Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹“In honor of the LORD your God, celebrate the Passover each year in the early spring, in the month of Abib, for that was the month in which the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

²Your Passover sacrifice may be from either the flock or the herd, and it must be sacrificed to the LORD your God at the designated place of worship — the place he chooses for his name to be honored.

³Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread — the bread of suffering — so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt.

⁴Let no yeast be found in any house throughout your land for those seven days. And when you sacrifice the Passover lamb on the evening of the first day, do not let any of the meat remain until the next morning.

⁵“You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.

⁶You must offer it only at the designated place of worship — the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored. Sacrifice it there in the evening as the sun goes down on the anniversary of your exodus from Egypt.

⁷Roast the lamb and eat it in the place the LORD your God chooses. Then you may go back to your tents the next morning.

⁸For the next six days you may not eat any bread made with yeast. On the seventh day proclaim another holy day in honor of the LORD your God, and no work may be done on that day.

⁹“Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest.

¹⁰Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest to honor the LORD your God. Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him.

¹¹This is a time to celebrate before the LORD your God at the designated place of worship he will choose for his name to be honored. Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you.

¹²Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, so be careful to obey all these decrees.

¹³“You must observe the Festival of Shelters for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed.

¹⁴This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns.

¹⁵For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the LORD your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all.

¹⁶“Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the LORD without a gift for him.

¹⁷All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the LORD your God.

¹⁸“Appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes in all the towns the LORD your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly.

¹⁹You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly.

²⁰Let true justice prevail, so you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

²¹“You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God.

²²And never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the LORD your God hates them.

¹“Never sacrifice sick or defective cattle, sheep, or goats to the LORD your God, for he detests such gifts.

²“When you begin living in the towns the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman among you might do evil in the sight of the LORD your God and violate the covenant.

³For instance, they might serve other gods or worship the sun, the moon, or any of the stars — the forces of heaven — which I have strictly forbidden.

⁴When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

⁵then the man or woman who has committed such an evil act must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death.

⁶But never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses.

⁷The witnesses must throw the first stones, and then all the people may join in. In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.

⁸“Suppose a case arises in a local court that is too hard for you to decide — for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder or only of manslaughter, or a difficult lawsuit, or a case involving different kinds of assault. Take such legal cases to the place the LORD your God will choose,

⁹and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict.

¹⁰You must carry out the verdict they announce and the sentence they prescribe at the place the LORD chooses. You must do exactly what they say.

¹¹After they have interpreted the law and declared their verdict, the sentence they impose must be fully executed; do not modify it in any way.

¹²Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel.

¹³Then everyone else will hear about it and be afraid to act so arrogantly.

¹⁴“You are about to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’

¹⁵If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the LORD your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.

¹⁶“The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’

¹⁷The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

¹⁹He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees.

²⁰This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.

¹“Remember that the Levitical priests — that is, the whole of the tribe of Levi — will receive no allotment of land among the other tribes in Israel. Instead, the priests and Levites will eat from the special gifts given to the LORD, for that is their share.

²They will have no land of their own among the Israelites. The LORD himself is their special possession, just as he promised them.

³“These are the parts the priests may claim as their share from the cattle, sheep, and goats that the people bring as offerings: the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach.

⁴You must also give to the priests the first share of the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and the wool at shearing time.

⁵For the LORD your God chose the tribe of Levi out of all your tribes to minister in the LORD’s name forever.

⁶“Suppose a Levite chooses to move from his town in Israel, wherever he is living, to the place the LORD chooses for worship.

⁷He may minister there in the name of the LORD his God, just like all his fellow Levites who are serving the LORD there.

⁸He may eat his share of the sacrifices and offerings, even if he also receives support from his family.

⁹“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.

¹⁰For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft,

¹¹or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.

¹²Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you.

¹³But you must be blameless before the LORD your God.

¹⁴The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the LORD your God forbids you to do such things.”

¹⁵Moses continued, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

¹⁶For this is what you yourselves requested of the LORD your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai. You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’

¹⁷“Then the LORD said to me, ‘What they have said is right.

¹⁸I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.

¹⁹I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.

²⁰But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.’

²¹“But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the LORD?’

²²If the prophet speaks in the LORD’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.

¹“When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is giving you, you will take over their land and settle in their towns and homes.

²Then you must set apart three cities of refuge in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

³Survey the territory, and divide the land the LORD your God is giving you into three districts, with one of these cities in each district. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of the cities of refuge for safety.

⁴“If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, the slayer may flee to any of these cities to live in safety.

⁵For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood. And suppose one of them swings an ax to chop down a tree, and the ax head flies off the handle, killing the other person. In such cases, the slayer may flee to one of the cities of refuge to live in safety.

⁶“If the distance to the nearest city of refuge is too far, an enraged avenger might be able to chase down and kill the person who caused the death. Then the slayer would die unfairly, since he had never shown hostility toward the person who died.

⁷That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge.

⁸“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised them,

⁹you must designate three additional cities of refuge. (He will give you this land if you are careful to obey all the commands I have given you — if you always love the LORD your God and walk in his ways.)

¹⁰That way you will prevent the death of innocent people in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession. You will not be held responsible for the death of innocent people.

¹¹“But suppose someone is hostile toward a neighbor and deliberately ambushes and murders him and then flees to one of the cities of refuge.

¹²In that case, the elders of the murderer’s hometown must send agents to the city of refuge to bring him back and hand him over to the dead person’s avenger to be put to death.

¹³Do not feel sorry for that murderer! Purge from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people; then all will go well with you.

¹⁴“When you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession, you must never steal anyone’s land by moving the boundary markers your ancestors set up to mark their property.

¹⁵“You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶“If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime,

¹⁷then both the accuser and accused must appear before the LORD by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time.

¹⁸The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite,

¹⁹you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you.

²⁰Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.

²¹You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

¹“When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you!

²When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops.

³He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them.

⁴For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’

⁵“Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house.

⁶Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit.

⁷Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’

⁸“Then the officers will also say, ‘Is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’

⁹When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders.

¹⁰“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace.

¹¹If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor.

¹²But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town.

¹³When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town.

¹⁴But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁵“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter.

¹⁶In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing.

¹⁷You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you.

¹⁸This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the LORD your God.

¹⁹“When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them?

²⁰You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls.

¹“When you are in the land the LORD your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.

²In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns.

³When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.

⁴They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck.

⁵Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.

⁶“The elders of the town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken.

⁷Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen.

⁸O LORD, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood.

⁹By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the LORD’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.

¹⁰“Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives.

¹¹And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her.

¹²If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails,

¹³and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife.

¹⁴But if you marry her and she does not please you, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

¹⁵“Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love.

¹⁶When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son.

¹⁷He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

¹⁸“Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him.

¹⁹In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate.

²⁰The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’

²¹Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

²²“If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,

²³the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession.

¹“If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner.

²If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it.

³Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility.

⁴“If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!

⁵“A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the LORD your God.

⁶“If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting in the nest, do not take the mother with the young.

⁷You may take the young, but let the mother go, so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life.

⁸“When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.

⁹“You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your vineyard. If you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop.

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

¹¹“You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.

¹²“You must put four tassels on the hem of the cloak with which you cover yourself — on the front, back, and sides.

¹³“Suppose a man marries a woman, but after sleeping with her, he turns against her

¹⁴and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘When I married this woman, I discovered she was not a virgin.’

¹⁵Then the woman’s father and mother must bring the proof of her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town gate.

¹⁶Her father must say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has turned against her.

¹⁷He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they must spread her bed sheet before the elders.

¹⁸The elders must then take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They must also fine him 100 pieces of silver, which he must pay to the woman’s father because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct. The woman will then remain the man’s wife, and he may never divorce her.

²⁰“But suppose the man’s accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin.

²¹The woman must be taken to the door of her father’s home, and there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents’ home. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

²²“If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.

²³“Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town,

²⁴you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

²⁵“But if the man meets the engaged woman out in the country, and he rapes her, then only the man must die.

²⁶Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim.

²⁷Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸“Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered,

²⁹he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰“A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

¹“If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

²“If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

³“No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

⁴These nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you.

⁵But the LORD your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the LORD your God loves you.

⁶As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.

⁷“Do not detest the Edomites or the Egyptians, because the Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among the Egyptians.

⁸The third generation of Edomites and Egyptians may enter the assembly of the LORD.

⁹“When you go to war against your enemies, be sure to stay away from anything that is impure.

¹⁰“Any man who becomes ceremonially defiled because of a nocturnal emission must leave the camp and stay away all day.

¹¹Toward evening he must bathe himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.

¹²“You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself.

¹³Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement.

¹⁴The camp must be holy, for the LORD your God moves around in your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies. He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn away from you.

¹⁵“If slaves should escape from their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them over to their masters.

¹⁶Let them live among you in any town they choose, and do not oppress them.

¹⁷“No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.

¹⁸When you are bringing an offering to fulfill a vow, you must not bring to the house of the LORD your God any offering from the earnings of a prostitute, whether a man or a woman, for both are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁹“Do not charge interest on the loans you make to a fellow Israelite, whether you loan money, or food, or anything else.

²⁰You may charge interest to foreigners, but you may not charge interest to Israelites, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you do in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

²¹“When you make a vow to the LORD your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the LORD your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin.

²²However, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow.

²³But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the LORD your God.

²⁴“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not carry any away in a basket.

²⁵And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.

¹“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house.

²When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man.

³But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies,

⁴the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the LORD. You must not bring guilt upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession.

⁵“A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or be given any other official responsibilities. He must be free to spend one year at home, bringing happiness to the wife he has married.

⁶“It is wrong to take a set of millstones, or even just the upper millstone, as security for a loan, for the owner uses it to make a living.

⁷“If anyone kidnaps a fellow Israelite and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.

⁸“In all cases involving serious skin diseases, be careful to follow the instructions of the Levitical priests; obey all the commands I have given them.

⁹Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt.

¹⁰“If you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to pick up the item he is giving as security.

¹¹You must wait outside while he goes in and brings it out to you.

¹²If your neighbor is poor and gives you his cloak as security for a loan, do not keep the cloak overnight.

¹³Return the cloak to its owner by sunset so he can stay warm through the night and bless you, and the LORD your God will count you as righteous.

¹⁴“Never take advantage of poor and destitute laborers, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in your towns.

¹⁵You must pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and are counting on it. If you don’t, they might cry out to the LORD against you, and it would be counted against you as sin.

¹⁶“Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes.

¹⁷“True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt.

¹⁸Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.

¹⁹“When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

²⁰When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

²¹When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

²²Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.

¹“Suppose two people take a dispute to court, and the judges declare that one is right and the other is wrong.

²If the person in the wrong is sentenced to be flogged, the judge must command him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate to the crime.

³But never give more than forty lashes; more than forty lashes would publicly humiliate your neighbor.

⁴“You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.

⁵“If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law.

⁶The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.

⁷“But if the man refuses to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the town gate and say to the elders assembled there, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel — he refuses to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law by marrying me.’

⁸The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’

⁹the widow must walk over to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she must declare, ‘This is what happens to a man who refuses to provide his brother with children.’

¹⁰Ever afterward in Israel his family will be referred to as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’!

¹¹“If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man,

¹²you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

¹³“You must use accurate scales when you weigh out merchandise,

¹⁴and you must use full and honest measures.

¹⁵Yes, always use honest weights and measures, so that you may enjoy a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁶All who cheat with dishonest weights and measures are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁷“Never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt.

¹⁸They attacked you when you were exhausted and weary, and they struck down those who were straggling behind. They had no fear of God.

¹⁹Therefore, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies in the land he is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Never forget this!

¹“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession and you have conquered it and settled there,

²put some of the first produce from each crop you harvest into a basket and bring it to the designated place of worship — the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored.

³Go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, ‘With this gift I acknowledge to the LORD your God that I have entered the land he swore to our ancestors he would give us.’

⁴The priest will then take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the LORD your God.

⁵“You must then say in the presence of the LORD your God, ‘My ancestor Jacob was a wandering Aramean who went to live as a foreigner in Egypt. His family arrived few in number, but in Egypt they became a large and mighty nation.

⁶When the Egyptians oppressed and humiliated us by making us their slaves,

⁷we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors. He heard our cries and saw our hardship, toil, and oppression.

⁸So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and powerful arm, with overwhelming terror, and with miraculous signs and wonders.

⁹He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey!

¹⁰And now, O LORD, I have brought you the first portion of the harvest you have given me from the ground.’ Then place the produce before the LORD your God, and bow to the ground in worship before him.

¹¹Afterward you may go and celebrate because of all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household. Remember to include the Levites and the foreigners living among you in the celebration.

¹²“Every third year you must offer a special tithe of your crops. In this year of the special tithe you must give your tithes to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that they will have enough to eat in your towns.

¹³Then you must declare in the presence of the LORD your God, ‘I have taken the sacred gift from my house and have given it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, just as you commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten any of your commands.

¹⁴I have not eaten any of it while in mourning; I have not handled it while I was ceremonially unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God and have done everything you commanded me.

¹⁵Now look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you swore to our ancestors to give us — a land flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁶“Today the LORD your God has commanded you to obey all these decrees and regulations. So be careful to obey them wholeheartedly.

¹⁷You have declared today that the LORD is your God. And you have promised to walk in his ways, and to obey his decrees, commands, and regulations, and to do everything he tells you.

¹⁸The LORD has declared today that you are his people, his own special treasure, just as he promised, and that you must obey all his commands.

¹⁹And if you do, he will set you high above all the other nations he has made. Then you will receive praise, honor, and renown. You will be a nation that is holy to the LORD your God, just as he promised.”

¹Then Moses and the leaders of Israel gave this charge to the people: “Obey all these commands that I am giving you today.

²When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster.

³Write this whole body of instruction on them when you cross the river to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you — a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

⁴When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones at Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster, as I am commanding you today.

⁵“Then build an altar there to the LORD your God, using natural, uncut stones. You must not shape the stones with an iron tool.

⁶Build the altar of uncut stones, and use it to offer burnt offerings to the LORD your God.

⁷Also sacrifice peace offerings on it, and celebrate by feasting there before the LORD your God.

⁸You must clearly write all these instructions on the stones coated with plaster.”

⁹Then Moses and the Levitical priests addressed all Israel as follows: “O Israel, be quiet and listen! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God.

¹⁰So you must obey the LORD your God by keeping all these commands and decrees that I am giving you today.”

¹¹That same day Moses also gave this charge to the people:

¹²“When you cross the Jordan River, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin must stand on Mount Gerizim to proclaim a blessing over the people.

¹³And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Mount Ebal to proclaim a curse.

¹⁴“Then the Levites will shout to all the people of Israel:

¹⁵‘Cursed is anyone who carves or casts an idol and secretly sets it up. These idols, the work of craftsmen, are detestable to the LORD.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁶‘Cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁷‘Cursed is anyone who steals property from a neighbor by moving a boundary marker.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁸‘Cursed is anyone who leads a blind person astray on the road.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁹‘Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁰‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with one of his father’s wives, for he has violated his father.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²¹‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with an animal.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²²‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether she is the daughter of his father or his mother.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²³‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁴‘Cursed is anyone who attacks a neighbor in secret.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁵‘Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁶‘Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

¹“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.

²You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God:

³Your towns and your fields will be blessed.

⁴Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed.

⁵Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed.

⁶Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.

⁷“The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!

⁸“The LORD will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

⁹“If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do.

¹⁰Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.

¹¹“The LORD will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops.

¹²The LORD will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them.

¹³If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.

¹⁴You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

¹⁵“But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:

¹⁶Your towns and your fields will be cursed.

¹⁷Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be cursed.

¹⁸Your children and your crops will be cursed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed.

¹⁹Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed.

²⁰“The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.

²¹The LORD will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

²²The LORD will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die.

²³The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron.

²⁴The LORD will change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.

²⁵“The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

²⁶Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.

²⁷“The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.

²⁸The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.

²⁹You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

³⁰“You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.

³¹Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be taken from you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you.

³²You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them.

³³A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment.

³⁴You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you.

³⁵The LORD will cover your knees and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered from head to foot.

³⁶“The LORD will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone!

³⁷You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the LORD sends you.

³⁸“You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops.

³⁹You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines.

⁴⁰You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens.

⁴¹You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity.

⁴²Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops.

⁴³“The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker.

⁴⁴They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!

⁴⁵“If you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.

⁴⁶These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.

⁴⁷If you do not serve the LORD your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,

⁴⁸you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The LORD will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹“The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand,

⁵⁰a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young.

⁵¹Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death.

⁵²They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land — the walls you trusted to protect you — are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you.

⁵³“The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you.

⁵⁴The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children.

⁵⁵He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring — the flesh of one of his own children — because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.

⁵⁶The most tender and delicate woman among you — so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot — will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter.

⁵⁷She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.

⁵⁸“If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God,

⁵⁹then the LORD will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick.

⁶⁰He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief.

⁶¹The LORD will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed.

⁶²Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the LORD your God.

⁶³“Just as the LORD has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the LORD will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy.

⁶⁴For the LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone!

⁶⁵There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the LORD will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair.

⁶⁶Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive.

⁶⁷In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you.

⁶⁸Then the LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites while they were in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Sinai.

²Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to his whole country —

³all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs, and the amazing wonders.

⁴But to this day the LORD has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear!

⁵For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.

⁶You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the LORD your God.

⁷“When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.

⁸We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their grant of land.

⁹“Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.

¹⁰All of you — tribal leaders, elders, officers, all the men of Israel — are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God.

¹¹Your little ones and your wives are with you, as well as the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water.

¹²You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of the LORD your God. The LORD is making this covenant, including the curses.

¹³By entering into the covenant today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴“But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant with its curses.

¹⁵I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the LORD our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.

¹⁶“You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.

¹⁷You have seen their detestable practices and their idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.

¹⁸I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you — no man, woman, clan, or tribe — will turn away from the LORD our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit.

¹⁹“Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!

²⁰The LORD will never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the LORD will erase their names from under heaven.

²¹The LORD will separate them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the curses of the covenant recorded in this Book of Instruction.

²²“Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD inflicts on it.

²³They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his intense anger.’

²⁴“And all the surrounding nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why was he so angry?’

²⁵“And the answer will be, ‘This happened because the people of the land abandoned the covenant that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²⁶Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the LORD.

²⁷That is why the LORD’s anger has burned against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book.

²⁸In great anger and fury the LORD uprooted his people from their land and banished them to another land, where they still live today!’

²⁹“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.