Laws Concerning Warfare
1 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see ihorses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is jwith you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, kthe priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you lto fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ 5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not menjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. 7 nAnd is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ 8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, o‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.
10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, poffer terms of peace to it. 11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, qyou shall put all its males to the sword, 14 rbut the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you sshall take as plunder for yourselves. And tyou shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But uin the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but vyou shall devote them to complete destruction,1 the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that wthey may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you xsin against the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, yyou shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
The Greatest Commandment
1 “Now this is zthe commandment—the statutes and the rules1—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that ayou may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and bthat your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, cas the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.2 5 You eshall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 gYou shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 iYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities jthat you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 kthen take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is lthe Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and mby his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not ngo after other gods, othe gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for pthe Lord your God in your midst qis a jealous God—rlest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16 s“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, tas you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall udiligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 vAnd you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 wby thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
20 x“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, y‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And zthe Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, ato fear the Lord our God, bfor our good always, that che might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And dit will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
A Chosen People
1 “When the eLord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, fthe Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations gmore numerous and mightier than you, 2 hand when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must idevote them to complete destruction.3 jYou shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 kYou shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. lThen the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you mquickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: nyou shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their npillars and chop down their nAsherim and oburn their carved images with fire.
6 “For pyou are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be pa people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but qit is because the Lord loves you and is keeping rthe oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, sthe faithful God twho keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and urepays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. vHe will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 wYou shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12 x“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ythe covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will zlove you, bless you, and multiply you. aHe will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. bThere shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil cdiseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And dyou shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. eYour eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be fa snare to you.
17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 gyou shall not be afraid of them but you shall hremember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, ithe signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, jthe Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is kin your midst, la great and awesome God. 22 mThe Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,4 lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 nBut the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And ohe will give their kings into your hand, and you shall pmake their name perish from under heaven. qNo one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods ryou shall burn with fire. You sshall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be tensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction5 like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ufor it is devoted to destruction.
Remember the Lord Your God
1 “The whole commandment that I command you today vyou shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you wthese forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, xtesting you yto know what was in your heart, zwhether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and alet you hunger and bfed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that cman does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word6 that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 dYour clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, eas a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, fa land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, gof vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 hlest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 ithen your heart be lifted up, and you jforget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who kled you through the great and terrifying wilderness, lwith its fiery serpents and scorpions mand thirsty ground where there was no water, nwho brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with omanna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, pto do you good in the end. 17 Beware qlest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for rit is he who gives you power to get wealth, sthat he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, tI solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, uso shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Not Because of Righteousness
1 “Hear, O Israel: you are vto cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations wgreater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, xthe sons of the Anakim, ywhom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3 Know therefore today that he who zgoes over before you aas a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. bSo you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
4 c“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is dbecause of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 eNot because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm fthe word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are ga stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. hFrom the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Even iat Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 jWhen I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain kforty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And lthe Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire mon the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, n‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have oturned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’
The Golden Calf
13 p“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ga stubborn people. 14 qLet me alone, that I may destroy them and rblot out their name from under heaven. And sI will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 tSo I turned and came down from the mountain, and uthe mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And vI looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden7 calf. wYou had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I xlay prostrate before the Lord yas before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, zin doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. aBut the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then bI took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
22 “At cTaberah also, and at dMassah and at eKibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And fwhen the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and gdid not believe him or obey his voice. 24 hYou have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
25 x“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 iAnd I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, j“Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 kFor they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
New Tablets of Stone
1 “At that time the Lord said to me, l‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and mmake an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and nyou shall put them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark oof acacia wood, and pcut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And qhe wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments8 rthat the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire son the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and tcame down from the mountain and uput the tablets in the ark that I had made. vAnd there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”
6 (The people of Israel wjourneyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan9 to Moserah. xThere Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. 7 yFrom there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. 8 At that time zthe Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ato carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord bto stand before the Lord to minister to him and cto bless in his name, to this day. 9 dTherefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
10 e“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, fand the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 11 gAnd the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
Circumcise Your Heart
12 “And now, Israel, hwhat does the Lord your God require of you, but ito fear the Lord your God, jto walk in all his ways, kto love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and lto keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today mfor your good? 14 Behold, nto the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, othe earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet pthe Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore qthe foreskin of your heart, and be no longer rstubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is sGod of gods and tLord of lords, uthe great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is vnot partial and takes no bribe. 18 wHe executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 xLove the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 iYou shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and yhold fast to him, and zby his name you shall swear. 21 aHe is your praise. He is your God, bwho has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt cseventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you das numerous as the stars of heaven.
Love and Serve the Lord
1 e“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and fkeep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to gyour children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline10 of the Lord your God, hhis greatness, ihis mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 jhis signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, khow he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, 5 and lwhat he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6 and mwhat he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7 For your eyes have seen nall the great work of the Lord that he did.
8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may obe strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and pthat you may live long in the land qthat the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ra land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,11 like a garden of vegetables. 11 sBut the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. tThe eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, uto love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 vhe12 will give the rain for your land in its season, wthe early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 xAnd he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and yyou shall eat and be full. 16 Take care zlest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and aserve other gods and worship them; 17 then bthe anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he cwill shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and dyou will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18 e“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and fyou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 gYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 hthat your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ias long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if jyou will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and kholding fast to him, 23 then the Lord lwill drive out all these nations before you, and you will mdispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 nEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ofrom the wilderness to13 the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 pNo one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay qthe fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ras he promised you.
26 s“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 tthe blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and uthe curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, vto go after other gods that you have not known. 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set wthe blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the xArabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ythe oak14 of Moreh? 31 For you are zto cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful ato do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship
1 b“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, call the days that you live on the earth. 2 dYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, eon the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ftheir pillars and burn their gAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and hdestroy their name out of that place. 4 iYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek jthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation15 there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and nyou shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since she has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 tTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at jthe place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, uaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. vThe unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 wOnly you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns kthe tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but myou shall eat them before the Lord your God in jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 xTake care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 “When the Lord your God yenlarges your territory, zas he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If athe place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, bthen you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just cas the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. cThe unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 dOnly be sure that you do not eat the blood, efor the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, fthat all may go well with you and with your children after you, gwhen you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the hholy things that are due from you, and iyour vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to athe place that the Lord will choose, 27 and joffer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, fthat it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Warning Against Idolatry
29 “When kthe Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care lthat you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 mYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every nabominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for othey even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
1632 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. pYou shall not add to it or take from it.
