The Message (MSG)

1-2 The Levitical priests—that’s the entire tribe of Levi—don’t get any land-inheritance with the rest of Israel. They get the Fire-Gift-Offerings ofGod—they will live on that inheritance. But they don’t get land-inheritance like the rest of their kinsmen.Godis their inheritance.

3-5 This is what the priests get from the people from any offering of an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. You must also give them the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil and the first fleece of your sheep, becauseGod, your God, has chosen only them and their children out of all your tribes to be present and serve always in the name ofGod, your God.

6-8 If a Levite moves from any town in Israel—and he is quite free to move wherever he desires—and comes to the placeGoddesignates for worship, he may serve there in the name ofGodalong with all his brother Levites who are present and serving in the Presence ofGod. And he will get an equal share to eat, even though he has money from the sale of his parents’ possessions.

9-12 When you enter the land thatGod, your God, is giving you, don’t take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there. Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don’t practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery, casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead. People who do these things are an abomination toGod. It’s because of just such abominable practices thatGod, your God, is driving these nations out before you.

13-14 Be completely loyal toGod, your God. These nations that you’re about to run out of the country consort with sorcerers and witches. But not you.God, your God, forbids it.

15-16 God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you.Godwill raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him. This is what you askedGod, your God, for at Horeb on the day you were all gathered at the mountain and said, “We can’t hear any more fromGod, our God; we can’t stand seeing any more fire. We’ll die!”

17-19 AndGodsaid to me, “They’re right; they’ve spoken the truth. I’ll raise up for them a prophet like you from their kinsmen. I’ll tell him what to say and he will pass on to them everything I command him. And anyone who won’t listen to my words spoken by him, I will personally hold responsible.

20 “But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven’t commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.”

21-22 You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it wasGodwho spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke inGod’s name doesn’t happen, then obviouslyGodwasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/18-15377ffd47d2f11adcfbd770a8dc1272.mp3?version_id=97—

1-3 WhenGod, your God, throws the nations out of the country thatGod, your God, is giving you and you settle down in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three easily accessible cities in the land thatGod, your God, is giving you as your very own. Divide your land into thirds, this land thatGod, your God, is giving you to possess, and build roads to the towns so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there.

4-7 This is the guideline for the murderer who flees there to take refuge: He has to have killed his neighbor without premeditation and with no history of bad blood between them. For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into the woods to cut a tree; he swings the ax, the head slips off the handle and hits his neighbor, killing him. He may then flee to one of these cities and save his life. If the city is too far away, the avenger of blood racing in hot-blooded pursuit might catch him since it’s such a long distance, and kill him even though he didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t his fault. There was no history of hatred between them. Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves.

8-10 WhenGod, your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them because you are diligently living the way I’m commanding you today, namely, to loveGod, your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land.God, your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance—you don’t want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves.

11-13 On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that’s a different story. The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution. Don’t feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you’ll be able to live well and breathe clean air.

14 Don’t move your neighbor’s boundary markers, the longstanding landmarks set up by your pioneer ancestors defining their property.

15 You cannot convict anyone of a crime or sin on the word of one witness. You need two or three witnesses to make a case.

16-21 If a hostile witness stands to accuse someone of a wrong, then both parties involved in the quarrel must stand in the Presence ofGodbefore the priests and judges who are in office at that time. The judges must conduct a careful investigation; if the witness turns out to be a false witness and has lied against his fellow Israelite, give him the same medicine he intended for the other party. Clean the polluting evil from your company. People will hear of what you’ve done and be impressed; that will put a stop to this kind of evil among you. Don’t feel sorry for the person: It’s life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/19-3200bc25735c93c8ab78fdbf7c66c3e6.mp3?version_id=97—

1-4 When you go to war against your enemy and see horses and chariots and soldiers far outnumbering you, do not recoil in fear of them;God, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt is with you. When the battle is about to begin, let the priest come forward and speak to the troops. He’ll say, “Attention, Israel. In a few minutes you’re going to do battle with your enemies. Don’t waver in resolve. Don’t fear. Don’t hesitate. Don’t panic.God, your God, is right there with you, fighting with you against your enemies, fighting to win.”

5-7 Then let the officers step up and speak to the troops: “Is there a man here who has built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man dedicate it. And is there a man here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet enjoyed the grapes? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man enjoy the grapes. Is there a man here engaged to marry who hasn’t yet taken his wife? Let him go home right now lest he die in battle and another man take her.”

8 The officers will then continue, “And is there a man here who is wavering in resolve and afraid? Let him go home right now so that he doesn’t infect his fellows with his timidity and cowardly spirit.”

9 When the officers have finished speaking to the troops, let them appoint commanders of the troops who shall muster them by units.

10-15 When you come up against a city to attack it, call out, “Peace?” If they answer, “Yes, peace!” and open the city to you, then everyone found there will be conscripted as forced laborers and work for you. But if they don’t settle for peace and insist on war, then go ahead and attack.God, your God, will give them to you. Kill all the men with your swords. But don’t kill the women and children and animals. Everything inside the town you can take as plunder for you to use and eat—God, your God, gives it to you. This is the way you deal with the distant towns, the towns that don’t belong to the nations at hand.

16-18 But with the towns of the people thatGod, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, it’s different: don’t leave anyone alive. Consign them to holy destruction: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, obeying the command ofGod, your God. This is so there won’t be any of them left to teach you to practice the abominations that they engage in with their gods and you end up sinning againstGod, your God.

19-20 When you mount an attack on a town and the siege goes on a long time, don’t start cutting down the trees, swinging your axes against them. Those trees are your future food; don’t cut them down. Are trees soldiers who come against you with weapons? The exception can be those trees which don’t produce food; you can chop them down and use the timbers to build siege engines against the town that is resisting you until it falls.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/20-0c8dae05bb5affddf4a43eedc072af1a.mp3?version_id=97—

1-8 If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground thatGod, your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him, your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities. The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it. The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer. The Levitical priests will then step up.Godhas chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings inGod’s name. Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream and say, “We didn’t kill this man and we didn’t see who did it. Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, OGod. Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder.”

8-9 That will clear them from any responsibility in the murder. By following these procedures you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right inGod’s sight.

10-14 When you go to war against your enemies andGod, your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners, and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry, this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails, and discard the clothes she was wearing when captured. She is then to stay in your home for a full month, mourning her father and mother. Then you may go to bed with her as husband and wife. If it turns out you don’t like her, you must let her go and live wherever she wishes. But you can’t sell her or use her as a slave since you’ve humiliated her.

15-17 When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

18-20 When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won’t do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won’t obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, “This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won’t listen to a thing we say. He’s a glutton and a drunk.”

21 Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he’s dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what’s happened and be in awe.

22-23 When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree, don’t leave his dead body hanging overnight from the tree. Give him a decent burial that same day so that you don’t desecrate yourGod-given land—a hanged man is an insult to God.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/21-29b8f6f2b685ed858239ae5570114cfc.mp3?version_id=97—

1-3 If you see your kinsman’s ox or sheep wandering off loose, don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it. Return it promptly. If your fellow Israelite is not close by or you don’t know whose it is, take the animal home with you and take care of it until your fellow asks about it. Then return it to him. Do the same if it’s his donkey or a piece of clothing or anything else your fellow Israelite loses. Don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it.

4 If you see your fellow’s donkey or ox injured along the road, don’t look the other way. Help him get it up and on its way.

5 A woman must not wear a man’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing. This kind of thing is an abomination toGod, your God.

6-7 When you come across a bird’s nest alongside the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don’t take the mother with the young. You may take the babies, but let the mother go so that you will live a good and long life.

8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof to make it safe so that someone doesn’t fall off and die and your family become responsible for the death.

9 Don’t plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard. If you do, you will forfeit what you’ve sown, the total production of the vineyard.

10 Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 Don’t wear clothes of mixed fabrics, wool and linen together.

12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you use to cover yourself.

13-19 If a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then turns on her, calling her a slut, giving her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I slept with her I discovered she wasn’t a virgin,” then the father and mother of the girl are to take her with the proof of her virginity to the town leaders at the gate. The father is to tell the leaders, “I gave my daughter to this man as wife and he turned on her, rejecting her. And now he has slanderously accused her, claiming that she wasn’t a virgin. But look at this, here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” And then he is to spread out her bloodstained wedding garment before the leaders for their examination. The town leaders then are to take the husband, whip him, fine him a hundred pieces of silver, and give it to the father of the girl. The man gave a virgin girl of Israel a bad name. He has to keep her as his wife and can never divorce her.

20-21 But if it turns out that the accusation is true and there is no evidence of the girl’s virginity, the men of the town are to take her to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death. She acted disgracefully in Israel. She lived like a whore while still in her parents’ home. Purge the evil from among you.

22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel.

23-24 If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her, take both of them to the town gate and stone them until they die—the girl because she didn’t yell out for help in the town and the man because he raped her, violating the fiancée of his neighbor. You must purge the evil from among you.

25-27 But if it was out in the country that the man found the engaged girl and grabbed and raped her, only the man is to die, the man who raped her. Don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong. This is similar to the case of a man who comes across his neighbor out in the country and murders him; when the engaged girl yelled out for help, there was no one around to hear or help her.

28-29 When a man comes upon a virgin who has never been engaged and grabs and rapes her and they are found out, the man who raped her has to give her father fifty pieces of silver. He has to marry her because he took advantage of her. And he can never divorce her.

30 A man may not marry his father’s ex-wife—that would violate his father’s rights.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/22-6a94ed2c44baf435b768d78fa9eb98b7.mp3?version_id=97—

1 No eunuch is to enter the congregation ofGod.

2 No bastard is to enter the congregation ofGod, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children.

3-6 No Ammonite or Moabite is to enter the congregation ofGod, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children, ever. Those nations didn’t treat you with hospitality on your travels out of Egypt, and on top of that they also hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you.God, your God, refused to listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing—howGod, your God, loves you! Don’t even try to get along with them or do anything for them, ever.

7 But don’t spurn an Edomite; he’s your kin.

And don’t spurn an Egyptian; you were a foreigner in his land.

8 Children born to Edomites and Egyptians may enter the congregation ofGodin the third generation.

9-11 When you are camped out, at war with your enemies, be careful to keep yourself from anything ritually defiling. If one of your men has become ritually unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must go outside the camp and stay there until evening when he can wash himself, returning to the camp at sunset.

12-14 Mark out an area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourselves. Along with your weapons have a stick with you. After you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the stick and cover your excrement.God, your God, strolls through your camp; he’s present to deliver you and give you victory over your enemies. Keep your camp holy; don’t permit anything indecent or offensive inGod’s eyes.

15-16 Don’t return a runaway slave to his master; he’s come to you for refuge. Let him live wherever he wishes within the protective gates of your city. Don’t take advantage of him.

17-18 No daughter of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute; and no son of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute. And don’t bring the fee of a sacred whore or the earnings of a priest-pimp to the house ofGod, your God, to pay for any vow—they are both an abomination toGod, your God.

19-20 Don’t charge interest to your kinsmen on any loan: not for money or food or clothing or anything else that could earn interest. You may charge foreigners interest, but you may not charge your brothers interest; that wayGod, your God, will bless all the work that you take up and the land that you are entering to possess.

21-23 When you make a vow toGod, your God, don’t put off keeping it;God, your God, expects you to keep it and if you don’t you’re guilty. But if you don’t make a vow in the first place, there’s no sin. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Keep the vow you willingly vowed toGod, your God. You promised it, so do it.

24-25 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want until you’re full, but you may not put any in your bucket or bag. And when you walk through the ripe grain of your neighbor, you may pick the heads of grain, but you may not swing your sickle there.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/23-01d892dbbcb9fd572a07ed5f26ec8422.mp3?version_id=97—

1-4 If a man marries a woman and then it happens that he no longer likes her because he has found something wrong with her, he may give her divorce papers, put them in her hand, and send her off. After she leaves, if she becomes another man’s wife and he also comes to hate her and this second husband also gives her divorce papers, puts them in her hand, and sends her off, or if he should die, then the first husband who divorced her can’t marry her again. She has made herself ritually unclean, and her remarriage would be an abomination in the Presence ofGodand defile the land with sin, this land thatGod, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy.

6 Don’t seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You’d be seizing someone’s very life.

7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you.

8-9 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. Don’t forget whatGod, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.

10-13 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to claim his pledge. Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. And if he is destitute, don’t use his cloak as a bedroll; return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight ofGod, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.

14-15 Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite or foreigner living in your land and in your city. Pay him at the end of each workday; he’s living from hand to mouth and needs it now. If you hold back his pay, he’ll protest toGodand you’ll have sin on your books.

16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.

17-18 Make sure foreigners and orphans get their just rights. Don’t take the cloak of a widow as security for a loan. Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt andGod, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.

19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so thatGod, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/24-e03573eb58ef157d0362eb56f36ec794.mp3?version_id=97—

1-3 When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty. If the guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves, but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.

4 Don’t muzzle an ox while it is threshing.

5-6 When brothers are living together and one of them dies without having had a son, the widow of the dead brother shall not marry a stranger from outside the family; her husband’s brother is to come to her and marry her and do the brother-in-law’s duty by her. The first son that she bears shall be named after her dead husband so his name won’t die out in Israel.

7-10 But if the brother doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the leaders at the city gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to keep his brother’s name alive in Israel; he won’t agree to do the brother-in-law’s duty by me.” Then the leaders will call for the brother and confront him. If he stands there defiant and says, “I don’t want her,” his sister-in-law is to pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and say, “This is what happens to the man who refuses to build up the family of his brother—his name in Israel will be Family-No-Sandal.”

11-12 When two men are in a fight and the wife of the one man, trying to rescue her husband, grabs the genitals of the man hitting him, you are to cut off her hand. Show no pity.

13-16 Don’t carry around with you two weights, one heavy and the other light, and don’t keep two measures at hand, one large and the other small. Use only one weight, a true and honest weight, and one measure, a true and honest measure, so that you will live a long time on the land thatGod, your God, is giving you. Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination toGod, your God—all this corruption in business deals!

17-19 Don’t forget what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt, how he attacked you when you were tired, barely able to put one foot in front of another, mercilessly cut off your stragglers, and had no regard for God. WhenGod, your God, gives you rest from all the enemies that surround you in the inheritance-landGod, your God, is giving you to possess, you are to wipe the name of Amalek from off the Earth. Don’t forget!

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/25-640970d4db6c3f2a457ca270acbcc884.mp3?version_id=97—

1-5 Once you enter the land thatGod, your God, is giving you as an inheritance and take it over and settle down, you are to take some of all the firstfruits of what you grow in the land thatGod, your God, is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the placeGod, your God, sets apart for you to worship him. At that time, go to the priest who is there and say, “I announce toGod, your God, today that I have entered the land thatGodpromised our ancestors that he’d give to us.” The priest will take the basket from you and place it on the Altar ofGod, your God. And there in the Presence ofGod, your God, you will recite:

5-10 A wandering Aramean was my father,

he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,

he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon

they became a great nation, mighty and many.

The Egyptians abused and battered us,

in a cruel and savage slavery.

We cried out toGod, the God-of-Our-Fathers:

He listened to our voice, he saw

our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.

AndGodtook us out of Egypt

with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,

with signs and miracle-wonders.

And he brought us to this place,

gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.

So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits

of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, OGod.

10-11 Then place it in the Presence ofGod, your God. Prostrate yourselves in the Presence ofGod, your God. And rejoice! Celebrate all the good things thatGod, your God, has given you and your family; you and the Levite and the foreigner who lives with you.

12-14 Every third year, the year of the tithe, give a tenth of your produce to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that they may eat their fill in your cities. And then, in the Presence ofGod, your God, say this:

I have brought the sacred share,

I’ve given it to the Levite, foreigner, orphan, and widow.

What you commanded, I’ve done.

I haven’t detoured around your commands,

I haven’t forgotten a single one.

I haven’t eaten from the sacred share while mourning,

I haven’t removed any of it while ritually unclean,

I haven’t used it in funeral feasts.

I have listened obediently to the Voice ofGod, my God,

I have lived the way you commanded me.

15 Look down from your holy house in Heaven!

Bless your people Israel and the ground you gave us,

just as you promised our ancestors you would,

this land flowing with milk and honey.

16-17 This very dayGod, your God, commands you to follow these rules and regulations, to live them out with everything you have in you. You’ve renewed your vows today thatGodis your God, that you’ll live the way he shows you; do what he tells you in the rules, regulations, and commandments; and listen obediently to him.

18-19 And todayGodhas reaffirmed that you are dearly held treasure just as he promised, a people entrusted with keeping his commandments, a people set high above all other nations that he’s made, high in praise, fame, and honor: you’re a people holy toGod, your God. That’s what he has promised.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/26-c2ecd1d7d72753b5581505f06947a006.mp3?version_id=97—

1-3 Moses commanded the leaders of Israel and charged the people: Keep every commandment that I command you today. On the day you cross the Jordan into the land thatGod, your God, is giving you, erect large stones and coat them with plaster. As soon as you cross over the river, write on the stones all the words of this Revelation so that you’ll enter the land thatGod, your God, is giving you, that land flowing with milk and honey thatGod, the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised you.

4-7 So when you’ve crossed the Jordan, erect these stones on Mount Ebal. Then coat them with plaster. Build an Altar of stones forGod, your God, there on the mountain. Don’t use an iron tool on the stones; build the Altar toGod, your God, with uncut stones and offer your Whole-Burnt-Offerings on it toGod, your God. When you sacrifice your Peace-Offerings you will also eat them there, rejoicing in the Presence ofGod, your God.

8 Write all the words of this Revelation on the stones. Incise them sharply.

9-10 Moses and the Levitical priests addressed all Israel: Quiet. Listen obediently, Israel. This very day you have become the people ofGod, your God. Listen to the Voice ofGod, your God. Keep his commandments and regulations that I’m commanding you today.

11-13 That day Moses commanded: After you’ve crossed the Jordan, these tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14-26 The Levites, acting as spokesmen and speaking loudly, will address Israel:

God’s curse on anyone who carves or casts a god-image—an abomination toGodmade by a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who demeans a parent.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who misdirects a blind man on the road.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who interferes with justice due the foreigner, orphan, or widow.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his father’s wife; he has violated the woman who belongs to his father.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who has sex with an animal.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his sister, the daughter of his father or mother.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his mother-in-law.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who kills his neighbor in secret.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on anyone who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

God’s curse on whoever does not give substance to the words of this Revelation by living them.

All respond:Yes. Absolutely.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/DEU/27-4ecf09c84cf6128df7026382245812d9.mp3?version_id=97—