some are to be left for the benefit of the alien, the fatherless, and the widow.
21 When you cut grapes from your vineyard, do not go over it again. Leave some for the benefit of the alien, the fatherless, and the widow.
22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. That is why I am commanding you to do this.
25 When there is a dispute between men and they go to court and a verdict is reached, and they have acquitted the innocent person and convicted the guilty one, 2 if the guilty one is to be flogged, the judge is to make him lie down, and he will order him to be flogged in his presence with the number of blows that is proportionate to his guilt. 3 He may have him struck forty times, but no more, so that your brother does not become degraded in your eyes by receiving a severe beating that goes beyond this number.
4 You are not to muzzle an ox when it is threshing.
5 When brothers live together and one of them dies without having children, the wife of the deceased brother is not to marry a stranger from outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to come and take her as his wife and perform for her the duty of a brother-in-law. 6 The firstborn that she bears will be recognized as a son who carries on the name of his deceased brother, so his name will not be erased from Israel. 7 But if a man does not want to marry his sister-in-law, his sister-in-law is to go to the city gate where the elders preside and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to establish a name in Israel for his brother. He does not want to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 8 Then the elders of his city are to call him and talk to him. If he stands firm and says, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his sister-in-law is to approach him in the sight of the elders. She is to pull the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and testify by saying, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up the house of his brother!” 10 Then the name that he will go by in Israel is “the house of a man whose sandal was pulled off.”
11 If two men are fighting each other, a man and his neighbor, and the wife of one comes up to rescue her husband from the hands of the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and she grabs hold of his testicles, 12 you are to cut off her hand. Your eye is not to look on her with compassion.
13 Do not have two alternate sets of stone weights in your bag, larger and smaller. 14 Do not have alternate measures in your house, larger and smaller. 15 You must have a full and honest set of weights. You must have a full and honest set of measures, so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For anyone doing such things, anyone who acts dishonestly, is detestable to the Lord your God.
17 Remember what the Amalekites, without any fear of God, did to you on your journey after you came out of Egypt. 18 Remember how they confronted you on the way, when you were weak and tired, and they cut off all the stragglers among you, the ones who were lagging behind. 19 When the Lord your God gives you rest from all your enemies that are around you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, wipe away the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!
Firstfruits and Tithes
26 When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it, 2 take some of the first ripe produce that you harvest from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Put it in a basket, and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name. 3 Go to the priest who is presiding at that time and say to him, “Today I declare before the Lord your God that I have come to the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give to us.” 4 The priest will take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.
5 Then you will respond and say in the presence of the Lord your God, “My father was a wandering[d] Aramean. He went down to Egypt and lived there as an alien with just a few people, but there he became a great, strong, and populous nation. 6 The Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us. They imposed hard labor on us. 7 We cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and he saw our affliction, our labor, and oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great awe-inspiring acts and signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now, look as I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you have given me, Lord.”
Then set the basket down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11 Then you, as well as the Levite and the alien who resides among you, will rejoice in all the good things that the Lord your God has given to you and your household.
12 When you have finished tithing a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of tithing, and you have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless, and to the widow so that they may eat within the gates of your cities and be satisfied, 13 then say before the Lord your God, “I have completely removed the holy portion from my house, and I have also given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless, and to the widow just as you have commanded me. I have neither transgressed nor forgotten your commandments. 14 I have not eaten any of it while I was mourning, and I have not removed any of it while I was unclean or given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done just as you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy dwelling place, from the heavens, and bless your people Israel and the soil that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Obey the Lord’s Command
16 The Lord your God commands you this day to carry out these statutes and commandments, and to be careful to do them with all your heart and soul. 17 You have declared today that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways and keep his statutes and commandments and his ordinances and obey his voice.
18 The Lord has declared today, just as he promised you, that you are his treasured people who are to carry out all of his commandments, 19 and that he will set you up in praise, fame, and splendor, high above all the nations that he has made, and that you will be set apart as a holy people to the Lord your God, just as he promised.
The Altar for Cursing and Blessing
27 Moses and the elders of Israel gave the following orders to the people: Keep the entire set of commands that I am giving you today.
2 At the time that you cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you, set up large stones and coat them with lime plaster. 3 Write on them all the words of this law when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 When you cross over the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal and coat them with lime plaster, as I am commanding you today.
5 Build an altar there to the Lord your God, an altar made of stones. Do not shape them with an iron tool. 6 Build the altar of the Lord your God with whole, uncut stones, and offer whole burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 Sacrifice fellowship offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God.
8 Write clearly and carefully all of the words of this law on the stones.
9 Moses and the priests, who are Levites, also spoke the following to all Israel:
Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Obey the voice of the Lord your God and carry out his commandments and statutes that I am giving you today.
11 Then Moses gave this command to the people that day:
12 The following tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you cross the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 The following will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
The Curses From Mount Ebal
14 The Levites will testify to every person of Israel with a loud voice:
15 Cursed is the man that makes a carved image or a molten metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up secretly.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
16 Cursed is anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
17 Cursed is anyone who moves the boundary marker of his neighbor.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
18 Cursed is anyone who leads astray a blind man on his way.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
19 Cursed is anyone who perverts the justice due to an alien who resides among you, or justice due to the fatherless or a widow.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
20 Cursed is any man who lies down with his father’s wife, because he has removed the skirt that is reserved for his father.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
21 Cursed is anyone who lies down with any animal.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
22 Cursed is any man who lies down with his sister, either the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
23 Cursed is any man who lies down with his mother-in-law.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
24 Cursed is anyone who strikes down his neighbor secretly.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
25 Cursed is anyone who takes payment to strike down an innocent person.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
26 Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by doing them.
All the people will say, “Amen!”
The Blessings for Obedience
28 If you fully obey the voice of the Lord your God by carefully carrying out all his commandments that I am giving you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All of the following blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the fields.
4 You will be blessed in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your soil, and in the fruit of your animals: the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock.
5 You will be blessed in your basket and in your kneading trough.
6 You will be blessed when you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. From one direction they will come out against you, but they will flee from you in seven directions.
8 The Lord will command a blessing on you in your storehouses and in regard to every action of your hand, and he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, just as he swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and you walk in his ways.
10 Then all the people of the earth will see that the name of the Lord has been proclaimed over you, and they will fear you.
11 The Lord will cause you to be overflowing with good things: with the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your animals, and the fruit of the soil of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The Lord will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, by giving rain for your land in its season and by blessing all the work of your hand.
Then you will cause many nations to borrow from you, but you yourself will not borrow.
13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will be only at the top and never at the bottom, if you conscientiously obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today to carry out, 14 and if you do not turn away to the right or to the left from all the words that I am commanding you today, to walk after other gods and serve them.
The Curses for Disobedience
15 If you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God and do not carefully carry out all of his commandments and statutes that I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the fields.
17 You will be cursed in your basket and in your kneading trough.
18 You will be cursed in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your soil, in the calves of your cattle and in the lambs of your flock.
19 You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on you a curse and confusion and opposition in every undertaking of your hand that you carry out, until you are destroyed and until you quickly perish, because of the evil you have done by forsaking me.
21 The Lord will cause epidemics to cling to you until he has removed you from your land that you are going to possess.
22 The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with intense heat and with drought,[e] and with blight and with mildew.[f] They will pursue you until you perish.
23 The skies over your head will become bronze, and the earth under you will become iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your land to dust. From the heavens it will come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. In one direction you will go out against them, but in seven directions you will flee from them, and you will become a horrible sight to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your dead bodies will become food for every bird of the sky and every animal of the earth, and there will not be anyone to scare them away.
27 The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scabs, and itch, from which you cannot be healed.
28 The Lord will strike you with insanity and with blindness and with a confused mind.
29 You will grope at noon as a blind person gropes in the dark, and you will not prosper in your ways.
You will be cheated and robbed all the time, and there will be no one to rescue you.
30 You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her.
You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered in front of your eyes, but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be seized right in front of your face, and it will not return to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, but there will be no one to help you.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will grow weak as you look longingly for them all day long, but your hands will be powerless.
33 A people that you do not know will eat what your soil and all your work produces.
You will be squeezed and crushed throughout the days 34 until you go insane from the sights that your eyes will see.
35 The Lord will strike you on your knees and legs with distressing boils from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 The Lord will lead you and the king, whom you will set over you, to a nation that you and your fathers have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
37 You will become an object of horror, the subject of proverbs, and the butt of sarcastic taunts among all the people to whom the Lord will send you.
38 You will take a lot of seed out to the field, but you will harvest little, because locusts will finish it off.
39 You will plant and tend vineyards, but you will not drink the wine and store it, because worms will eat them up.
40 You will have olive trees covering your whole property, but you will not anoint yourselves with oil, because your olives will fall off the trees.
41 You will produce sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.
42 Locusts will take possession of all of your trees and all the fruit of your land.
43 The alien who resides among you will ascend higher and higher over you, and you will descend lower and lower. 44 He will cause you to borrow, but you will not cause him to borrow. He will become the head, and you will become the tail.
45 All of these curses will come upon you, and they will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 They will be signs and wonders against you and your descendants perpetually.
47 Because you would not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness in your heart flowing from the abundance of everything he gave you, 48 you will serve your enemies that the Lord will unleash against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and a lack of everything, and he will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 He will bring a nation from far away against you, from the end of the earth, as fast as an eagle soars through the air, a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a fierce nation that does not show any regard for the old or any mercy to the young. 51 That nation will eat the produce from your animals and the fruit from your soil until you are destroyed. It will leave you no grain, no new wine, no fresh oil, no calves of your cattle or lambs from your flock until it has caused you to perish. 52 That nation will besiege you in all of your cities until the high, fortified walls that you were trusting collapse throughout your land. When that nation besieges you in all of the cities throughout your whole land that the Lord your God is giving you, 53 you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, because of the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
54 The most sensitive and refined man among you will be so begrudging against his brother, against the wife he embraces, and against any of his children who still survive, 55 that he will not give to any one of them some of the flesh of his children that he is eating, because then he would have nothing left for himself, because of the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you in all of your cities.
56 The most sensitive and refined woman among you, so refined and sensitive that she would not venture to touch the sole of her foot to the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter 57 the afterbirth that goes out from between her legs and the babies that she gives birth to, because she plans to eat them secretly since she has nothing else, as a result of the siege and the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in all of your cities.
58 If you are not careful to carry out all the words of this law that are written in this book,[g] to fear this honored and awesome Name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants: severe, long-lasting plagues and distressing, long-lasting sicknesses.
60 Then he will bring back on you all the sicknesses of Egypt that you feared, and they will cling to you. 61 More than that, the Lord will bring on you all other sicknesses and plagues that are not written in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
62 Then you will be left as just a few people instead of being as numerous as the stars in the heavens, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
63 Just as the Lord delighted in making you prosperous and making you many in number, likewise the Lord will delight in causing you to perish and in destroying you. You will be torn away from your land that you are going to possess.
64 The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods, gods made of wood and stone, gods that you and your fathers have not known. 65 Still, among those nations you will find no peace, nor will the sole of your foot find a place to rest. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart and longing eyes and a despairing soul.
66 Your life will be hung out in front of you. Night and day you will live in dread, and you will not expect to survive.
67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” In the evening you will say, “If only it were morning!” because of the dread you feel in your heart and because of what your eyes see.
68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships on a journey that I said you would never again experience. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
Renewing the Covenant
29 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.[h] 2 Moses summoned all Israel and spoke to them as follows:
You have seen everything that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole land: 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, those great signs and wonders. 4 Yet the Lord to this very day has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.
5 “I led you through the wilderness for forty years. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did the sandals on your feet. 6 You did not eat bread, and you did not drink wine and beer. I did all this so you would know that I am the Lord your God.”
7 When you came to this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to meet us in battle, we struck them down. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 Therefore you are to keep the words of this covenant and carry them out so that you may succeed in all that you do.
10 You are standing today before the Lord your God, all of you—your tribal heads, your elders, your officers, and men of every rank in Israel, 11 your children, your wives, and the aliens who reside in your camp, whether as wood cutters or water carriers. 12 You are standing here so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which is sealed by the oath that the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 in order to establish you today as his people and himself as your God, just as he promised you and just as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 Today I am not making this covenant and its oath only with you, 15 but also with everyone who is standing here with us before the Lord our God, and also with those who are not here with us today.
16 You yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the midst of the various nations we encountered. 17 You saw their detestable things and their filthy idols of wood and stone and silver and gold that were with them.
18 Make sure that there is not among you a man, a woman, a family, or a tribe whose heart today is turning away from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Make sure that there is among you no root that is producing a poison plant and bitter wormwood. 19 When such a person hears the words of this oath, he might congratulate himself in his heart and say, “I’ll be safe, even though I’m proceeding in my stubborn way.” By acting this way he will destroy the watered ground as well as the parched.
20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger and jealousy of the Lord will smoke against that man, and all the curses written in this document will come to rest on him, and the Lord will wipe away his name from under the heavens. 21 The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, in keeping with all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law.
22 And when the next generation, your children who will come after your time, and the foreigner who will come from a distant land have seen the plagues on that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord struck it, they will say, 23 “Sulfur and salt, conflagration for all of its land! No planting, no sprouting, no maturing crop in it! It will be like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his fierce anger!”
24 Then all the nations will say, “Why did the Lord do something like that to this land? What is the reason for this burning, this fierce anger?”
25 Then they will say, “It is because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods that they had not known and that he had not allotted to them. 27 So the anger of the Lord burned against that land to bring on it the entire curse written in this book. 28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in rage, and in his great wrath, and he hurled them into another land, as it is to this day.”
29 The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, so that we carry out all the words of this law.
Prosperity Will Follow Repentance
30 When all these things come upon you, both the blessing and the curse that I have given you, and you take them to heart while you are among all the nations to which the Lord your God has banished you, 2 and when you return to the Lord your God and listen to his voice with all your heart and soul, in every way that I am commanding you today, you and your children, 3 then the Lord your God will restore you from your captivity. He will have compassion on you, and he will gather you together again out of all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 Even if your banished people are at the end of the heavens, the Lord your God will gather you together there and take you away from there. 5 The Lord your God will bring you back to the land that your fathers possessed, and then you will possess it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with the result that you will live.
7 Then the Lord your God will place all these curses on your enemies and on those who hated you and persecuted you. 8 Once again you will listen to the voice of the Lord, and you will carry out all of his commands that I am giving you today.
9 The Lord your God will cause you to be overflowing with good things from all the work of your hands, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your animals, and in the fruit of your soil. Once again he will rejoice over your prosperity, just as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes written in this Book of the Law, when you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 Certainly, this commandment that I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not far away. 12 It is not up in the heavens, so that you have to say, “Which one of us will go up to the heavens and get it for us so we can listen to it and carry it out?” 13 It is not across the sea, so that you have to say, “Which one of us will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us so we can listen to it and carry it out?” 14 Instead, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so you can obey it.
Life or Death
15 See now, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. 16 This is what I am commanding you today: Love the Lord your God, walk in his ways, and keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and increase in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are going to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away, and you do not listen, and you are lured away, and you bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 then I declare to you today that you will most certainly perish. You will not live a long life on the land that you are about to enter and possess by crossing over the Jordan.
19 I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live 20 by loving the Lord your God, by listening to his voice, and by clinging to him, because that means life for you, and you will live a long life on your land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Joshua Will Follow Moses
31 Moses came and spoke the following words to all Israel. 2 He said to them:
“I am now one hundred twenty years old. I can no longer go out and come back.[i] The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross over this Jordan.’
3 “The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy those nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is the one who will cross over before you, as the Lord promised. 4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and as he did to their lands when he destroyed them. 5 The Lord will hand them over to you, and you are to deal with them according to the whole set of commands that I gave you.
6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified before them, because the Lord your God is going with you. He will not abandon you and he will not forsake you.”
7 Moses called Joshua and said to him in the view of all Israel:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will go with this people into the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, and you will divide it among them as their possession. 8 The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not abandon you, and he will not forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be overwhelmed.”
Reading the Law
9 Then Moses wrote down this law, and he gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them:
“At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of the release, at the Festival of Shelters, 11 when all Israel comes to appear in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you are to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people—the men, the women, the children, and the alien who resides within your gates—so that they may hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God and to be careful to carry out all the words of this law. 13 Their children also, who do not know the law, are to hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God all the time that you live on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
The Transition to Joshua
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The time is approaching for you to die. Summon Joshua and stand at the Tent of Meeting, and I will commission him.”
So Moses and Joshua went and stood at the Tent of Meeting. 15 Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. 16 The Lord said to Moses:
“You are about to lie down with your fathers, but this people will rise up and prostitute themselves to the foreign gods among them in the land they are about to enter. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them. 17 My anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. They will be on the verge of being devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them. They will say on that day, ‘Haven’t these evil things found us because our God is not among us?’ 18 Yet I will hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.
19 “So now, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths so this song will be my witness against the people of Israel. 20 When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised by oath to their fathers, and they eat and are satisfied and grow fat, and they then turn to other gods and serve them, when they despise me and break my covenant, 21 and many evils and distresses find them, then this song will testify against them as a witness, because it will not be forgotten or gone from the mouths of their descendants. I certainly know the inclination that they are developing today before I bring them to the land that I have promised on oath.”
22 So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the people of Israel.
23 Then the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said to him:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the people of Israel into the land that I have promised to them with an oath, and I will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, 25 he gave this command to the Levites, who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord:
26 “Take this Book of the Law, and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you. 27 I certainly know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even while I am still alive and among you today, you are rebels against the Lord. So how much more after my death! 28 Assemble all the elders of your tribes and your officials before me, and I will speak all these words in their hearing, and I will call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. 29 I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way that I have commanded you, and that evil will come on you in future days when you do evil in the sight of the Lord by provoking him to anger by the work of your hands.”
Moses’ Song
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, from beginning to end:
32 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak.
Let the earth hear the sayings from my mouth.
2 Let my teaching drop down like rain,
and let my sayings distill like dew,
like raindrops on grass,
like showers on green plants.
3 Yes, I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock! Perfect is his work.
Indeed all of his ways are justice.
He is a faithful God. He does no wrong.
Righteous and upright is he.
5 Israel acted corruptly against him.
They are not his children.
That is their fault.[j]
They are a twisted and crooked generation.
6 Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish people, who are not wise?
Is he not your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of the distant past.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father and he will tell you about it.
Ask your elders and they will describe it to you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the children of Adam,
he established the boundaries for peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.[k]
9 But the allotment for the Lord is his people.
Jacob is the territory that is his possession.
10 The Lord found Jacob in a wild land,
in a desolate land, in a howling wasteland.
He encircled him. He cared for him.
He guarded him like the pupil of his eye.
11 As an eagle rises from its nest
and hovers over its young,
then spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on the edge of its wings,
12 so the Lord alone led Israel.
There was no foreign god with him.
13 He caused them to ride over the high places of the land,
and they ate the produce from the fields.
He caused them to suck honey from the rocks
and olive oil from the hardest flint.
14 He fed them with curds from the cattle and milk from the flocks,
with fat lambs, rams, and goats from Bashan,
with the very best wheat,
and they drank foaming wine, the blood of the grape.
15 Jeshurun[l] grew fat and kicked.
You grew fat, you were stout, you were stuffed.
Then he abandoned the God who made him,
and he mocked the Rock who saved him.
16 They made him jealous with strange gods.
They provoked him with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons that are not gods,
to gods they had not known,
to newcomers from their neighbors,
gods whom your fathers did not fear.
18 You failed to remember the Rock who conceived you.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them,
because his sons and daughters had provoked him.
20 So the Lord said:[m]
I will hide my face from them,
until I see what their final condition will be,
because they are a twisted generation,
children who cannot be trusted.
21 They have made me jealous with their non-gods.
They have provoked me with their useless things.
So I will make them jealous by a non-people.
By a foolish nation I will provoke them.
22 For a fire has been ignited by my anger,
and it burns to the depths of hell.[n]
It devours the earth and its produce.
It sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 I will pile up disasters for them.
I will use up all my arrows on them.
24 They will be sucked dry by hunger and burned up by fever.
I will send them bitter destruction.
Wild animals will sink their teeth into them
with the burning venom of snakes that crawl in the dust.
25 In the street the sword will take away their children.
Inside the houses terror will fill young man and
young woman alike,
the nursing child, together with the gray-haired old man.
26 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces.
I will erase their memory from mankind,”
27 if I had not dreaded the taunting of the enemy.
I did not want their adversaries to misunderstand.
I did not want them to say,
“Our hand is high-and-mighty,
and the Lord has not done any of this.”
28 For they are a nation that never takes advice,
and they understand nothing.
29 If only they had been wise,
they would have comprehended this.
They would have understood
what the final outcome would be.
30 How could one pursue a thousand,
and two chase away ten thousand,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and the Lord had handed them over?
31 Yes, their rock is not like our Rock,
as our enemies themselves recognize.
32 For their vine grows from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison grapes.
They have bitter clusters.
33 Their wine is burning snake venom
and the deadly poison of cobras.
34 Do I not have all this stored up with me?
Is this not sealed up in my storehouses?
35 To me belongs vengeance and repayment.
It will come at the time when their foot slips.
Indeed, the day of their disaster is near,
and their impending doom is coming quickly.
36 Yes, the Lord will judge his people,
but he will change his course of action toward his servants
when he sees that their strength is exhausted,
and that there are none left, either as prisoners or still free.
37 Then he will say:
Where are their gods,
the rock in which they sought refuge,
38 the gods that ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you.
Let them be a shelter over you.
39 Now see that I, only I, am he,
and there is not a god comparable to me.
I put to death and I make alive.
I wound and I heal.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and I swear: “As I live forever,
41 if I sharpen the lightning, which is my sword,
and my hand grabs hold of judgment,
I will take revenge against my adversaries,
and I will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will devour flesh
from the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the long-haired heads of the enemy.”
43 Shout out with a cry of joy, you nations, because of his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants,[o]
and he will return vengeance to his adversaries,
but he will atone for the ground, for his people.
44 Moses came along with Hoshea[p] son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
45 Then when Moses had finished speaking all of these words to all Israel, 46 he also said to them:
“Direct your heart to all the words that I am calling as a witness against you today. Instruct your children with them so that they may be careful to carry out all the words of this law, 47 for it is not empty talk for you, because it is your life. By this word you will live long on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
48 On this same day the Lord spoke to Moses:
49 “Go up to Mount Nebo, this mountain of the Abarim range, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan that I am giving to the people of Israel as a possession, 50 and die on the mountain that you are about to ascend and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This will happen because you broke faith with me among the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, by not treating me as holy among the people of Israel. 52 You may view the land from a distance, but you will not go into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
The Blessings of Moses
33 The following is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel before his death. 2 He said:
The Lord came from Sinai,
and from Seir he rose like the sun for them.
He was shining from Mount Paran,
and he came with ten thousand holy ones.
From his right hand a fiery law[q] flew at them.
3 Indeed, you love the peoples.
All his holy ones are in your hand.
They are seated[r] at your feet.
Each one rises after hearing your words.
4 Moses commanded a law for us
as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
5 The Lord was King in Jeshurun,[s]
when the heads of the people gathered
together with the tribes of Israel.
6 May Reuben live and not die,
but may his men be few in number.[t]
7 Concerning Judah he said this:
Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah,
and bring him to his people.
With his own hands he fights for them,
and you will be a help against his enemies.
8 Concerning Levi he said:
Your Thummim and your Urim belong to your favored man,
whom you tested at Massah,
with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah.
9 He said about his father and mother,
“I do not recognize them.”
He did not show regard for his own brother.
He did not acknowledge his own children.
Instead he protected your word,
and he guarded your covenant.
10 The Levites will teach your judgments to Jacob.
They will teach your law to Israel.
They will burn incense for you to smell.
They will offer whole offerings upon your altar.
11 Bless, O Lord, his strength,
and accept the work of his hands.
Cripple those who rise against him.
Prevent those who hate him from rising against him.
12 Concerning Benjamin he said:
Those loved by the Lord will dwell with him safely.
He will be a canopy over them all day.
They will rest securely against his chest.[u]
13 Concerning Joseph he said:
His land is blessed by the Lord:
blessed with the best gifts from the heavens,
blessed with dew and with the deep waters hidden below,
14 blessed with the best gifts produced by the sun,
blessed with the best gifts yielded by the seasons,
15 blessed with the best crops from the ancient mountains,
blessed with the best gifts from the everlasting hills,
16 blessed with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness,
blessed with the favor of the one who was dwelling in
the burning bush.
May all these come on the head of Joseph,
on the forehead of the one set apart from his brothers.
17 Like a firstborn bull, he has majesty,
and his horns are the horns of a wild ox.
With them he will gore the peoples,
all the peoples, to the ends of the earth.
Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim.
Such are the thousands of Manasseh.
18 Concerning Zebulun he said:
Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go out.
Rejoice, Issachar, in your tents.
19 They will call people to the mountain.
There they will sacrifice righteous offerings.
Indeed they will nurse on the abundance from the seas
and on the treasures hidden in the sand.
20 Concerning Gad he said:
Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad.
Like a lioness he settles down.
He tears off arms and even heads.
21 He selected the best portion for himself,
the portion reserved for the ruler.
He came with heads of the people
to carry out the righteousness of the Lord,
to carry out his judgments along with Israel.
22 Concerning Dan he said:
Dan is a lion cub.
He leaps out from Bashan.
23 Concerning Naphtali he said:
Naphtali is abounding with favor.
He is full of the blessing of the Lord.
Take possession of the west[v] and south.
24 Concerning Asher he said:
The most blessed of sons is Asher.
May he be pleasing to his brothers.
May he bathe his feet in olive oil.
25 Your door bolts are iron and bronze.
May your strength be as long-lasting as all your days.
26 There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
who rides through the heavens to help you.
In his majesty he rides through the clouds.
27 The everlasting God is a dwelling place,
and his eternal arms are under you.
He drove out[w] the enemy in front of you,
and he said, “Destroy!”
28 So Israel settled down in safety.
Jacob dwelt in security
in a land of grain and fresh wine,
and, yes, its heavens dropped down dew.
29 How blessed are you, O Israel!
Who is like you?
You are a people saved by the Lord,
the shield who gives you help,
the sword who gives you majesty.
Your enemies will come cringing before you,
and you will trample on their high places.
The Death of Moses
34 Moses went up from the Plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: the territory of Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, the whole land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea,[x] 3 the Negev, and the Kikkar as far as Zoar (that is, the plain in the valley around Jericho, the City of Palms).
4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when I said I will give it to your descendants.[y] I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over to it.”
5 So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab as the Lord had said. 6 The Lord buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.
7 Moses was one hundred twenty years old at his death. His eyes had not grown dim, and his vigor had not declined. 8 So the children of Israel wept for Moses in the Arabah of Moab for thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit[z] of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, so the people of Israel listened to him and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
10 Never again has a prophet risen in Israel like Moses, who knew the Lord face-to-face. 11 Moses performed all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and against all his officials and his whole land. 12 No other prophet ever displayed all of the mighty power and the great, awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.