The Message (MSG)

1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the land thatGodpromised to your ancestors. Remember every road thatGodled you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes fromGod’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart thatGoddisciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.

6-9 So it’s paramount that you keep the commandments ofGod, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him.Godis about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It’s a land where you’ll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.

10 After a meal, satisfied, blessGod, your God, for the good land he has given you.

11-16 Make sure you don’t forgetGod, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forgetGod, your God,

the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;

the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;

the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;

the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.

17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember thatGod, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.

19-20 If you forget, forgetGod, your God, and start taking up with other gods, serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction. You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nationsGodis destroying before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice ofGod, your God.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/8-8b1ddabfcb301e69918851d2e1776233.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 Attention, Israel!

This very day you are crossing the Jordan to enter the land and dispossess nations that are much bigger and stronger than you are. You’re going to find huge cities with sky-high fortress-walls and gigantic people, descendants of the Anakites—you’ve heard all about them; you’ve heard the saying, “No one can stand up to an Anakite.”

3 Today know this:God, your God, is crossing the river ahead of you—he’s a consuming fire. He will destroy the nations, he will put them under your power. You will dispossess them and very quickly wipe them out, just asGodpromised you would.

4-5 But whenGodpushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done thatGodhas brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations thatGod, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6-10 Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done thatGodis giving you this good land to own. Anything but! You’re stubborn as mules. Keep in mind and don’t ever forget how angry you madeGod, your God, in the wilderness. You’ve kicked and screamed againstGodfrom the day you left Egypt until you got to this place, rebels all the way. You madeGodangry at Horeb, made him so angry that he wanted to destroy you. When I climbed the mountain to receive the slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant thatGodmade with you, I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights: I ate no food; I drank no water. ThenGodgave me the two slabs of stone, engraved with the finger of God. They contained word for word everything thatGodspoke to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

11-12 It was at the end of the forty days and nights thatGodgave me the two slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant.Godsaid to me, “Get going, and quickly. Get down there, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have ruined everything. In almost no time at all they have left the road that I laid out for them and gone off and made for themselves a cast god.”

13-14 Godsaid, “I look at this people and all I see are hardheaded, hardhearted rebels. Get out of my way now so I can destroy them. I’m going to wipe them off the face of the map. Then I’ll start over with you to make a nation far better and bigger than they could ever be.”

15-17 I turned around and started down the mountain—by now the mountain was blazing with fire—carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two arms. That’s when I saw it: There you were, sinning againstGod, your God—you had made yourselves a cast god in the shape of a calf! So soon you had left the road thatGodhad commanded you to walk on. I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched.

18-20 Then I prostrated myself beforeGod, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning againstGod, doing what is evil inGod’s eyes and making him angry. I was terrified ofGod’s furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once againGodlistened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time.

21 But that sin-thing that you made, that calf-god, I took and burned in the fire, pounded and ground it until it was crushed into a fine powder, then threw it into the stream that comes down the mountain.

22 And then there was Camp Taberah (Blaze), Massah (Testing-Place), and Camp Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves-of-the-Craving)—more occasions when you madeGodfurious with you.

23-24 The most recent was whenGodsent you out from Kadesh Barnea, ordering you: “Go. Possess the land that I’m giving you.” And what did you do? You rebelled. Rebelled against the clear orders ofGod, your God. Refused to trust him. Wouldn’t obey him. You’ve been rebels againstGodfrom the first day I knew you.

25-26 When I was on my face, prostrate beforeGodthose forty days and nights afterGodsaid he would destroy you, I prayed toGodfor you, “My Master,God, don’t destroy your people, your inheritance whom, in your immense generosity, you redeemed, using your enormous strength to get them out of Egypt.

27-28 “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don’t make too much of the stubbornness of this people, their evil and their sin, lest the Egyptians from whom you rescued them say, ‘Godcouldn’t do it; he got tired and wasn’t able to take them to the land he promised them. He ended up hating them and dumped them in the wilderness to die.’

29 “They are your people still, your inheritance whom you powerfully and sovereignly rescued.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/9-f8693c3633f9de7d1f724bd15fcac88e.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 Godresponded. He said, “Shape two slabs of stone similar to the first ones. Climb the mountain and meet me. Also make yourself a wooden chest. I will engrave the stone slabs with the words that were on the first ones, the ones you smashed. Then you will put them in the Chest.”

3-5 So I made a chest out of acacia wood, shaped two slabs of stone, just like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two slabs in my arms. He engraved the stone slabs the same as he had the first ones, the Ten Words that he addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. ThenGodgave them to me. I turned around and came down the mountain. I put the stone slabs in the Chest that I made and they’ve been there ever since, just asGodcommanded me.

6-7 The People of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. From there they went to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8-9 That’s whenGodset apart the tribe of Levi to carryGod’s Covenant Chest, to be on duty in the Presence ofGod, to serve him, and to bless in his name, as they continue to do today. And that’s why Levites don’t have a piece of inherited land as their kinsmen do.Godis their inheritance, asGod, your God, promised them.

10 I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights, just as I did the first time. AndGodlistened to me, just as he did the first time:Goddecided not to destroy you.

11 Godtold me, “Now get going. Lead your people as they resume the journey to take possession of the land that I promised their ancestors that I’d give to them.”

12-13 So now Israel, what do you thinkGodexpects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serveGod, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations ofGodthat I’m commanding you today—live a good life.

14-18 Look around you: Everything you see isGod’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors whoGodfell in love with; he picked their children—that’syou!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded.God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

19-21 You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—

remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.

Reverently respectGod, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,

back up your promises with the authority of his name.

He’s your praise! He’s your God!

He did all these tremendous, these staggering things

that you saw with your own eyes.

22 When your ancestors entered Egypt, they numbered a mere seventy souls. And now look at you—you look more like the stars in the night skies in number. And yourGoddid it.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/10-a928da98e278f2757a86db2ca3ccee1c.mp3?version_id=97—

1 So loveGod, your God;

guard well his rules and regulations;

obey his commandments for the rest of time.

2-7 Today it’s very clear that it isn’t your children who are front and center here: They weren’t in on whatGoddid, didn’t see the acts, didn’t experience the discipline, didn’t marvel at his greatness, the way he displayed his power in the miracle-signs and deeds that he let loose in Egypt on Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land, the way he took care of the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, burying them in the waters of the Red Sea as they pursued you.Goddrowned them. And you’re standing here today alive. Nor was it your children who saw howGodtook care of you in the wilderness up until the time you arrived here, what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how the Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them with their families—their tents, and everything around them—right out of the middle of Israel. Yes, it was you—your eyes—that saw every great thing thatGoddid.

8-9 So it’s you who are in charge of keeping the entire commandment that I command you today so that you’ll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own. Your obedience will give you a long life on the soil thatGodpromised to give your ancestors and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10-12 The land you are entering to take up ownership isn’t like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It’s a land thatGod, your God, personally tends—he’s the gardener—he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.

13-15 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, loveGod, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you’ll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He’ll make sure there’s plenty of grass for your animals. You’ll have plenty to eat.

16-17 But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods andGoderupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there’s no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you’re starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land thatGodis giving you.

18-21 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil thatGodpromised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

22-25 That’s right. If you diligently keep all this commandment that I command you to obey—loveGod, your God, do what he tells you, stick close to him—Godon his part will drive out all these nations that stand in your way. Yes, he’ll drive out nations much bigger and stronger than you. Every square inch on which you place your foot will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the wilderness to the mountains of Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand in your way. Everywhere you go,God-sent fear and trembling will precede you, just as he promised.

26 I’ve brought you today to the crossroads of Blessing and Curse.

27 The Blessing: if you listen obediently to the commandments ofGod, your God, which I command you today.

28 The Curse: if you don’t pay attention to the commandments ofGod, your God, but leave the road that I command you today, following other gods of which you know nothing.

29-30 Here’s what comes next: WhenGod, your God, brings you into the land you are going into to make your own, you are to give out the Blessing from Mount Gerizim and the Curse from Mount Ebal. After you cross the Jordan River, follow the road to the west through Canaanite settlements in the valley near Gilgal and the Oaks of Moreh.

31-32 You are crossing the Jordan River to invade and take the land thatGod, your God, is giving you. Be vigilant. Observe all the regulations and rules I am setting before you today.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/11-dbbd7bcdfa9dd8e13265813b63cea296.mp3?version_id=97—

1 These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country thatGod, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.

2-3 Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you’re driving out worship their gods—wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees. Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.

4 Stay clear of those places—don’t let what went on there contaminate the worship ofGod, your God.

5-7 Instead find the site thatGod, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there. Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Feast there in the Presence ofGod, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing ofGod, your God.

8-10 Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance thatGod, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the landGod, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.

11-12 From then on, at the place thatGod, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow toGod. Celebrate there in the Presence ofGod, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance.

13-14 Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place thatGodchooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.

15 It’s permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing ofGod, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.

16-18 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence ofGod, your God, in the placeGod, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence ofGod, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.

19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.

20-22 WhenGod, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place thatGod, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks thatGodhas given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the nonsacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.

23-25 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing inGod’s eyes.

26-27 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the placeGoddesignates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar ofGod, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar ofGod, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.

28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes ofGod, your God.

29-31 WhenGod, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this toGod, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods.Godhates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!

32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/12-7256583dfeb2bc19a164ca5b65a27fee.mp3?version_id=97—

1-4 When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder, and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, “Let’s follow other gods” (these are gods you know nothing about), “let’s worship them,” don’t pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says.God, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love him with everything you have in you. You are to follow onlyGod, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him—hold on to him for dear life!

5 And that prophet or visionary must be put to death. He has urged mutiny againstGod, your God, who rescued you from Egypt, who redeemed you from a world of slavery and put you on the road on whichGod, your God, has commanded you to walk. Purge the evil from your company.

6-10 And when your brother or son or daughter, or even your dear wife or lifelong friend, comes to you in secret and whispers, “Let’s go and worship some other gods” (gods that you know nothing about, neither you nor your ancestors, the gods of the peoples around you near and far, from one end of the Earth to the other), don’t go along with him; shut your ears. Don’t feel sorry for him and don’t make excuses for him. Kill him. That’s right, kill him. You throw the first stone. Take action at once and swiftly with everybody in the community getting in on it at the end. Stone him with stones so that he dies. He tried to turn you traitor againstGod, your God, the one who got you out of Egypt and the world of slavery.

11 Every man, woman, and child in Israel will hear what’s been done and be in awe. No one will dare to do an evil thing like this again.

12-17 When word comes in from one of your cities thatGod, your God, is giving you to live in, reporting that evil men have gotten together with some of the citizens of the city and have broken away, saying, “Let’s go and worship other gods” (gods you know nothing about), then you must conduct a careful examination. Ask questions, investigate. If it turns out that the report is true and this abomination did in fact take place in your community, you must execute the citizens of that town. Kill them, setting that city apart for holy destruction: the city and everything in it including its animals. Gather the plunder in the middle of the town square and burn it all—town and plunder together up in smoke, a holy sacrifice toGod, your God. Leave it there, ashes and ruins. Don’t build on that site again. And don’t let any of the plunder devoted to holy destruction stick to your fingers. Get rid of it so thatGodmay turn from anger to compassion, generously making you prosper, just as he promised your ancestors.

18 Yes. Obediently listen toGod, your God. Keep all his commands that I am giving you today. Do the right thing in the eyes ofGod, your God.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/13-5a6eb496eaf4eaeb5a08f324961b06d0.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 You are children ofGod, your God, so don’t mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead. You only are a people holy toGod, your God;Godchose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.

3-8 Don’t eat anything abominable. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep—any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud. But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don’t have a cloven hoof—that makes them ritually unclean. And pigs: Don’t eat pigs—they have a cloven hoof but don’t chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don’t even touch a pig’s carcass.

9-10 This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales. But if it doesn’t have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It’s ritually unclean.

11-18 You may eat any ritually clean bird. These are the exceptions, so don’t eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, the buzzard family, the raven family, ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family, little owl, great owl, white owl, pelican, osprey, cormorant, stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.

19-20 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don’t eat them. But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.

21 Because you are a people holy toGod, your God, don’t eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner.

Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

22-26 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence ofGod, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence beforeGod, your God, as long as you live. But if the placeGod, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far,God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the placeGod, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence ofGod, your God, and have a good time.

27 Meanwhile, don’t forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won’t get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.

28-29 At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat andGod, your God, will bless you in all your work.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/14-8a47ec777361a335e6948e31e77abea3.mp3?version_id=97—

1-3 At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—Godsays so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.

4-6 There must be no poor people among you becauseGodis going to bless you lavishly in this land thatGod, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land. But only if you listen obediently to the Voice ofGod, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today. Oh yes—God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won’t borrow from any; you’ll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

7-9 When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land thatGod, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll callGod’s attention to you and your blatant sin.

10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggersGod, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

12-15 If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with whichGod, your God, has blessed you. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt andGod, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.

For that reason, this day I command you to do this.

16-17 But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, “I don’t want to leave you,” then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you.

18 Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he’s worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand.

Believe me,God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.

19-23 Consecrate toGod, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don’t use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don’t shear the firstborn from your flocks. These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence ofGod, your God, at the place thatGoddesignates for worship. If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind—anything wrong with it—don’t slaughter it as a sacrifice toGod, your God. Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer. Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/15-9f5f1a3589c8c3c9256f35ac8741e84d.mp3?version_id=97—

1-4 Observe the month of Abib by celebrating the Passover toGod, your God. It was in the month of Abib thatGod, your God, delivered you by night from Egypt. Offer the Passover-Sacrifice toGod, your God, at the placeGodchooses to be worshiped by establishing his name there. Don’t eat yeast bread with it; for seven days eat it with unraised bread, hard-times bread, because you left Egypt in a hurry—that bread will keep the memory fresh of how you left Egypt for as long as you live. There is to be no sign of yeast anywhere for seven days. And don’t let any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening be left over until morning.

5-7 Don’t sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns thatGod, your God, gives you other than the oneGod, your God, designates for worship; there and there only you will offer the Passover-Sacrifice at evening as the sun goes down, marking the time that you left Egypt. Boil and eat it at the place designated byGod, your God. Then, at daybreak, turn around and go home.

8 Eat unraised bread for six days. Set aside the seventh day as a holiday; don’t do any work.

9-11 Starting from the day you put the sickle to the ripe grain, count out seven weeks. Celebrate the Feast-of-Weeks toGod, your God, by bringing your Freewill-Offering—give as generously asGod, your God, has blessed you. Rejoice in the Presence ofGod, your God: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite who lives in your neighborhood, the foreigner, the orphan and widow among you; rejoice at the placeGod, your God, will set aside to be worshiped.

12 Don’t forget that you were once a slave in Egypt. So be diligent in observing these regulations.

13-15 Observe the Feast-of-Booths for seven days when you gather the harvest from your threshing-floor and your wine-vat. Rejoice at your festival: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite, the foreigner, and the orphans and widows who live in your neighborhood. Celebrate the Feast toGod, your God, for seven days at the placeGoddesignates.God, your God, has been blessing you in your harvest and in all your work, so make a day of it—really celebrate!

16-17 All your men must appear beforeGod, your God, three times each year at the place he designates: at the Feast-of-Unraised-Bread (Passover), at the Feast-of-Weeks, and at the Feast-of-Booths. No one is to show up in the Presence ofGodempty-handed; each man must bring as much as he can manage, giving generously in response to the blessings ofGod, your God.

18-19 Appoint judges and officers, organized by tribes, in all the towns thatGod, your God, is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly and honestly. Don’t twist the law. Don’t play favorites. Don’t take a bribe—a bribe blinds even a wise person; it undermines the intentions of the best of people.

20 The right! The right! Pursue only what’s right! It’s the only way you can really live and possess the land thatGod, your God, is giving you.

21-22 Don’t plant fertility Asherah trees alongside the Altar ofGod, your God, that you build. Don’t set up phallic sex pillars—God, your God, hates them.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/16-d4347f28f2e6c667c9ace20c9ba6a1c2.mp3?version_id=97—

1 And don’t sacrifice toGod, your God, an ox or sheep that is defective or has anything at all wrong with it. That’s an abomination, an insult toGod, your God.

2-5 If you find anyone within the towns thatGod, your God, is giving you doing what is wrong inGod’s eyes, breaking his covenant by going off to worship other gods, bowing down to them—the sun, say, or the moon, or any rebel sky-gods—look at the evidence and investigate carefully. If you find that it is true, that, in fact, an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you are to take the man or woman who did this evil thing outside your city gates and stone the man or the woman. Hurl stones at the person until dead.

6-7 But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the rest of the community joins in. You have to purge the evil from your community.

8-9 When matters of justice come up that are too much for you—hard cases regarding homicides, legal disputes, fights—take them up to the central place of worship thatGod, your God, has designated. Bring them to the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office at the time. Consult them and they will hand down the decision for you.

10-13 Then carry out their verdict at the place designated byGod, your God. Do what they tell you, in exactly the way they tell you. Follow their instructions precisely: Don’t leave out anything; don’t add anything. Anyone who presumes to override or twist the decision handed down by the priest or judge who was acting in the Presence ofGod, your God, is as good as dead—root him out, rid Israel of the evil. Everyone will take notice and be impressed. That will put an end to presumptuous behavior.

14-17 When you enter the land thatGod, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whomGod, your God, chooses. Choose your king from among your kinsmen; don’t take a foreigner—only a kinsman. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, becauseGodtold you, “You’ll never go back there again!” And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from the straight and narrow. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold.

18-20 This is what must be done: When he sits down on the throne of his kingdom, the first thing he must do is make himself a copy of this Revelation on a scroll, copied under the supervision of the Levitical priests. That scroll is to remain at his side at all times; he is to study it every day so that he may learn what it means to fear hisGod, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. If he reads and learns, he will have a long reign as king in Israel, he and his sons.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/17-f3344889d5357a4e6f3350700c3292ed.mp3?version_id=97—