Talmidi Library
The Bible, Commentaries & Sermons
ha-Seifer ha-Torat Mosheh /
The Book of the Teaching of Moses
Devarim / Deuteronomy
(for an explanation of the format, notes and conventions used in this translation, please see the page on The Translation of the Torah and the Prophets. For an explanation of my methodology, see the page on The Original Torah Project).
If you have any questions, please email me at: shmuliq.parzal@googlemail.com
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS IS AN INTERPRETATIVE ADAPTATION OF THE HEBREW TEXT, NOT A LITERAL TRANSLATION. The intent is to give the modern reader an understanding of the sense and intent of the original, rather than a word for word rendering. Unless one is conversant in the idioms of Hebrew, and the nuances of ancient Israelite culture, a literal rendering will give you the words, but not the message.
words in italics without brackets – words not found in the traditional Masoretic text, but attested in one or more other Bible version (Samaritan Pentateuch [SP], Dead Sea Scrolls Bible [DSS], Greek Septuagint [LXX]).
[words in square brackets] – words implied by the Hebrew words, inserted to help give the sense of the Hebrew words in natural, Modern English.
{words in brace brackets} – words not in any version of the biblical text, but inserted to help explain a cultural or historical detail that would have been implicitly understood by an ancient Hebrew, but which might not be by a modern reader; also, words inserted for narrative clarification (like a midrash to explain something vital to an understanding of the narrative, but which is unclear in the traditional text). These should be considered as ‘in-text footnotes’, rather than face accusations of ‘adding to Torah’, since one of the purposes of this translation is to clarify the narrative, in order to make the meaning of the story clearer.
{words in italics in brace brackets} – hypothetical, reconstructed words, theorised to have been in the original text; the second purpose of this translation is to try to reconstruct what might have been the original text of the Bible.
(‘words in italics in plain brackets’) – translations of Hebrew names, the meanings of which are important to understand in English.
Page last updated on: 23rd April 2021
(Deuteronomy now: 100% translated)
Chapter 1: The Command to leave Choreiv
1:1 These are the sermons which Mosheh addressed to the whole of Israel on the other side of the [River] Jordan in the wilderness, on the plains opposite Sūf, between Pārān, Tofel, Lāvān, Chatseiroth and Di-zāhāv –
1:2 [it is] an eleven-day [journey] from Choreiv by way of Mount Sei`īr, [going] by the Qādheish-barnéia` [route].
1:3 So it was that in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Mosheh spoke to the Israelites, in accordance with all the instructions that Yahveh had given for them;
1:4 [this was] after [God] had struck down Sīchon, king of the Emorrites, who used to rule in Cheshbōn, and `Ōgh, king of Bāshān, who used to rule at `Ashtāroth in Edhre`ī.
1:5 Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Mosheh resolved to expound this teaching, saying:
1:6 “Yahveh our God made a declaration to us at Choreiv and said, ‘You have remained long enough at this mountain.
1:7 Pack up [therefore] and journey forth, and go to the hill-country of the Emorrites, and to {the lands of} all their neighbours on the plains, in the hill-country, in the lowlands, in the Negev, by the seacoast – in the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.
1:8 See, I have placed the Land at your disposal. Go in therefore and take possession of the land which I, Yahveh, swore to your patriarchs – to Avrāhām, to Yitzchāq and to Ya`aqov – to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
Mosheh recalls how Leaders and Judges were Appointed
1:9 Now, I explained to you at that time, saying, “I am unable to bear you by myself.
1:10 Yahveh your God has greatly increased your numbers, and here you are today as numerous as the multitude of stars in the heavens.
1:11 May Yahveh, the God of your patriarchs, make you a thousand times more numerous and bless you, just as God has promised you!
1:12 But however can I bear your troubles, your burdens and your disputes by myself?
1:13 Choose therefore wise, discerning, and well-respected men from among your tribes, and I will appoint them as leaders over you.”
1:14 You answered me, and said, “The plan which you have proposed to be done [sounds] good.”
1:15 So I took the leaders of your tribes – wise and well-respected men – and commissioned them as leaders over you: captains over thousands, captains over hundreds, captains over fifties, and captains over tens, as well as police officers for your tribes.
1:16 {Then I appointed the judges}, and I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear out the issues between your kinsfolk, and judge righteously between every man and his fellow countryman, and between the foreigner who sojourns with him.
1:17 You shall not show partiality in judgment, but you shall hear out the lowly and the great alike. Nor should you fear the status of any individual, for {if the judgment is just, then} the judgment is from God. If any case is too hard for you, then you shall bring it to me, and I will hear it.”
1:18 Thus, at that time, I gave you instructions about all the things you should do.
When Israel Sent out Scouts to reconnoitre the Land
1:19 When we departed from Choreiv, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you have seen, by way of the hill-country of the Emorrites, just as Yahveh our God commanded us, and we went as far as Qādheish-barnéia`.
1:20 I said to you, “You have arrived in the hill-country of the Emorrites, which Yahveh our God is about to give to us.
1:21 See, Yahveh your God has placed the Land at your disposal. Go up therefore and take possession of it, just as Yahveh, the God of your patriarchs, has proclaimed to you. Be not afraid, nor be discouraged.”
1:22 So all of you approached me and said, “Let us send out men ahead of us, so that they might reconnoitre the Land for us, and bring back word to us concerning by what route we should go up into it, and what cities we should enter.”
1:23 I approved of the plan, so I selected twelve men from among you – one from each tribe.
1:24 So they got ready and went up into the hill country; eventually they arrived in the Valley of Eshkol and began scouting it out.
1:25 They made sure to get their hands on some of the fruit of the Land, and brought it back down to us. They also brought back a report to us, and said, “The land which Yahveh our God is giving us is good.”
When Israel rebelled and refused to enter the Land
1:26 However, you were unwilling to go up {into the Land}, and rebelled against the orders of Yahveh your God.
1:27 You grumbled in your tents, and said, “It is because Yahveh hates us that God has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Emorrites so they can wipe us out.
1:28 What kind of a place are we going up into! Our kinsmen have filled our hearts with dismay, saying, ‘The people there are far greater and loftier than we are! The cities are huge, with fortified walls up to the skies! And what’s more, we’ve seen the descendants of the [ancient] giants there!’ ”
1:29 So I said to you, “Do not be terrified, nor be afraid of them.
1:30 It is Yahveh your God who is going at your head; it is [God] who shall fight for you, just as in everything that God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes –
1:31 just like in the wilderness, where you saw how Yahveh your God carried you along the whole route that you travelled, in the same way a man would carry his own child, until you came to this place.
1:32 Yet despite knowing these things, you did not trust in Yahveh your God,
1:33 who has gone ahead of you on all the stages of your journeys, to seek out places for you to pitch your tents, in {a pillar of} fire by night, and in {a pillar of} cloud by day, showing you by what route you should go.
1:34 Yahveh heard the sound of your [grumbling] words and was incensed, and made a vow, saying,
1:35 [1:35-36a] “Not a single one of these people, this evil generation, will see the good land which I swore to give to your ancestors, except for Kāleiv son of Yėfunneh.
1:36 [1:36b] He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land upon which he has trod, because he was willing to fulfil the bidding of Yahveh.”
1:37 Yahveh was also incensed with me because of you, saying, “Neither shall you enter {the Land}.
1:38 But Yėhoshúa` son of Nūn, who stands before you, he is the one who shall enter {the Land and lead them}. He is the one you shall imbue with authority, for he it is who will {lead} Israel to take possession of it.
1:39 Moreover, your little ones, who you said would become prey – your children, who on that day were unable to discern between good and evil – they shall enter, and to them will I give it, and they shall take possession of it.
1:40 But as for you, turn around, and journey forth into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.”
1:41 [1:41a] Then you responded and said to me, “We have sinned against Yahveh! We shall go up now and do battle, according to everything that Yahveh our God has commanded us!”
1:42 [1:41b] So each of you strapped on his weapons of war, and recklessly presumed to go up into the hill-country.
1:43 [1:42] However, Yahveh said to me, “Warn them, ‘Do not go up nor engage in battle, for I am not in your midst – in which case you will be routed by your enemies!’ ”
1:44 [1:43] So I warned you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the express command of Yahveh, and defiantly went up into the hill-country.
1:45 [1:44] Therefore the Emorrites, who lived in the hill-country, came out against you, and pursued you just as bees do, and harried you from Sei`īr all the way to Chormāh.
1:46 [1:45] Then you returned and wept before Yahveh, but Yahveh would neither listen to your voices, nor give ear [to your pleas].
1:47 [1:46] So you spent many years in Qādheish, equal {in years to} the {number of} days you spent [there] {waiting for the scouts to return}.
1:48 [2:1] Then we pulled up camp, and set out towards the wilderness by way of {the coastline of} the Red Sea, just as Yahveh ordered me, and we camped around Mount Sei`īr for some while.
Chapter 2: The End of the Wilderness Years
2:1 [2:2] Then Yahveh spoke to me, saying,
2:2 [2:3] “You have been circling this mountain long enough. Now turn north.
2:3 [2:4a] However, you must give strict instructions to the people and say: ‘You will be passing through the territory of your kinsmen, the descendants of `Eisāv, who dwell in Sei`īr.
2:4 [2:4b-5a] Although they will be afraid of you, be very careful not to provoke them;
2:5 [2:5b] for I will not give you any of their land – not even so much as the length of a foot – because I have given the highlands of Sei`īr to `Eisāv as an inherited possession.
2:6 [2:6] You may purchase food from them with silver so that you may eat, and you may also buy water from them with silver so that you may drink.
2:7 [2:7a] For Yahveh your God has blessed you in everything you have undertaken to do –
2:8 [2:7b] consider your wanderings [through] that great and terrible wilderness, and call to mind [how] Yahveh your God has been with you these forty years, and you have not lacked a thing.”
2:9 [2:8] So we moved on from our kinsmen, the descendants of `Eisāv, who live in Sei`īr, away from the `Arāvāh highway and away from Eylat and `Etsyon Géver; and we turned instead to march on in the direction of the Wilderness of Moab.
2:10 [2:9] Yahveh then said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as an inheritance, because I have [already] assigned Ār to the descendants of Lōṭ as an inheritance.”
2:11 [2:10] Now the Emites lived there in times past – a people as great, as numerous and as tall as the [giant] Anaqites.
2:12 [2:11] These people, like the Anaqites, were also considered to be descendants of the Refā’īm, but the Moabites call them Emites (‘the Terrifying Ones’).
2:13 [2:12] The Chorites also formerly lived in Sei`īr, but the `Eisāvites dispossessed them, wiping them out completely, and settling there in their place – just as Israel will do with the land of their inheritance, which Yahveh has assigned to them.
2:14 [2:13] {Then God said}, “Now arise and set out, and cross over the Zéredh river-valley!” So we crossed over the Zéredh river-valley.
2:15 [2:14] Now the length of time we spent around Qādheish-barnéia`, until we crossed over the Zéredh river-valley, was thirty-eight years – until such time as [that] whole {faithless} generation of men of warrior-age had perished from the midst of the camp, just as Yahveh had sworn to them.
2:16 [2:15] For the [decisive might] of Yahveh was indeed against them, [intent on] eliminating them from the midst of the camp, until they were completely gone.
God orders the Israelites not to take the lands of the Ammonites or Moabites
2:17 [2:16] So it came to pass, once that entire [generation of] men of warrior-age were dead and gone from the midst of the people,
2:18 [2:17] that Yahveh spoke to me, saying,
2:19 [2:18] “Today, you are going to cross over the borderland of Moab at Ār.
2:20 [2:19] You will then be close to the Ammonites; do not harass them or start a fight with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites as an inheritance, because I have [already] assigned it to the descendants of Lōṭ as an inheritance.”
2:21 [2:20] Now, that was also considered Refā’īm-country, for Refā’īm formerly lived there too, but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites (‘People of mumbling speech’).
2:22 [2:21] They [too] were a great and numerous people, and as tall as the [giant] Anaqites. However, Yahveh diminished them, so that [the Ammonites] were able to dispossess them and live [there] in their place,
2:23 [2:22] just as [God] had done for the `Eisāvites, who live in Sei`īr, when [God] diminished the Chorites before them, so that they were able to dispossess them, and settle [there] in their place, {as is the case} even to this day.
2:24 [2:23] Just so too with the `Avvites, who used to live in villages as far {south} as Gaza, {so that} the Kaftorites, who came out of Kaftor (‘Crete’), were able to dispossess them and settle in their place.
Chapter 3: The Defeat of Sichon and Ogh
King Sīchon Defeated
3:1 [2:24] {Then God said}, “Arise then! Advance across the Arnon River-valley! Behold, I have given Sīchon the Emorrite, king of Cheshbōn, and his land into your hands. Start taking possession of it, and engage him in battle.
3:2 [2:25] This day I will begin to put the fear and dread of you upon peoples everywhere under the heavens, so that they will tremble and quake because of you, whenever they come to hear reports of you.”
3:3 [2:26] So I sent messengers out of the Wilderness of Qėdeimōth to Sīchon, king of Cheshbōn, with an offer of peace, saying,
3:4 [2:27] “Let me pass through your territory. I will keep strictly to the main highway; I will not turn aside either to the right or the left.
3:5 [2:28] Sell me food for silver so that I may eat, and give me water for silver so that I may drink; just allow me to pass through on foot,
3:6 [2:29] just as the `Eisāvites who dwell in Sei`īr and the Moabites who dwell in Ār have done for me, until I pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahveh our God is giving us.”
3:7 [2:30] However Sīchon, king of Cheshbōn, refused to let us pass through, for Yahveh your God had hardened his resolve and made his heart obstinate, so that [God] might deliver him into your hands, as is now the case.
3:8 [2:31] Then Yahveh said to me, “See, I begin by delivering Sīchon, the Emorrite king of Cheshbōn, and his land over to you. Start taking possession of it, so that you may occupy his land.”
3:9 [2:32] So Sīchon came out to face us – he and all his men – to do battle near Yáchats.
3:10 [2:33] However, Yahveh our God delivered him over to us, and we slew him, along with his sons and all his troops.
3:11 [2:34] We took over all his towns at that time, and we proscribed to destruction the men, the women, and the children of every town. We left no survivors.
3:12 [2:35] We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, along with the [material] spoils of the cities which we had captured.
3:13 [2:36] From `Aro`eir – which is on the banks of the Arnon River-valley – from the town that is in the river-valley itself, all the way to Gil`ādh, there was not one walled town too high for us; Yahveh our God delivered everything into our hands.
3:14 [2:37] Only you did not encroach upon the land of the Ammonites, nor on any place along the River Yabboq, or on the cities in the hill country, or indeed on any place Yahveh our God had forbidden to us.
King `Ōgh Defeated
3:15 [3:1] Then we turned and went up the main road to Bāshān, and `Ōgh, the king of Bāshān, came out to face us – he and all his men – to do battle at Edhre`ī.
3:16 [3:2] Then Yahveh said to me, “Do not fear him, for I will deliver him and all his people and his country into your hands; and you shall do to him as you did to Sīchon, king of the Emorrites, who ruled in Cheshbōn.”
3:17 [3:3] So Yahveh our God also delivered `Ōgh, the king of Bāshān, with all his men, into our hands, and we dealt him such a crushing blow that there was not a [single] survivor left.
3:18 [3:4] At that time we captured all his towns; there was not a single walled town which we did not take over from them: sixty towns [in all], the whole region of Argov – the {entire} kingdom of `Ōgh in Bāshān,
3:19 [3:5] {even though} all these towns were fortified with high walls, double gates and solid bars, in addition to a great many [unwalled] villages.
3:20 [3:6] We proscribed them to destruction, just as we had done to {the towns of} Sīchon, king of Cheshbōn, proscribing to destruction the men, women, and children of every town.
3:21 [3:7] However, we took all the livestock and the [material] spoil of the cities as plunder for ourselves.
3:22 [3:8] Thus at that time, we seized from the two kings of the Emorrites [all of their] territory that was across the Jordan, from the Arnon River-valley as far as Mount Chermōn –
3:23 [3:9] Chermōn is called Siryon by the Sidonians, and the Emorrites call it Sėnīr –
3:24 [3:10] all the towns of the tableland: the whole of Gil`ādh, and the whole of Bāshān, as far as Salkhāh and Edhre`ī – {all the} towns of the kingdom of `Ōgh in Bāshān.
3:25 [3:11a] As a side note, only `Ōgh, king of Bāshān, had remained of those who were descended from the [giant] Refa’īm.
3:26 [3:11b] Notably, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? It is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by the standard cubit.
Chapter 4: Division of the Land on the East Side of the Jordan
4:1 [3:12] Now this is the land which we took possession of at that time: [the portion] from `Aro`eir, which is by the Wadi Arnon, together with half of the hill country of Gil`ādh and its towns, I assigned to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.
4:2 [3:13a] The rest of Gil`ādh, along with the whole of Bāshān, the kingdom of `Ōgh, I assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh – the whole region of the Argov;
4:3 [3:13a] the whole of that [region of] Bāshān is known as Refa’im country.
4:4 [3:14] The Manassite [clan of] Yā’īr took the whole region of Argov – that is, Bāshān – as far as the border of the Gėshurites and the Ma`akhathites, and renamed the villages after themselves, Chavoth Yā’īr, as [they are known as] to this day.
4:5 [3:15] I assigned [land in] Gil`ādh to [the clan of] Makhīr.
4:6 [3:16] To the Reuvenites and to the Gadites, I assigned {the territory} from Gil`ādh right down as far as the Wadi Arnon, the middle of the river-valley being the border, and up to the Wadi Yabboq, which is the [northernmost] border of the Ammonites.
4:7 [3:17] {Then we took} the plain, with the Jordan as the border, from Kinnereth right down as far as the sea of the `Arāvāh – that is, the Salt Sea (‘Dead Sea’) – [as far as the area] at the foot of the slopes of [Mount] Pisgāh on the east.
4:8 [3:18a] Then I commanded you at that time, saying,
4:9 [3:18b] “Yahveh your God has given you this land to take possession of it. All you warriors shall cross over as shock-troops, ahead of your Israelite kinsfolk;
4:10 [3:19] only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock – for I know that you have much livestock – shall remain in the towns which I have assigned to you,
4:11 [3:20a] until Yahveh has given rest to your fellow tribes, [in the same way] as {God has} to you, and until they too have taken possession of the land which Yahveh your God has assigned to them beyond the Jordan.
4:12 [3:20b] [Only] then shall each of you return to his homestead, which I have assigned to you.”
Mosheh’s Instructions to Yehoshua`
4:13 [3:21] I also gave strict orders to Yėhoshúa` at that time, saying, “You have seen everything that Yahveh your God has done to these two kings with your own eyes; so shall Yahveh do to all the kingdoms there, into which you cross over.
4:14 [3:22] Do not fear them, for it will be Yahveh your God who will be fighting for you.”
Mosheh is Forbidden to Cross the Jordan
4:15 [3:23] Then I pleaded with Yahveh at that time, saying,
4:16 [3:24] “O my Sovereign Yahveh, You have only just begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty power; for what mighty being is there in heaven or on earth who can perform such deeds and powerful acts as Yours?
4:17 [3:25] Permit me then, I beg of You, to cross over and see the good land that lies beyond the Jordan, that good hill-country {that stretches as far as} the Lebanon [foothills].”
4:18 [3:26] But Yahveh was exceedingly cross indeed with me because of you, and would not listen to me, so Yahveh said to me, “Enough of this! Speak to Me no more of this matter.
4:19 [3:27] Now get up to the top of Pisgāh, and cast your eyes to the west and to the north, to the south and to the east; look at it well, for you are not going to be crossing over this Jordan.
4:20 [3:28] Instead, give your orders to Yėhoshúa` – encourage him and strengthen him, for it is he who will be crossing over at the head of this people, and it is he who will be leading them to take possession of the land which you survey.”
4:21 [3:29] Meanwhile, we remained in the valley opposite Beyt Pė`ōr.
Chapter 5: Faithfulness to God’s Commandments is the True Path to Life
5:1 [4:1] “Now therefore, O Israel, pay heed to the statutes and the laws which I myself am teaching you to observe, in order that that you may live to enter and take possession of the land which Yahveh, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
5:2 [4:2] You shall not add [anything] to the words which I am enjoining upon you, nor shall you take anything away from them, but rather you shall keep the commandments of Yahveh your God which I enjoin upon you.
5:3 [4:3] You saw with your very own eyes what Yahveh did [during the incident of the] Baal of Pė`ōr, when Yahveh your God wiped out from among you every [last] person who followed the Baal of Pė`ōr,
5:4 [4:4] while you, who held fast to Yahveh your God, are alive to this day – every one of you.
5:5 [4:5] See, I have taught you statutes and laws, just as Yahveh my God has commanded me, for you to abide by in the land where you are about to enter and take possession of.
5:6 [4:6] Therefore, {be sure} to observe them faithfully, for this will be {proof of} your wisdom and your discernment, {which will stand out} in the sight of the nations who, on hearing of all these statutes, will then say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and perceptive people.”
5:7 [4:7] For what great nation is there who has a god so close to it as Yahveh our God is whenever we call on [God]?
5:8 [4:8] Or what great nation is there that has statutes and laws as equitable as the entirety of this Teaching is, which I am setting before you today?
The Supreme Importance of the Revelation at Choreiv
5:9 [4:9] Only take the utmost care and watch yourselves diligently all the days of your life, in case you forget the things which you have seen with your own eyes, and they fade away from your memory; rather, make them known to your children and to your grandchildren –
5:10 [4:10a] {especially what happened on the} day when you stood before Yahveh your God at Choreiv, when Yahveh said to me,
5:11 [4:10b] ‘Gather the people together to Me, so that I may let them hear My words, in order that they might learn to have a reverent respect for Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they may teach their children.’
5:12 [4:11] Then you drew near and stood at the foot of the mountain; and the mountain was ablaze with flames that reached right up to the very skies, with thick, dark cloud, and an exceedingly loud sound.
5:13 [4:12] Then Yahveh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words but perceived no form – just a voice.
5:14 [4:13] Then [God] declared to you {the essence of} [God’s] Covenant which [God] commanded you to observe – the Ten Proclamations; and [God] wrote them on two tablets of stone.
5:15 [4:14] At the same time, Yahveh commanded me to teach you statutes and laws, for you to observe in the land which you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess.
Warnings about abandoning the Covenant and worshipping idols
5:16 [4:15] Since you did not see any form at all on the day that Yahveh spoke to you at Choreiv from the midst of the fire, for your own sake therefore, be most careful,
5:17 [4:16a] in case you become corrupted, and you [end up] making for yourselves graven images in the form of all kinds of figures,
5:18 [4:16b-17] such as in the shape of a man or a woman, or in the shape of any [kind of] beast that is on the earth, or in the shape of any [kind of] winged bird that flies in the skies,
5:19 [4:18] or in the shape of any [kind of] thing that creeps on the ground, or in the shape of any [kind of] fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
5:20 [4:19] {So beware} in case, when you lift your eyes up towards the heavens, and you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, and all the hosts of heaven, you feel drawn to bow down to them and worship them; for these are {indeed} the things that Yahveh your God has apportioned to all the nations everywhere under heaven,
5:21 [4:20] but it is you that Yahveh has taken, and brought you out of the iron furnace – from Egypt – {and forged you} to become God’s very own people and possession, as you are today.
5:22 [4:21] {As a case in point}: on account of you Yahveh was angry with me, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter that good land which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5:23 [4:22] So I must die in this country. I will not be crossing over the Jordan, but you shall go over and take possession of that good land.
5:24 [4:23] So take diligent care therefore, that you do not forget the Covenant of Yahveh your God which [God] cut with you, by making yourself graven images, or the likeness of anything that Yahveh your God has forbidden to you;
5:25 [4:24] for Yahveh your God is a consuming fire, a zealous God.
Ruination and Exile
5:26 [4:25] When you have produced children and grandchildren, and have been long established in the Land, should you then corrupt yourselves by making graven images, or the likeness of anything, and do things which Yahveh your God considers evil, and so bring about God’s displeasure,
5:27 [4:26a] I call the heavens and the earth in witness against you today, that you will speedily be wiped clean off the face of the land that you are going across the Jordan to possess.
5:28 [4:26b] You will not long endure on it, but will [instead] fall into complete ruination.
5:29 [4:27] Then Yahveh will scatter you among the nations, and you will be left few in number among the peoples where Yahveh will drive you.
5:30 [4:28] There you will serve false gods, the work of human hands – [gods] of wood and stone, which can neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell.
5:31 [4:29] However, if you set about seeking Yahveh your God even there, you will find {God}, if you seek [God] with all your heart [and mind], and with all your soul.
5:32 [4:30] You will be in dire straits because of all the things that have befallen you, but eventually, if you return to Yahveh your God and are again obedient to [God’s] voice –
5:33 [4:31] for Yahveh your God is a merciful God – [God] will not abandon you or destroy you, or forget the covenant which [God] made on oath to your patriarchs.
The Privilege of being chosen by God
5:34 [4:32a] Indeed, you have only to ask around, from one end of the horizon to the other, and inquire about the bygone ages that came before you – since the day that God first created human beings on earth:
5:35 [4:32b] Has anything as grand as this {ever happened before}? Or has anything like it been heard of [before]?
5:36 [4:33] Has any [pagan] people ever heard the voice of the living God speaking {to them} out of the midst of the fire, just like you have heard, and still lived?
5:37 [4:34] Or has any pagan god ever gone and tried to take for himself a nation from within another nation with such [withering] ordeals, or with such signs and wonders, or through war, or with such great power and unparalleled displays of might, or with such grand, [awe-inspiring] spectacles, as YHVH your God did for you, right before your very eyes?
5:38 [4:35] [These things] were shown to you, so that you might know that Yahveh alone is God, and that there is no one else besides Him.
5:39 [4:36] Out of heaven [God] made [God’s] voice become audible, so that [God] might give you firm guidance; and on earth, [God] made [God’s] great fire become visible to you, so that out of the midst of the fire you were able to hear [God’s] words.
5:40 [4:37] Because [God] loved your patriarchs, [God] chose {you} their descendants after them, and personally brought you out of Egypt with [God’s] mighty power,
5:41 [4:38] driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you are, to bring you into their land, and give you it as an inheritance, as is still the case.
5:42 [4:39] Know therefore today, and fix it in your mind, that Yahveh alone is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
5:43 [4:40] Therefore, you shall observe [God’s] statutes and [God’s] commandments which I myself enjoin upon you today, so that things may go well with you and with your descendants after you, in order that you may long endure on the soil which Yahveh your God is assigning to you for all time.”
The Cities of Refuge on the East Bank of the Jordan
5:44 [4:41-42a] Then Mosheh set apart three cities across the Jordan, toward the east, so that any manslayer could flee there –
5:45 [4:42b] in other words, anyone who killed his neighbour unintentionally, without having had any previous enmity towards him, could flee to one of these cities and live:
5:46 [4:43] Bétser in the wilderness, on the plateau for the Reuvenites; Ramoth in Gil`ādh for the Gadites, and Golān in Bāshān for the Manassites.
Chapter 6: The Torah
Introduction to the Law
6:1 [4:44] This then is the Torah which Mosheh set before the Israelites.
6:2 [4:45] These are the stipulations, the ordinances and the rulings which Mosheh proclaimed to the Israelites in the wilderness, after they came out of Egypt,
6:3 [4:46] {and were still} across on the other side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beyt Pė`ōr, in the land of Sīchon, king of the Emorrites, who ruled in Cheshbōn, whom Mosheh and the Israelites defeated, after they had come out of Egypt –
6:4 [4:47] for they had taken possession of his land, and the land of `Ōgh, king of Bāshān, the two kings of the Emorrites, who [ruled] across on the easternmost side of the Jordan.
6:5 [4:48] {The captured territory stretched} from `Aro`eir, which is by the edge of the Wadi Arnon, right up as far as Mount Sī’on – that is, Chermōn –
6:6 [4:49] along the whole river plain across the eastern side of the Jordan, right down as far as the Sea of the `Arāvāh, [as far as] the foot of the slopes of [Mount] Pisgāh.
The Ten Proclamations
6:7 [5:1a] There, Mosheh summoned the whole of Israel and said to them,
6:8 [5:1b] “Hear, O Israel, the ordinances and statutes which I myself am proclaiming in your hearing today, so that you may learn them, and faithfully put them into practice.
6:9 [5:2] It was Yahveh our God who cut a covenant with us at Choreiv.
6:10 [5:3] [However], it was not with our ancestors that Yahveh cut this covenant, but with us, with those of us who are here today – all of us who are living.
6:11 [5:4] Yahveh spoke with you directly, from the midst of the fire on the mountain.
6:12 [5:5] However, [as for me], I was standing between Yahveh and you at that time to declare to you the words of Yahveh; for you were afraid when faced with the fire, and would not go {near} the mountain. And [God] said:
6:13 [5:6] ‘I am Yahveh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from a state of slavery.
6:14 [5:7] You shall have no other gods besides Me.
6:15 [5:8] You shall not make for yourself an idol, or the likeness of anything in the skies above, or on the earth below, or in the waters beneath the earth;
6:16 [5:9] You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, Yahveh your God, am a zealous God, who pursues the iniquity of parents down to the children of the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me {and despise My ways},
6:17 [5:10] but who shows faithful love to [the] thousandth [generation] of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
6:18 [5:11] You shall not use the name of Yahveh your God for false, deceptive or evil purposes, for Yahveh will not acquit the one who misuses [God’s] name.
6:19 [5:12] Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, just as Yahveh your God has commanded you.
6:20 [5:13-14a] Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath [dedicated] to Yahveh your God.
6:21 [5:14b] On it you shall not do any work – neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the foreigner resident [among you] within your city-gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, just as you do.
6:22 [5:15] Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that Yahveh your God brought you out from there with great power and unparalleled displays of might; therefore Yahveh your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day and sanctify it.
6:23 [5:16] Honour your father and your mother, just as Yahveh your God has commanded you, so that things may go well for you, and so that you may endure a long time upon the soil that Yahveh your God is giving you.
6:24 [J: 5:17a, X: 5:17] You shall not commit murder.
6:25 [J: 5:17b, X: 5:18] You shall not commit adultery.
6:26 [J: 5:17c, X: 5:19] You shall not steal.
6:27 [J: 5:17d, X: 5:20] You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
6:28 [J: 5:18, X: 5:21] You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor shall you yearn after your neighbour’s house or his fields, his manservant or his maidservant, his oxen, his donkeys or any of his animals, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.’
6:29 [J: 5:19a, X: 5:22a] These are the proclamations which Yahveh decreed to your entire assembly with a loud voice at the mountain, out from the midst of the fire, the dark cloud and the dense fog – and nothing more.
6:30 [J: 5:19b, X: 5:22b] Then [God] wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.”
Chapter 7: When the Israelites appointed Mosheh to receive God’s Message from God on their behalf
7:1 [J: 5:20, X: 5:23] “Now when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came up to me – all the chieftains of your tribes, and [all] your elders.
7:2 [J: 5:21, X: 5:24] You said, ‘Behold, Yahveh our God has just shown us [God’s] Glory and [God’s] greatness, and we have heard [God’s] voice from the midst of the fire. We have [also] seen today that human beings can survive, even though God has spoken to them.
7:3 [J: 5:22, X: 5:25] But now, why should we risk death again? For this great fire will consume us! If we carry on listening to the voice of Yahveh our God any longer, then [surely] we will die!
7:4 [J: 5:23, X: 5:26] For who is there out of all mortal flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and yet survived?
7:5 [J: 5:24, X: 5:27] You approach {the fire} [therefore], and hear everything that Yahveh our God is going to say. Then you shall relay back to us everything that Yahveh our God has spoken to you, and we will willingly do it.”
7:6 [J: 5:25, X: 5:28] Yahveh heard the words of your plea when you spoke to me, and Yahveh said to me, “I have heard the words of this people’s plea, which they have made to you. They have done well in everything they have asked!
7:7 [J: 5:26, X: 5:29] O would that there were such a heart in them that they might {always} revere Me in awe, and always keep all My commandments, so that everything might go well with them and with their children forever!
7:8 [J: 5:27, X: 5:30] Go therefore and say to them, ‘Return to your tents!’
7:9 [J: 5:28, X: 5:31] But as for you, stand here by Me, so that I may declare to you all the commandments, the ordinances and the statutes which you shall teach them, so that they may observe them in the land which I am about to give them to take possession of.”
7:10 [J: 5:29, X: 5:32] Therefore, be careful to do just as Yahveh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside [from God’s commandments], neither to the right nor to the left.
7:11 [J: 5:30, X: 5:33] You shall follow the entirety of the Way which Yahveh your God has enjoined upon you, so that you may thrive, and so that things may go well for you, and so that you may endure a long time in the land which you are going to take possession of.
Conclusion
7:12 [6:1] These then are the commandments, the ordinances and the statutes which Yahveh your God commanded [me] to teach you, so that you may observe them in the land that you are crossing over into to take possession of,
7:13 [6:2] and so that you may [develop] a reverent awe for Yahveh your God, [enough that you] observe all God’s customs and commandments which I enjoin upon you today – not just you, but also your children and your children’s children – all the days of your life, so that you may long endure {in the Land}.
7:14 [6:3] Comply [with them], O Israel, and be careful to put them into practice, so that things may go well for you, and so that you may increase greatly {in number} in the Land, which is rich in abundant natural bounty, just as Yahveh the God of your Patriarchs has promised you.
Chapter 8: The Great Commandment
8:1 [LXX 6:3b] Now these are [God’s] ordinances and statutes – everything that Yahveh enjoined upon the Israelites in the wilderness, after they had come out from the land of Egypt:
8:2 [6:4] “Hear, O Israel: Yahveh is our God, Yahveh alone!
8:3 [6:5] And you shall love Yahveh your God with all your heart [and mind], with all your soul, and with all your might.
8:4 [6:6] Take to heart these instructions which I enjoin upon you today.
8:5 [6:7] Impress them upon your children; recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up;
8:6 [6:8] bind them like a sign on your hand, and let them be like a frontlet between your eyes;
8:7 [6:9] inscribe them on the doorposts of your houses and on your [city] gates.
8:8 [6:10a] Then it shall be, when Yahveh your God brings you into the land which [God] swore to your patriarchs, Avrāhām, Yitzchāq, and Ya`aqov, to give you –
8:9 [6:10b-11a] a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, hewn-out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant –
8:10 [6:11b-12] then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget Yahveh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, from a state of slavery.
Loyalty to Yahveh alone
8:11 [6:13] You shall revere [only] Yahveh your God, and serve [only] [Yahveh]; to [Yahveh] alone shall you hold fast, and [only] by [Yahveh’s] Name shall you swear.
8:12 [6:14] You shall not go after other gods – any gods of the people who live around you;
8:13 [6:15] for Yahveh your God is a God who burns with jealousy in your midst. Otherwise, the anger of Yahveh your God will flare up against you, and will wipe you clean off the face of the soil {that God has given you}.
8:14 [6:16] You shall not test Yahveh your God, as you tested {God} in Massāh.
8:15 [6:17] [Rather], you shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahveh your God, along with [God’s] stipulations and [God’s] statutes which [God] has enjoined upon you.
8:16 [6:18] You shall [also] do whatever Yahveh regards as [ethically] upright and good, so that things may go well for you, and so that you may {live to} enter and take possession of the good land which Yahveh your God swore on oath to your patriarchs,
8:17 [6:19] and so that all your enemies may be driven out before you, just as Yahveh has promised.
The future Legacy of Yahveh
8:18 [6:20] Then it shall be, when your child asks you in time to come, saying, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, ordinances and statutes which Yahveh our God has enjoined upon you?”
8:19 [6:21] then you shall say to your child, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahveh brought us out of Egypt with great might.
8:20 [6:22] Before our very eyes, Yahveh also wrought signs and wonders – both great and devastating – against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against his entire household.
8:21 [6:23] It was us that [God] brought out from there, so that [God] might bring us in [to this country], to give us the land which [God] swore on oath to our patriarchs.
8:22 [6:24] Yahveh commanded us to carry out all these decrees, {so that we would} revere Yahveh our God in awe, for our lasting good, and for our survival, as is the case to this day.
8:23 [6:25] It will therefore be counted towards us as a righteous thing in our favour, if we are careful to carry out this entire [body of] commandments in the presence of Yahveh our God, just as [God] has enjoined upon us.”
Chapter 9: The Chosen People
9:1 [7:1] When Yahveh your God brings you into the land which you yourselves are entering to take possession of, and has dislodged many {Canaanite} nations there before you – the Cheytites, the Girgashites, the Emorrites, {the Qadhmonites}, the Perizzites, the Chivites and the Yevusites – seven nations greater and mightier than you;
9:2 [7:2] and when Yahveh your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, then you must proscribe them to complete destruction. You shall make no terms with them, nor give them any quarter.
9:3 [7:3] What is more, you shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their {pagan} sons, nor take their {pagan} daughters for your sons.
9:4 [7:4a] For they will [end up] turning your children away from following Me, and they will serve other gods.
9:5 [7:4b] Then the anger of Yahveh will flare up against you, and [God] will quickly bring you to ruin.
9:6 [7:5] Instead, this is how you shall deal with them: You shall destroy their altars, smash their Baal-stones to pieces, cut down their Asherah-poles, and consign their graven images to the fire.
9:7 [7:6a] For you are a people consecrated to Yahveh your God.
9:8 [7:6b] Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it is you that Yahveh your God has chosen to be [God’s] people, God’s own treasured possession.
Why God chose Israel
9:9 [7:7] It is not because you were more numerous than all [other] peoples that Yahveh grew attached to you or chose you, for you are [among] the smallest of all peoples.
9:10 [7:8] Rather, it is because of the love that Yahveh had for you, and it is because [God] kept the oath which [God] swore to your patriarchs, that Yahveh brought you out {of Egypt} with such great might, and redeemed you from a state of slavery, away from the control of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
9:11 [7:9] Know therefore that Yahveh your God [alone] is God, the faithful God, who steadfastly keeps covenant to the thousandth generation, with those who love [God] and keep [God’s] commandments,
9:12 [7:10] yet who repays ruination right back into the laps of those who hate [God]. [God] will not be slack with those who hate [God]; [God] will repay them right back into their laps.
The Blessings that come from keeping the Covenant
9:13 [7:11] Therefore keep the commandments, the ordinances and the statutes which I am commanding you today, by doing them.
9:14 [7:12] And it shall be, that if you really do heed these decrees and faithfully keep them, then Yahveh your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love which [God] swore on oath to your patriarchs.
9:15 [7:13a] [God] will love you and bless you and increase you in number.
9:16 [7:13b] [God] will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil – your fresh grain, your new wine, and your fresh oil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock, upon the soil which Yahveh swore to your patriarchs on oath to give you.
9:17 [7:14] You shall be blessed above all peoples. There will not be a single infertile male or female among you, or among your livestock.
9:18 [7:15] Yahveh will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you have seen and are familiar with, but will lay them instead upon all those who hate you.
9:19 [7:16a] Only you must completely destroy all the peoples whom Yahveh your God is going to deliver over to you.
9:20 [7:16b] Do not look upon them with any pity, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
The Power of God to help Israel
9:21 [7:17] If you say in your heart, “These nations are greater than I; how can I [possibly] dispossess them?”
9:22 [7:18] you should not be afraid of them. Rather, you should confidently remember what Yahveh your God did to the Pharaoh and to the whole of Egypt –
9:23 [7:19a] the great trials which you saw with your very eyes, along with the signs and wonders, the great power, and unparalleled displays of might, by which Yahveh your God brought you out {of Egypt};
9:24 [7:19b] for thus Yahveh your God will [also] do to all the peoples whom you are afraid to face.
9:25 [7:20] Moreover, Yahveh your God will send out {plagues to hunt them down, as if by swarms of} wasps among them, until the survivors who are hiding from you have perished.
9:26 [7:21] [Therefore], you must not be frightened of them, for Yahveh your God is among you – a Mighty One, great and awesome.
9:27 [7:22] Yahveh your God will drive out those nations from before you, little by little. You will not be able to destroy all of them at once, otherwise the wild beasts {will overrun the Land, and} they will become too numerous for you.
9:28 [7:23] However, Yahveh your God will deliver them over to you, and will throw them into a great confusion, until they are destroyed.
9:29 [7:24] [God] will also deliver their kings into your hands, so that you may erase all memory of them from under heaven; no man will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
A firm Reminder to destroy all Idols
9:30 [7:25a] Only you must be sure to consign the graven images of their gods to the fire.
9:31 [7:25b] You must not crave the silver or gold that is on them, nor should you keep any of it for yourselves, in case you become snared by them – for they are an abomination to Yahveh your God.
9:32 [7:26a] Nor shall you bring any abomination into your home, otherwise you will be proscribed to destruction like them.
9:33 [7:26b] Instead, you must reject them as utterly abominable and abhorrent, for they are objects proscribed for destruction.
Chapter 10: The Reason for the Ordeals in the Wilderness
10:1 [8:1] You must be careful to keep the entire [body of] commandments that I am enjoining upon you today, so that you may thrive and multiply, and [so that] you may enter and take possession of the land which Yahveh swore on oath to your patriarchs.
10:2 [8:2] You must remember the long route that Yahveh your God led you these [past] forty years in the wilderness, so that [God] might test you by hardships, in order to learn what was in your heart – whether or not you would keep [God’s] commandments.
10:3 [8:3a] [God] subjected you to the hardship of hunger, and then fed you with manna – something which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known –
10:4 [8:3b] so that [God] might make you realise that human beings do not live by bread alone, but rather that human beings shall live by every [single] thing which is produced at the command of Yahveh.
10:5 [8:4] Consider how your mantles did not wear out [and fall] off you, nor did your feet become blistered these forty years!
10:6 [8:5] You must also consider in your heart that, just as a man disciplines his son, so too Yahveh your God disciplines you.
10:7 [8:6] Therefore you must keep the commandments of Yahveh your God – walk in [God’s] ways, and revere [God] in awe.
The Pitfalls of Plenty in the Promised Land
10:8 [8:7] Now, Yahveh your God is bringing you into a good and spacious land, a land of watery brooks, fountains and springs that flow from hill and valley;
10:9 [8:8] a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and date-syrup;
10:10 [8:9] a land where you may eat food without having to skimp on anything, and in which you will not lack anything – a land whose very stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may quarry copper.
10:11 [8:10] So when you have eaten and had your fill, then you shall bless Yahveh your God for the good land which [God] has given you.
10:12 [8:11] However, you must watch yourselves, lest you forget Yahveh your God, and fail to keep [God’s] commandments, [God’s] statutes, and [God’s] ordinances which I am enjoining upon you today.
10:13 [8:12] Otherwise, when you have eaten and had your fill, and have built fine houses and occupied them;
10:14 [8:13] and when your herds [of cattle] and your flocks [of sheep and goats] have multiplied, and your silver and your gold have increased for you, and everything that you own has prospered,
10:15 [8:14] then your heart might become self-proud, and you might forget Yahveh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from a state of slavery –
10:16 [8:15a] the One who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, with its venomous serpents and scorpions –
10:17 [8:15b] {and in} [that] parched land where there was no water, the One who brought forth water for you out of [solid] flint rock;
10:18 [8:16] the One who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had not known [before], in order to test you by hardships, but only to benefit you in the end;
10:19 [8:17] and then you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of my [own] hands have won me this abundance!”
Remember God, Who gave you that Plenty
10:20 [8:18] Therefore, you must remember Yahveh your God, for it is [God] who shall give you the ability to produce [that] abundance, in fulfilment of [God’s] Covenant which [God] swore to your patriarchs – to Avrāhām, Yitzchāq, and Ya`aqov – just as is the case this present day.
10:21 [8:19] For it will be, that if you should ever in any way forget Yahveh your God, and go after other gods, and serve them and worship them, then I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you today, that you will come to utter ruination;
10:22 [8:20] for just like the nations which Yahveh will bring to ruin before you, so shall you also be brought to ruin, as a direct consequence of you not paying heed to what Yahveh your God has said.
Chapter 11: Israel is not being given Canaan because of any Virtue on Israel’s Part
11:1 [9:1] Listen, O Israel! You are about to cross over the Jordan, to go in and dispossess nations greater and more numerous than yourselves, {who live in} great cities with fortified walls sky-high –
11:2 [9:2] great and lofty peoples, [such as] the descendants of the Anaqites, of whom you are aware, and of whom you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the Children of Anaq?”
11:3 [9:3a] Understand therefore today, that Yahveh your God is the One who is crossing over at your head, like a consuming fire.
11:4 [9:3b] [God] is the One who is going to put an end to them, and [God] is the One who is going to subdue them before you, so that you will be able to drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as Yahveh has promised you.
11:5 [9:4] However, after Yahveh your God has cast them out before you, do not then say in your heart, “It is on account of my own virtue that Yahveh has brought me in to take possession of this land,” because it is actually on account of the wickedness of these nations that Yahveh is driving them out before you.
11:6 [9:5] So it is not because of your [own] virtue or moral rectitude that you are able to go in and take possession of their land, but rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahveh your God is driving them out before you – and also, in order to fulfil the promise which Yahveh swore on oath to your patriarchs Avrāhām, Yitzchāq, and Ya`aqov.
11:7 [9:6] Understand [and take to heart] therefore, that it is not on account of any virtue of yours that Yahveh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
The Episode of the Golden Calf
11:8 [9:7] Remember, and never forget how you provoked Yahveh your God to anger in the wilderness – how, from the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have continued to be defiant against Yahveh.
11:9 [9:8] Also at Choreiv, when you infuriated Yahveh, how Yahveh became so incensed with you that God could have destroyed you!
11:10 [9:9] I had gone up onto the mountain in order to receive the tablets of stone – the tablets of the Covenant which Yahveh had cut with you – and I had remained on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. I had not eaten any food, nor drunk any water.
11:11 [9:10] Yahveh was going to give me the two tablets of stone, inscribed by God Himself; for on them were [written] all the exact words which Yahveh had proclaimed to you at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire on the day of the Assembly.
11:12 [9:11] And so it was, that at the end of forty days and forty nights, Yahveh gave me the two tablets of stone – the Tablets of the Covenant.
11:13 [9:12] But then Yahveh said to me, “Arise, and hurry down from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have been quick to turn aside from the Way which I enjoined upon them; they have made an idol for themselves of cast metal.”
11:14 [9:13] Furthermore, Yahveh spoke to me, saying, “Again and again I have said to you, ‘I have seen {the hearts of} this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.’
11:15 [9:14] So leave Me be, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens; instead, I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they!”
11:16 [9:15] So I started down from the mountain, while the mountain itself was ablaze with fire; and [I had] the two tablets of the Covenant in my two hands.
11:17 [9:16] I looked ahead, and {saw for myself that} you had indeed sinned against Yahveh your God, by making for yourselves a calf of cast metal – so quickly had you turned aside from the Way which Yahveh had enjoined upon you!
11:18 [9:17] With that, I took hold of the two tablets and flung them away with both my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
11:19 [9:18] Then I prostrated myself [in supplication] before Yahveh, just as I had done before, for forty days and forty nights. Once again, I did not eat any food nor drink any water because of the [tremendous] sin which you had committed, by doing what was heinous in the sight of Yahveh, and so provoking [God] to anger;
11:20 [9:19] for I was in dread of the anger and fierce indignation which had risen up in Yahveh against you, [such that God was ready] to destroy you. But Yahveh listened to [my supplication] on that occasion as well.
11:21 [9:20] Yahveh was exceedingly angry with Aharon too, so much that God could have destroyed him, so I also interceded for Aharon at the same time.
11:22 [9:21] As for that sinful thing you had made – the calf – I took it and consigned it to the fire. Then I broke it into pieces, and ground it down thoroughly, until it was as fine as dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flowed down from the mountain.
Israel’s repeated Defiance
11:23 [9:22] Then again at Tav`eirāh, at Massāh and at Qivroth ha-Ta’avāh, you likewise provoked Yahveh to anger.
11:24 [9:23] And yet again, when Yahveh sent you out from Qādheish-barnéia`, saying, “Go up and take possession of the land which I have assigned to you,” you defied the instructions of Yahveh your God, and you did not trust in [God] or pay heed to what [God] had said.
11:25 [9:24] You have been defiant towards Yahveh from the day [you first encountered God] {in the wilderness}!
The Prayer of Mosheh for Clemency on behalf of Israel
11:26 [9:25] So as I lay prostrate [in supplication] before Yahveh for forty days and forty nights – I was prostrating myself because Yahveh had said [God] was ready to destroy you –
11:27 [9:26] I made intercession to Yahveh, and said, “O Yahveh my Sovereign, do not annihilate Your very own people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed in Your majesty, and whom You have brought out of Egypt with such great might!
11:28 [9:27] Give thought to Your servants, Avrāhām, Yitzchāq, and Ya`aqov, and pay no regard to the stubbornness of this people, or to their iniquity or sin.
11:29 [9:28] Otherwise, the inhabitants of the land out of which You brought us might say, ‘It is because Yahveh was not able to bring them into the land which [God] promised them, and out of [God’s] hatred for them, that [God] has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness!’
11:30 [9:29] And yet they are Your very own people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out from the land of Egypt by Your great power, and through Your unparalleled acts of might!”
Chapter 12: The Second Pair of Tablets
12:1 [10:1] In that moment, Yahveh then said to me, “Carve out for yourself two tablets of stone, just like the first ones; then have an ark of wood made for yourself, and come up onto the mountain to Me.
12:2 [10:2] I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you shattered; then you shall place them inside the ark.”
12:3 [10:3] So I had an ark made out of acacia wood, and carved out two tablets of stone just like the first ones. Then I went up onto the mountain, with the two tablets in my hands.
12:4 [10:4] [God] inscribed on the tablets the exact same inscription that was on the first – the Ten Proclamations which Yahveh addressed to you at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, on the day of the Assembly; then Yahveh gave them over to me.
12:5 [10:5] After that, I turned round and came back down from the mountain, and placed the tablets in the ark which I had had made; and there they have remained, just as Yahveh instructed me.
The Status of the Levites after the Incident of the Golden Calf
12:6 [10:8] Then at that time, Yahveh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of Yahveh’s Covenant, to stand in attendance before Yahveh, and to bless {Israel} in [God’s] Name, as is still the case to this day.
12:7 [10:9] That is why the Levites have no inherited share {of land} alongside their [Israelite] kinsmen. Yahveh alone is their inheritance, just as Yahveh your God promised them.
12:8 [10:10] As for me, I had remained [alone] on the mountain just like the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and Yahveh had heeded [my supplication] at that time as well, so that Yahveh agreed not to destroy you.
12:9 [10:11] Then Yahveh said to me, “Arise, and resume your march at the head of this people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore on oath to their patriarchs to assign to them.”
Editorial Note: The Death of Aharon
12:10 [MT Dt 10:6a, cf MT Num 33:31] Now the Israelites set out from Moseirāh to Bė’eiroth B’ney-Ya`āqān (‘the Wells of the Ya`aqanites’).
12:11 [MT Dt 10:7, cf MT Num 33:32b-34a] From there they journeyed to Gudhgodh, and from Gudhgodh to Yōţvāth, a land of well-watered streams.
12:12 [SP Dt 10:6d, cf MT Num 33:37] {In the second year they eventually came to Qādheish, and in the fortieth year, they set out and came to Mount Hor}.
12:13 [MT Dt 10:6b] There Aharon died, and he was buried there. Afterwards his son Elė`āzār became [High] Priest in his stead.
The Essence of what it means to adhere to Torah
12:14 [10:12] Now, O Israel, what does Yahveh your God require of you? Only this: to revere Yahveh your God in awe, to walk in all [God’s] ways, to love [God], and to serve Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
12:15 [10:13] keeping the commandments of Yahveh your God and [God’s] statutes, which I am enjoining upon you today for your good.
12:16 [10:14] Mark well: the skies and the highest heaven belong to Yahveh your God, as well as the [entire] earth and all that is in it!
12:17 [10:15] Yet it was to your patriarchs that Yahveh was drawn in [God’s] love for them; and thus [God] chose you, their direct descendants after them, from among all [other] peoples, as is the case to this [very] day.
12:18 [10:16] Therefore, circumcise the [stubborn] thickness from around your hearts, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
12:19 [10:17] For Yahveh your God is God Most Supreme, and the Most Supreme Sovereign – the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who shows no partiality and takes no bribes;
12:20 [10:18] but who upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and has kind regard for the foreigners resident [among you], providing them with food and clothing.
12:21 [10:19] Therefore, you too should have kind regard for the foreigners resident {among you}, for you were also once foreigners resident in the land of Egypt.
12:22 [10:20] Yahveh your God alone shall you revere in awe; [Yahveh] alone shall you serve, and to [Yahveh] alone shall you cling, and in [Yahveh’s] Name alone shall you swear oaths.
12:23 [10:21] [Yahveh] alone is your splendour, and [Yahveh] alone is your God, who wrought for you those marvellous and awesome deeds which your own eyes have seen.
12:24 [10:22] Your ancestors went down into Egypt [numbering] just seventy individuals, but now Yahveh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the skies.
Chapter 13: Having Witnessed God’s Deeds should make Israel more willing to remain loyal to God’s Ways
13:1 [11:1] Therefore, you shall love Yahveh your God, and keep [God’s] obligations, [God’s] statutes, [God’s] ordinances, and [God’s] commandments for all time.
13:2 [11:2] Be mindful this day, that it was not your children who experienced or witnessed the discipline of Yahveh your God, or [God’s] majesty, [God’s] great power, or [God’s] unparalleled displays of might;
13:3 [11:3] nor [God’s] [miraculous] signs or [God’s] deeds which [God] performed in the midst of Egypt against the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and against his whole country;
13:4 [11:4] or what [God] did to the army of Egypt – to their cavalry and their charioteers – when [God] made the waters of the Sea of Reeds flow back over them when they were pursuing you, and how Yahveh destroyed them once and for all;
13:5 [11:5] or what [God] did for you in the wilderness up until your arrival in this place;
13:6 [11:6] or what [God] did to Dāthān and Avīrām, the sons of Elī’āv the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up completely from the midst of Israel, along with their households, their tents, and every living thing that had come along with them;
13:7 [11:7] but rather it was you who saw with your own eyes all the great deeds of Yahveh which [God] performed.
Keeping God’s Commandments
13:8 [11:8] Therefore, you must keep the entire {body of} commandments which I am enjoining upon you today, so that you will grow strong and increase in number, {such that you will be able} to enter and take possession of the land which you are about to go across the Jordan to possess,
13:9 [11:9] and so that you may long endure upon the soil which Yahveh swore on oath to your patriarchs, to assign to them and to their descendants after them – a land overflowing in abundant natural bounty.
The Land that Israel is going into is not like the land they have come from
13:10 [11:10] For the land into which you yourselves are entering to possess, is not like the land of Egypt whence you came out from, where you sowed your seed and had to water it like a planted vegetable garden, {by forming irrigation channels} with your feet;
13:11 [11:11] but the Land, which you are about to enter to possess, is a land of [fertile] hills and valleys, which soaks up water {directly} from the rain of the skies –
13:12 [11:12] a land which Yahveh your God Himself looks after; for the [watchful gaze] of Yahveh your God is always upon it, from the beginning of the year right to its very end.
God’s Promises as a Reward for Obedience
13:13 [11:13] And so it shall be, that if you really do obey My precepts which I am commanding you today – to love Yahveh your God, and to serve [God] with all your heart and with all your soul,
13:14 [11:14] that I will grant rain for your land in its season – the autumn rain and the spring rain – so that you may gather in your cereal crop, your new wine and your fresh oil.
13:15 [11:15] I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
13:16 [11:16] However, be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
13:17 [11:17] Then Yahveh’s wrath will flare up against you, and [God] will shut up the skies, so that there will be no rain, and the Land will not yield its produce; then you will soon be wiped clean from the good land which Yahveh is giving you.
13:18 [11:18] Therefore, you must impress these words of Mine upon your very heart and soul; you must bind them like a sign on your hand, and let them serve as frontlets between your eyes.
13:19 [11:19] You shall teach them diligently to your children, speaking of them whether you remain at home or whether you are away; or when you lie down, and when you get up.
13:20 [11:20] You shall write them on the doorposts of your houses [of prayer] and on your [city] gates,
13:21 [11:21] so that you and your children may long flourish on the soil which Yahveh swore on oath to your patriarchs to assign to them, for as long as there exists a sky above the earth.
God will drive out the Canaanites
13:22 [11:22] For if you diligently keep this entire {body of} commandments which I am enjoining today upon you to do – to love Yahveh your God, to walk in all [God’s] ways, and to hold fast to [God] –
13:23 [11:23] then Yahveh will dislodge all those nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
13:24 [11:24] Every place where the soles of your feet tread will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the [Negev] desert to {the foothills of} the Lebanon; and from the River {Jordan} as far as the Mediterranean Sea.
13:25 [11:25] No man will be able to stand against you, for Yahveh your God shall instil the fear and dread of you {in the hearts of the inhabitants of} the entire land where you tread, just as [God] has promised you.
Notes:
12:6-9 (MT 10:6-7) – these verses seem to be a later editor’s note, since they do not fit with speech either side of them.
In MT Dt 10:6a, the text has ‘from Bė’eiroth B’ney-Ya`āqān to Moseirāh’. However, in MT Num 33:31, the order is the other way round. Furthermore, in Numbers there are other intervening stations between Moseirah and the place where Aaron died – Mount Hor (see Num 33:30-38). Only the Samaritan text reflects this correction. However, since the point of the editorial addition (MT Dt 10:6-7) is to note that Aaron died before entering the Land, as a punishment for his part in the Golden Calf incident, I felt it unnecessary to list out all the stations along the way like the Samaritan text does.
Also, in Dt, Aaron’s death seems to occur at the beginning of the wanderings in the second year, at Moseirah. However, Numbers 13.38 says that Aaron died in the 40th year at Mt Hor. The order of these verses has therefore been amended – something that the Samaritan text does as well to reflect the order of events in Numbers 33:30-38
13:24 – the borders of the Land: The Hebrew says, ‘and from the River, the River Euphrates, as far as the Hinder Sea’. In my humble opinion, I think the words ‘the River Euphrates’ were a later addition to justify David’s Empire, and that ‘the River’ originally meant ‘the River Jordan’.
Basically, this verse was originally stating compass-point locations, “south to north, and east to west”. However, if the Euphrates was indeed meant instead of the Jordan, then it has become “south to north, north-east to west”. Also, the particular words used here for ‘Mediterranean Sea’ in Hebrew is ‘the Hinder Sea’ – ie the Sea behind it; in relation to the Land of Israel, the Mediterranean Sea is behind the River Jordan, not the Euphrates.
Chapter 14: Blessedness and Accursedness
14:1 [11:26] Mark well – I am setting before you today blessedness and accursedness:
14:2 [11:27] blessedness, if you are obedient to the commandments of Yahveh your God, which I am enjoining upon you today;
14:3 [11:28] and accursedness, if you are not obedient to the commandments of Yahveh your God, but [instead] turn aside from the Way which I am enjoining upon you today, by going after other gods which you have never experienced.
14:4 [11:29] Now it shall be, when Yahveh your God has brought you into the land which you are about to enter to possess, that you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gėrizīm, and the curse on Mount `Eivāl;
14:5 [11:30] for as you know, both are on the other side of the Jordan, near the Gilgal [which is] by the terebinth trees of Moreh, which are situated down the westward road that cuts through the territory of the Canaanites who dwell in the `Arāvāh.
14:6 [11:31] So when you yourselves cross the Jordan, and enter to take possession of the land that Yahveh your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and are settled there,
14:7 [11:32] you must be sure to carry out all the statutes and regulations which I am setting before you today.
The Order to destroy all pagan sites of worship in Canaan
14:8 [12:1] These therefore are the statutes and regulations which you must be careful to observe in the land which Yahveh, the God of your Patriarchs, has given you to possess, for as long as you live on the soil {of the Land}.
14:9 [12:2] You must utterly destroy all the worship-sites where the nations whom you shall dispossess are accustomed to worshipping their gods – {whether they be} on the high mountains, on the hilltops, or under some verdant tree.
14:10 [12:3] Therefore, you shall tear down their altars, smash their Baal-stones, and their Asherah poles you shall consign to the fire; you shall also cut down the carved images of their gods, completely eliminating their names from those sites;
14:11 [12:4] for this is not how you shall conduct your worship toward Yahveh your God.
The One Place of Worship
14:12 [12:5a] Instead, you must seek [only] the [one] place which Yahveh your God shall choose out of all {the territories of} your tribes to establish as the dwelling-place for [God’s] Name.
14:13 [12:5b-6] There [alone] shall you go, and there [alone] shall you bring your burnt-offerings and your [other] sacrifices, your tithes, your voluntary gift-offerings, your votive-offerings and your freewill-offerings, along with the firstborn of your herds [of cattle] and of your flocks [of sheep and goats].
14:14 [12:7] There [alone] you must consume {your sacrificial offerings} in the presence of Yahveh your God, and together with your households, you shall thereby rejoice in everything that you have set your hand to, in whatever undertaking Yahveh your God has blest you.
14:15 [12:8] You are not to do any of the things that we currently do here, where every individual does whatever seems fitting in their own eyes,
14:16 [12:9] for you have not yet arrived at your permanent place of settlement – at the inheritance which Yahveh your God has assigned to you.
14:17 [12:10] However, when you cross the Jordan, and settle in the land which Yahveh your God has given you to inherit, and when [God] gives you rest from all your enemies round about you, so that you dwell in peaceful safety,
14:18 [12:11a] then there will be a place which Yahveh your God will choose to cause [God’s] Name to dwell.
14:19 [12:11b] There you must bring everything that I have instructed you: your burnt-offerings and your [other] sacrifices, your tithes, your voluntary gift-offerings, and all your votive-offerings which you vow to Yahveh.
14:20 [12:12] [There] you shall rejoice before Yahveh your God – you, your sons, your daughters, your manservants, your maidservants, and the Levites who are within your [towns], for they have no portion or inheritance {of land} with you.
Sacrificial Regulations
14:21 [12:13] Be careful that you do not offer your burnt-offerings in just any place that you see.
14:22 [12:14] Rather, you shall offer your burnt-offerings [only] in the place which Yahveh will choose within {the territory of} one of your tribes, and there [alone] shall you do everything that I instruct you {concerning sacrificial offerings}.
14:23 [12:15a] Nevertheless, you may slaughter and eat {non-sacrificial} meat within any of the settlements {where you live}, of whatever {ritually clean animal} your heart desires, according to the blessing that Yahveh your God has given you.
14:24 [12:15b] The {ritually} unclean and the {ritually} clean alike among you may eat of it, {such as the meat of} the gazelle and the deer –
14:25 [12:16] only you must not consume the blood; instead, you must pour it out onto the ground like water.
14:26 [12:17] However, within your regular settlements you may not eat the tithe of your cereal crop, your new wine, or your fresh oil, nor the firstborn of your cattle or of your sheep or goats, nor any of the votive-offerings which you vow, or your freewill-offerings, or your voluntary gift-offerings.
14:27 [12:18] Rather, you must eat these [only] in the presence of Yahveh your God, in the [one] place which Yahveh your God will choose – you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, and the Levite who {lives with you} in your settlements – and thereby you shall rejoice before Yahveh your God {with the fruit of} all your undertakings.
14:28 [12:19] Take especial care not to neglect the Levite as long as you are living on the soil {of your land}.
Eating meat if the Sacrificial Place is too far from where you live
14:29 [12:20] Now when Yahveh your God has expanded your borders as [God] has promised you, and you say to yourself, “I wish to eat meat,” because you have a strong craving to eat the meat {of ritually clean animals suitable for sacrifice}, then you may eat as much meat as your heart desires;
14:30 [12:21] because if the place which Yahveh your God has chosen to establish [God’s] Name is too far away from you, then you may slaughter {the meat} of your cattle, your sheep and your goats, which Yahveh has given you, in the way I have instructed you; and you may eat {such meat} within your regular settlements, and so satisfy your craving.
14:31 [12:22] Eat it, however, in the same way that {the meat of non-sacrificial animals such as} the gazelle and the deer is eaten: the [ritually] unclean and the [ritually] clean alike among you may eat of it;
14:32 [12:23] only be absolutely sure that you do not consume the blood. For the blood is the life, and you may not eat the life with the meat.
14:33 [12:24] You must not consume it at all; rather, you must pour it out onto the ground like water.
14:34 [12:25] You must not consume it, so that things may go well with you and with your descendants after you, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of Yahveh.
Offerings must be taken to the Temple
14:35 [12:26] However, such sacred and votive offerings that you might have, must be taken by you to the [one] place which Yahveh shall choose.
14:36 [12:27] You must offer your whole burnt-offerings – both the meat and the blood – on the altar of Yahveh your God; and the blood of your [other] sacrificial offerings shall be poured out on the altar of Yahveh your God; only then may you consume the meat.
14:37 [12:28] Be careful to observe and carry out all these decrees which I have enjoined upon you, so that things may go well with you and with your descendants after you forever, whenever you do what is good and right in the sight of Yahveh your God.
Chapter 15: Warnings against the Lure of Canaanite Paganism
15:1 [12:29] Now, when Yahveh your God does away with the nations which you are invading in order to dispossess them, and you succeed in displacing them before you, and you have become settled in their land,
15:2 [12:30a] be on your guard that you do not get ensnared into following their practices, after they have been wiped out to make way for you!
15:3 [12:30b] Do not enquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations used to worship their gods? I too will follow the same practices.”
15:4 [12:31] You shall not behave in such a way towards Yahveh your God! For everything which is an abomination to Yahveh – {all the things} which [God] hates – they have committed {in the worship of} their gods; they even burn up their [own] sons and daughters in the fire {as sacrifices} to their gods!
15:5 [J: 13:1, X: 12:32] Therefore, everything that I command you today, that is what you must be sure to do. You shall not add anything to it, nor take anything away from it.
False Prophets
15:6 [J: 13:2, X: 13:1] Now if a prophet or someone who has predictive dreams should arise among you, and they promise you a sign or a miracle,
15:7 [J: 13:3, X: 13:2] and the sign or miracle they told you about [actually] comes to pass, and then they say, “Let us go after other gods” – which you have never experienced – “and let us worship them,”
15:8 [J: 13:4, X: 13:3] you must not pay any attention to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, for Yahveh your God is testing you, in order to ascertain whether you [really] do love Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
15:9 [J: 13:5, X: 13:4] You must follow [only] after Yahveh your God; you shall revere [only] [Yahveh], keeping [only] [Yahveh’s] commandments, and obeying [only] [Yahveh’s] pronouncements; you must serve [Yahveh] alone, and remain loyal [only] to [Yahveh].
15:10 [J: 13:6, X: 13:5] Therefore, that prophet or dreamer of dreams must be put to death, because he has spoken falsely in order to turn you away from Yahveh your God – the One who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and who redeemed you from a state of slavery – and in order to seduce you from the Way in which Yahveh your God commanded you to walk. In this way you shall purge the evil away from your midst.
Warnings against those in the very midst of Israel who entice other Israelites to follow other gods and other religions
15:11 [J: 13:7, X: 13:6] If your [own] brother, {whether he be} your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your [own] son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your [closest] friend, who is {as dear to you} as your own soul – {if any of them} entices you secretly, saying, “Come, let us serve other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have ever experienced –
15:12 [J: 13:8, X: 13:7] namely, the gods of the [pagan] peoples who are all around you, whether they be near you or far away from you, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other,
15:13 [J: 13:9, X: 13:8] you shall not give in to them or even listen to them; neither should you pity them, nor should you spare them or hide them.
15:14 [J: 13:10, X: 13:9] Rather, without fail you must kill them. Your own hand must be the first {to be raised} against them to put them to death, and afterwards, the hands of all the people.
15:15 [J: 13:11, X: 13:10] You must pelt them to death with stones, because they have sought to entice you away from Yahveh your God, who is the very One who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from a state of slavery.
15:16 [J: 13:12, X: 13:11] All Israel shall hear {this} and be afraid, so that never again shall any such wickedness as this be perpetrated among you.
Investigating those Israelites who entice whole Israelite cities to follow other gods or religions
15:17 [J: 13:13a, X: 13:12a] If you hear in one of your cities, which Yahveh your God is giving you to dwell in,
15:18 [J: 13:13b-14, X: 13:12b-13] {a rumour} there {which} says that certain unprincipled scoundrels have gone out missionising amongst you, and have seduced the inhabitants of their {entire} city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have never experienced,
15:19 [J: 13:15a, X: 13:14a] then you shall investigate, make enquiries, and question people thoroughly.
15:20 [J: 13:15b, X: 13:14b] If you discover that the rumour turns out to be true, and the fact is established for certain that such a detestable thing has been perpetrated in your midst,
15:21 [J: 13:16, X: 13:15] then you shall not hesitate to put the inhabitants of that city to the sword; you must proscribe it, its livestock and every [living] thing in it to be cut down by the sword.
15:22 [J: 13:17, X: 13:16] You must then gather all its spoils into the middle of the open streets, and burn down the city completely in flames, along with all the spoils within it, for Yahveh your God. Then you shall let it remain forever as a heap of ruins; it must never be rebuilt.
15:23 [J: 13:18, X: 13:17] Let nothing that has been proscribed to destruction cling to your hand, so that Yahveh may turn from [God’s] blazing anger and show you mercy; and in God’s compassion, [God] will multiply you in number instead, just as [God] swore to your patriarchs,
15:24 [J: 13:19, X: 13:18] if you will but obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, by keeping all [God’s] commandments which I am enjoining upon you today, and do that which is right and pleasing in the sight of Yahveh your God.
Chapter 16: Kosher and Non-kosher Meats
16:1 [14:2] You are to be a people holy to Yahveh your God, for Yahveh your God has chosen you to be God’s own people, a treasured possession from among all the peoples that exist on the face of the earth.
16:2 [14:3] Therefore, you must not eat any ritually intolerable thing.
16:3 [14:4] These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the offspring of sheep, and the offspring of goats;
16:4 [14:5] {also, animals such as} the red deer, the Dorcas gazelle, the roe deer, the fallow deer, the ibex, the oryx, and the mountain gazelle.
16:5 [14:6] You may eat any animal with divided hooves – that is, with the hoof divided into two parts, and which [also] chews the cud.
16:6 [14:7] On the other hand, you may not eat of these [animals] that [only] chew the cud, or of these [animals] that [only] have a divided hoof: the camel, the hare, or the hyrax. For they chew the cud, but their hoof is not divided; therefore they are unclean for you.
16:7 [14:8] The pig is unclean for you, because it has a divided hoof, yet it does not chew the cud. You must not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcasses.
16:8 [14:9] This is what you may eat out of everything that lives in the water: anything that has [both] fins and scales, you may eat.
16:9 [14:10] Whatever lacks either fins or scales you may not eat; it is unclean for you.
16:10 [14:11] You may eat of {the flesh of} any [ritually] clean birds.
16:11 [14:12a] However, these are the ones which you cannot eat:
16:12 [14:12b-13] eagles, vultures, buzzards, gledes, falcons or kites of any kind,
16:13 [14:14] and no ravens {or crows} of any kind at all;
16:14 [14:15] ostriches, harriers, gulls or hawks of any kind;
16:15 [14:16] nor {owls of any kind} – {such as} the little owl, the eagle-owl or the barn owl;
16:16 [14:17-18a] cormorants, bitterns, pelicans, storks, herons [or egrets] of any kind,
16:17 [14:18b] nor the hoopoe, nor bats {of any kind}.
16:18 [14:19] Any crawling thing that can fly is [ritually] unclean to you; you shall not eat of them.
16:19 [14:20] However, you may eat any [ritually] clean flying creature.
16:20 [14:21b] You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
16:21 [14:21a] You must not eat of anything that has died of natural causes, but you may give it to the foreigner that is in your [settlements], so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are to be a people holy to Yahveh your God.
Annual Tithes
16:22 [14:22] You must be sure to set aside a tithe of the entire yield of your crops which the fields produce, year after year.
16:23 [14:23] You must consume the tithes before Yahveh your God, in the place where Yahveh your God shall choose to give [God’s] Name a dwelling – the tithes of your cereal crop, of your new wine, of your fresh oil, and of the firstborn of your herds [of cattle] and of your flocks [of sheep and goats]; and in so doing, that you may learn to always revere Yahveh your God in awe.
16:24 [14:24] However, should the distance be too great for you, because the place where Yahveh your God has chosen to establish God’s Name is too far from you; or should you be unable to carry your tithe, because Yahveh your God has blest you {with such great abundance},
16:25 [14:25] then you may exchange it for money. Wrap up the money, and take it along with you to the place which Yahveh your God has chosen.
16:26 [14:26] Then you may spend that money on whatever your heart desires – be it on oxen or sheep, wine or grape-brandy, or on anything you wish; and you shall feast on it there in the presence of Yahveh your God; and so you shall make merry, along with your household.
16:27 [14:27] However, you must not neglect the Levites who live within your [settlements], for they have no allotted share or inheritance with you {in the Land}.
The Triennial Tithes
16:28 [14:28] At the end of every three years, you must bring forth all the tithes of your produce of that year, but have it all remain within your [settlements].
16:29 [14:29] Then the Levite, who has no hereditary share {of land} as you have, {as well as} the resident foreigner, the fatherless and the widow who live within your [settlements], shall come and eat their fill, so that Yahveh your God may then bless you in everything that you undertake to do.
Notes:
MT verse Dt 14:1 has been relocated to become HTT verse TM 19:4
Chapter 17: The Sabbatical Year
17:1 [15:1] At the end of {every} seven years, you shall grant a remittal {of all debts}.
17:2 [15:2] This shall be the manner of the remittal: Any creditor who has loaned anything to their fellow [Israelites] shall relinquish all claim over it; they shall not demand it of their fellow [Israelites] – of their kinsfolk, because Yahveh’s Remittal has been proclaimed.
17:3 [15:3] You may [still] exact [a debt] from a {non-resident} foreigner, but whatever is owed to you by your [Israelite] kinsfolk, you shall relinquish all claims over them.
17:4 [15:4a] In this way, there will cease to be anyone in abject poverty among you;
17:5 [15:4b-5] for Yahveh your God will greatly bless you in the land which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you will carefully heed the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, by diligently observing the whole of this commandment which I am enjoining upon you today.
17:6 [15:6a] For [it is indeed] Yahveh your God who will bless you, just as [God] promised you; and you will become lenders to many nations, but you yourselves will not become borrowers.
17:7 [15:6b] You will thus have a strong influence over many nations, but they will not have any strong influence over you.
Lending to the Poor at any time
17:8 [15:7] If there should be among you someone in abject poverty, one of your [own] [Israelite] kinsfolk, within any of your [settlements], in the land which Yahveh your God is giving you, you must not harden your heart, nor {be stingy and} close off your hands towards your underprivileged [Israelite] kinsfolk.
17:9 [15:8] Rather, you must open wide your hands {and be liberally generous} towards them, and be sure to lend them whatever is sufficient for their needs, in whatever things they lack.
Lending to the Poor close to the Seventh Year
17:10 [15:9] However, take especial care, in case you should harbour the immoral thought in your heart, saying [to yourself], “The seventh year, the year of debt-remittal, is fast approaching,” and consequently you act with selfish regard against your [Israelite] kinsfolk who are underprivileged, and give them nothing; for then they will cry out to Yahveh against you, and it will be [counted as] a sin against you!
17:11 [15:10] You must be sure to give to them, and your heart must not be aggrieved when you give to them, for in return, Yahveh your God will bless you in all your efforts, and in everything that you undertake to do.
17:12 [15:11] For there will never cease to be poor people in the midst of the Land, {because of the selfish among you}. Therefore, I command you, saying, “You shall open your hand wide to your kinsfolk, to the poor, and to those in abject poverty in your land.”
Freeing Slaves in the Sabbatical Year
17:13 [15:12] If any of your [Israelite] kinsfolk is sold to you – be they a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman – then they shall serve you for {a maximum of} six years, for in the seventh year you must let them go [as] free people from your [service].
17:14 [15:13] However, when you do send them away from you [as] free people, you must not send them away empty-handed.
17:15 [15:14] You shall provide for them liberally out of your {herds and} flocks, from your threshing-floor, your wine vat {and your olive press}. From whatever Yahveh your God has blest you with, you shall give them supplies;
17:16 [15:15] for you must remember that you [too] were [once] slaves in the land of Egypt, and that Yahveh your God redeemed you. That is why I am enjoining upon you this decree today.
17:17 [15:16] However, if it be the case that {your male slave} says to you, “I will not depart from you,” because he loves you and your household, and because he is better off with you,
17:18 [15:17] then you must take an awl, and pierce it through his ear into the door {of your house}, and he shall be your slave forever. You must also do likewise with your female slave.
17:19 [15:18] It will not seem a hard thing for you when you send them away from you [as] free [people], for in serving you six years, they have been worth double [the cost of] a hired servant. Then Yahveh your God will bless you in everything that you do.
The Firstborn Animals
17:20 [15:19] You must consecrate to Yahveh your God all the firstborn males that are produced by your herds [of cattle], and your flocks [of sheep and goats]. You must do no work with the firstborn of your bulls, nor shall you shear the firstborn of your sheep.
17:21 [15:20] Instead, you shall consume them in the presence of Yahveh your God annually, in the place which Yahveh shall choose – you and your household.
17:22 [15:21] If there is any blemish on them, or if they are lame or blind, or they have some more serious defect, you shall not offer them in sacrifice to Yahveh your God.
17:23 [15:22] You shall [instead] consume them within your [settlements]. The [ritually] unclean and the [ritually] clean person alike may consume them, as if [the animal] were a gazelle or a deer.
17:24 [15:23] Only you must not consume their blood; you shall pour it out onto the ground like water.
Chapter 18: The Three Pilgrim Festivals
The Passover
18:1 [16:1] Observe the month of Aviv and make the Passover-sacrifice to Yahveh your God, for in the month of Aviv, Yahveh your God brought you out of Egypt at night.
18:2 [16:2] Therefore, you must make the Passover-sacrifice to Yahveh your God, from the flock or the herd, in the place where Yahveh your God will choose to give [God’s] Name a dwelling.
18:3 [16:3] You must not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry; {do this} so that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt, all the days of your life.
18:4 [16:4] There must not be any leaven seen among you within any of your territory for seven days, nor may any of the meat which you sacrifice at twilight on the first day remain overnight until morning.
18:5 [16:5] You may not make the Passover-sacrifice within any of your [regular] [towns or cities] that Yahveh your God has given you.
18:6 [16:6] Only at the place where Yahveh your God chooses to give [God’s] Name a dwelling, there [alone] you shall make the Passover-sacrifice at twilight, as the sun is setting, {so reflecting} the time that you came out of Egypt.
18:7 [16:7] You shall roast it and eat it in the place where Yahveh your God will choose; and in the morning, you are to return [home] to your tents.
18:8 [16:8] For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to Yahveh your God. You must do no regular work on {that day}.
The Festival of Weeks
18:9 [16:9] You must count off seven weeks for yourself. Start counting the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.
18:10 [16:10] You must keep the Festival of Weeks to Yahveh your God with a tribute of a freewill-offerings from {the work of} your hands, which you must give to Yahveh your God in proportion to how much Yahveh your God has blest you.
18:11 [16:11] You shall therefore rejoice before Yahveh your God – you, your sons, your daughters, your manservants, your maidservants, the Levites who dwell within your [settlements], the foreigners resident [among you], the fatherless, and the widows who are among you – in the place where Yahveh your God has chosen to give [God’s] Name a dwelling;
18:12 [16:12] you must remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and you must be careful to observe these statutes.
The Festival of Booths
18:13 [16:13] You shall observe the Festival of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in {the produce from} your threshing floor, and {from} your winepress.
18:14 [16:14] Moreover, you shall [all] rejoice in your Festival – you, your sons, your daughters, your manservants, your maidservants, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows who [reside] within your [settlements].
18:15 [16:15] For seven days you are to celebrate the Festival to Yahveh your God, in the place where Yahveh your God will choose, because Yahveh your God will bless you in all your produce, and in all the works of your hands – for then, you will indeed {have cause to} rejoice!
18:16 [16:16] Three times a year, all your males must appear before Yahveh your God in the place where [God] will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Booths; and they must not appear before Yahveh empty-handed.
18:17 [16:17] Every person must give gift-offerings as they are able, in proportion to the blessings which Yahveh your God has given you.
Chapter 19: Appointing Judges, Abuses in Worship, and Setting up Courts of Law
The Appointment of Judges
19:1 [16:18] You shall appoint magistrates and law-officers for yourselves, {to be stationed} within the gates {of all the towns} which Yahveh your God is about to give you, throughout {the territories of all} your tribes; and they shall judge the people with equitable justice.
19:2 [16:19] You must not pervert judgment nor show partiality. You must not accept any bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the pleas of the righteous.
19:3 [16:20] Justice, and justice alone shall you pursue, so that you may thrive and [rightfully] inherit the land which Yahveh your God is about to give you.
Detestable things
19:4 [14:1-2a] You are the children of Yahveh your God. Therefore, you shall not slash yourselves {in mourning}, nor make any baldness between your eyes {in remembrance of} the dead, for you are a people holy to Yahveh your God.
19:5 [16:21] You must not erect for yourselves an Asherah pillar – or indeed, any kind of wooden pole – beside the altar of Yahveh your God which you construct for yourselves;
19:6 [16:22] nor shall you set up for yourselves a Baal-stone – something which Yahveh your God detests.
19:7 [17:1] You must not sacrifice to Yahveh your God any bull or sheep that has any kind of blemish or defect, for that is [also] a detestable thing to Yahveh your God.
Rooting out the Worship of false gods
19:8 [17:2] If there be found among you, within one of your [settlements] which Yahveh your God is about to give you, any man or woman who has acted most wickedly in the sight of Yahveh your God, and violated [God’s] Covenant,
19:9 [17:3] by going off and serving other gods and bowing down to them – or to the sun, or the moon, or to any of the [starry] host of the heavens – something which I have not commanded;
19:10 [17:4] and if it is reported to you, and you have come to hear of it, and investigated [the matter] thoroughly, and [found] it to be true, and it is certain that such a detestable thing has been perpetrated in Israel,
19:11 [17:5] then you must bring forth to your town-gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked act, and pelt them – man or woman – with stones until they are dead.
19:12 [17:6] On the testimony of two or more witnesses, the one that is to die shall be put to death; but on the testimony of [only] one witness, such a person cannot be put to death.
19:13 [17:7] The hands of the witnesses themselves shall be the first {to be lifted} against them to put them to death, and thereafter, the hands of all the people. In this way you shall purge the evil from among you.
Referrals to Higher Courts of Law
19:14 [17:8a] Now if there should arise a case [which is] beyond you to judge, {and you have trouble deciding} between {innocence and guilt} in controversial cases of [crimes of] bloodshed, [civil] lawsuits, or common assault – any complex cases within your [settlements] –
19:15 [17:8b] then {all the parties involved} must set out, and go up to the {central} place where Yahveh your God will choose for God’s Name to be invoked.
19:16 [17:9a] You must go to the Levitical priests or to the magistrate {who is in office} at the time, and present the case.
19:17 [17:9b-10] When they have announced to you the verdict in the case, you must act according to the ruling which they declare to you from the place where Yahveh your God has chosen for God’s Name to be invoked, making sure that you are careful to do everything that they instruct you [to do].
Disobeying the Verdict of the Highest Court in the Land
19:18 [17:11a] You must act according to the terms of the ruling which they hand down to you, and according to the verdict which they convey to you.
19:19 [17:11b] You must not deviate from the sentence which they announce to you – {diverting neither} to the right or to the left.
19:20 [17:12] However, should anyone act presumptuously, by disregarding the {verdict of} the [very] priest who is charged with ministering before Yahveh your God, or of the magistrate – that person must die; in this way you shall purge the evil from Israel.
19:21 [17:13] Then all the people will come to hear of it and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.
Appointing a King
19:22 [17:14] When you have entered into the land which Yahveh your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it, and you are dwelling there and then you say, “I shall set a king over me, just like all the nations that are around me,”
19:23 [17:15] you must be sure to [only] set over you a king whom Yahveh your God will choose. You must [only] set up a king over you who comes from among your [own] brothers; you may not appoint a foreign man over you – someone who is not your brother.
19:24 [17:16] What is more, he shall not accumulate multitudes of horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order that he might increase {his stock of} horses; for it was Yahveh who told you, “You must not go back that way ever again.”
19:25 [17:17] Nor shall he accumulate multitudes of wives for himself, in case his heart should go astray, {causing him to become derelict in his duty towards God and God’s people}; nor shall he accumulate for himself excessive quantities of silver or gold.
19:26 [17:18] Rather it must be, once he {has ascended to} sit on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write a copy of this Teaching for himself on a scroll, from the one which is in the keeping of the Levitical priests.
19:27 [17:19] It shall remain with him, and so he must read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere Yahveh his God in awe, and carefully observe all the words of this Teaching and these statutes, by doing them,
19:28 [17:20] so that he will not be tempted to act in a haughty {or authoritarian} manner towards his fellow {Israelites}; and [also], so that he may not deviate from [this] {body of} commandments, {straying neither} to the right or to the left, in order that he and his {line of} descendants may last a long time upon the throne of his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Chapter 20: Provision for Levitical Priests
20:1 [18:1] The Levitical priests – the whole tribe of Levi – shall have no portion or inheritance {of arable land} with Israel. They must [instead] eat the fire-offerings of Yahveh and [God’s] portion.
20:2 [18:2] They will have no inheritance among their [Israelite] kinsfolk. Yahveh is to be their [sole] inheritance, just as [God] has promised them.
20:3 [18:3] This shall be the priest’s due from the people – from those who are making sacrificial offerings, whether it be an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the upper forelimbs, the jowls, and the stomach.
20:4 [18:4] You must [also] give him the first part of your cereal crop, of your new wine, and of your fresh oil, as well as the first sheared fleeces of your sheep.
20:5 [18:5] For Yahveh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to serve in attendance before Yahveh your God, to minister to [God], and to bless the people in [God’s] Name – him and his descendants, for all time.
20:6 [18:6] Now if a Levite should leave any of your [settlements], from anywhere in Israel where he resides, and comes whenever his appetite so draws him, to the place where Yahveh shall choose,
20:7 [18:7] then he shall {be allowed} to minister in the Name of Yahveh his God, just like all his brothers the Levites do, who serve in attendance there before Yahveh.
20:8 [18:8] He must {be entitled} [to have] {an equal share of} the same portions to eat, regardless of any profits he has received from the sale of his father’s {inherited residential property}.
A Call to abandon Superstition and remain loyal to God’s Holiness
20:9 [18:9] When you enter into the land which Yahveh your God is about to give you, you must not learn to imitate the abominable practices of those nations.
20:10 [18:10a] There must not be found among you anyone who {sacrifices their children by} consigning their son or daughter to the fire,
20:11 [18:10b-11a] or who uses divination, or practices witchcraft, or interprets omens, or employs sorcery, or casts spells {and incantations},
20:12 [18:11b] nor anyone who consults mediums, or a spiritualist, or who resorts to summoning the dead.
20:13 [18:12] Everyone who does these things is an abomination to Yahveh; for it is because of these very abominations that Yahveh your God is driving out {those nations} from before you.
20:14 [18:13] You must therefore be blameless before Yahveh your God.
Future Prophets
20:15 [18:14] Now, these nations which you are about to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, Yahveh your God has not permitted you to do such things.
20:16 [18:15] Yahveh your God will instead raise up for you prophets like me from your midst, from among your own brothers [and sisters]; and you must listen to them.
20:17 [18:16] This is in accordance with everything that you asked of Yahveh your God at Choreiv on the day of the Assembly, saying, “Let me not hear the voice of Yahveh my God again, nor let me see this great fire anymore, so that I don’t die.”
20:18 [18:17] Then Yahveh said to me, “They have done well in what they have asked!
20:19 [18:18] I will therefore raise up prophets from among their own brothers [and sisters], just like you; and I will put My words in their mouth, and they will proclaim to [the people] everything that I command them [to speak].
20:20 [18:19] And it will be, that whosoever does not listen to My words which they speak in My Name, I Myself will require an accounting from them.
20:21 [18:20] On the other hand, the [so-called] prophet who presumes to deliver a prophecy in My Name, which I have not commanded them to speak, or who [claims to] speak in the names of other gods – that prophet shall die.”
20:22 [18:21] Now, you may be wondering in your heart, “How can we possibly recognise the message which Yahveh has not spoken?”
20:23 [18:22] Listen: if any prophet {claims to} speak in the Name of Yahveh, then if the matter does not take place or come to pass, that is the message which Yahveh has not spoken; the prophet has merely spoken it from their own wilful thoughts; you must not be afraid of them.
Chapter 21: Cities of Refuge
21:1 [19:1] Once Yahveh your God has done away with the nations whose land Yahveh your God is about to give you, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their cities and their houses,
21:2 [19:2] you shall set apart three cities for yourselves within your land, which Yahveh your God is giving you to possess.
21:3 [19:3] You shall work out the distances involved first, and then divide into three {equal} parts the territory of your land, which Yahveh your God is giving you to inherit, so that anyone who accidentally kills someone can {easily} flee there {to one of them}.
21:4 [19:4] This is the instance of the one who may flee there who has committed manslaughter, so that they may live {in safety}: Someone who kills their fellow human being unintentionally, towards whom they previously had no enmity.
21:5 [19:5] For example, a man might go into the forest with his neighbour to chop wood; his hand raises the axe to chop down the tree, but then the axe-head slips from the handle, and lands on his neighbour causing him to die – then this is the type of person who may flee to one of those cities, and so {save his} life.
21:6 [19:6] Otherwise, the next of kin seeking blood-vengeance, might pursue the manslayer and overtake him, if the distance {to the nearest city of refuge} is [too] great; and then, in the heat of his anger, he would take [the manslayer’s] life, even though he did not incur the death penalty, since he had had no enmity towards {the victim} before that time.
21:7 [19:7] That is why I am giving you this commandment and saying, “You shall set apart three cities for yourselves.”
Provision for further Cities of Refuge
21:8 [19:8] Now, if Yahveh your God enlarges your borders, just as [God] swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land which [God] promised to give to your ancestors,
21:9 [19:9] and if you will carefully keep all these commandments which I am enjoining upon you today – to love Yahveh your God, and always to walk in [God’s] ways – then you must add three more cities for yourselves, besides these three.
21:10 [19:10] Then innocent blood will not be shed, thus bringing blood-guilt upon you within the land, which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
No Refuge for those who have committed Intentional Murder
21:11 [19:11] However, if any person does have {prior} enmity towards their neighbour, and then lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes a mortal blow against him so that he dies – and then he flees to one of these cities,
21:12 [19:12] in this case the elders of his city must send out {men} to fetch him back from there, and deliver him into the hands of the next of kin seeking blood-vengeance, and he will be put to death.
21:13 [19:13] You must not look upon him with any pity; rather, you must purge the sin-guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that things may go well with you.
Against moving Boundary Markers
21:14 [19:14] You shall not move away your fellow [countryman’s] boundary-markers, which were set up by earlier generations to mark out your {individual} inherited properties, which you shall inherit in the land that Yahveh your God is giving you to possess.
Malicious Witnesses
21:15 [19:15] A lone witness shall not suffice against a person to prove any guilt or offense in any wrongdoing that they might have committed. [Only] on the testimony of two or more witnesses shall {the facts of} the matter be established.
21:16 [19:16] If a malicious witness comes forward against any person, and gives false testimony against that person,
21:17 [19:17] then both parties involved in the dispute must appear in the presence of Yahveh, before the priests or magistrates who are in office at the time.
21:18 [19:18] The magistrates must make a thorough investigation. If indeed this is a false witness, and has testified deceitfully against his [Israelite] brother,
21:19 [19:19] then you must do to him just as he conspired to have done to his brother. In this way you must burn the evil away from your midst.
21:20 [19:20] Then everyone else will come to hear {of this} and be afraid, and never again will such evil be committed among you.
21:21 [19:21] You must show no pity; {you shall exact} a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.
Chapter 22: Rules of Warfare
Exemptions from Military Service
22:1 [20:1] When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see {multitudes of} horses and chariots – forces that greatly outnumber you – do not be afraid of them, for Yahveh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
22:2 [20:2] This is what shall be done before you engage in battle: the priest shall come forward and address the troops;
22:3 [20:3] and he shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you will be engaging in battle against your enemies. Do not let your courage falter! Do not be afraid, and do not tremble or become panicked because of them.
22:4 [20:4] For it is Yahveh your God who is marching with you, to fight for you against your enemies, and make you victorious.”
22:5 [20:5] Then the officers will [also] speak to the troops, saying, “Is there any man here who has built a new house and has not [yet] dedicated it? Then let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it.
22:6 [20:6] Is there any man here who has planted a vineyard, and has not [yet] enjoyed its fruit? Then let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man enjoy its fruit.
22:7 [20:7] Is there any man here who has betrothed a woman but has not [yet] married her? Then let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man marry her.”
22:8 [20:8] The officers shall address the troops further, and they shall say, “Is there any man here who is fearful and lacking in courage? Then let him go and return to his house, lest he cause the courage of his fellow comrades to flag as well as his.”
22:9 [20:9] Thereafter, when the officers have finished addressing the troops, they must appoint army commanders to assume command at the head of the troops.
Ask first for the peaceful surrender of foreign cities that have attacked you
22:10 [20:10] When, {in times of war}, you approach a {foreign} city in order to fight against it, {because they have attacked you in your land}, you must first call for its peaceful surrender.
22:11 [20:11] If it so happens that it gives you a reply of peaceful surrender, and opens {its gates} to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found within it shall become forced labour for you and serve you.
22:12 [20:12] However, if it will not surrender peacefully to you, but [would rather] go into battle against you, then you are to besiege it.
22:13 [20:13] Then, when Yahveh your God has delivered it into your hands, you are to put every male there to the sword.
22:14 [20:14] However, the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all {the goods} that are in the city – all the spoils within – you may take for yourselves. In this way you may enjoy the spoils of your enemies, which Yahveh your God has given you.
22:15 [20:15] This is how you shall deal with all the cities which lie very far away from you {in other lands} – cities which do not belong to these nearby [Canaanite] nations.
The complete destruction of cities in Canaan
22:16 [20:16] With regard to the cities of these {Canaanite} peoples, which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not allow anything that breathes to remain alive.
22:17 [20:17] Rather, you must be sure to proscribe the Canaanites to destruction – the Cheytites and the Emorrites, the Girgashites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Yevusites – just as Yahveh your God has commanded you,
22:18 [20:18] so that they cannot teach you to imitate all their abominations, which they have committed {in worship} to their gods, so causing you to sin against Yahveh your God.
The Fruit trees around besieged Cities are not to be destroyed
22:19 [20:19] When making war against a city, and you have to lay siege to it for a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, nor wield an axe against them; for you may eat from them, therefore you shall not chop them down. For is the tree of the orchard a human being, that it can come out and face you in a siege?
22:20 [20:20] On the other hand, you may destroy and cut down only the trees which you know are not for eating, so that you may build siege engines against the city that makes war with you, until it is defeated.
Notes:
22:10 – ‘When, {in times of war}, you approach a {foreign} city in order to fight against it, {because they have attacked you in your land}, you must first call for its peaceful surrender’
The additional words in brace brackets explain that
(a) Israel is not to simply go out and attack foreign countries for no reason; there must be a pretty compelling reason for Israelite armies to leave Israel and enter hostile territory
(b) Israel must be in a state of war with these countries, which must have already attacked Israel, for Israel to see the need to leave Israel and go to foreign lands to attack them.
These early verses in the chapter cannot possibly apply to Canaanite cities – why would a Canaanite city ever want to surrender, knowing that they are all going to be killed anyway?
Chapter 23: Female Captives & Expiation for Unsolved Murders
Marrying Female Captives
23:1 [21:10] When you go forth into battle against your enemies {in foreign lands}, and Yahveh your God has delivered them into your hands, and you have taken {some of} them captive,
23:2 [21:11] and you see among the captives a beautiful-looking woman, and you desire her, and you wish to have her as your wife,
23:3 [21:12a] then {first of all}, you are to bring her back home to your household.
23:4 [21:12b-13a] There she is {to be allowed} to shave her head and trim her nails. She must also {be allowed to} discard the clothing of her captivity; she shall remain in your house, and you must {allow her to} mourn her father and her mother for a full month.
23:5 [21:13b] Only after all that, you may have relations with her, and be a husband to her, and she will be your wife.
23:6 [21:14] Then, if it so happens that you are no longer pleased with her, then you must release her life outright; you are absolutely forbidden to sell her for money – you shall not treat her like a slave-girl, because you have [already] exploited her.
The Right of the Firstborn
23:7 [21:15] If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both have borne him children – both the loved one and the unloved one; and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved one,
23:8 [21:16] then when the day comes to bequeathing to his sons whatever he has, he may not elevate the status of the firstborn son of the loved one over the son of the unloved one, who was the actual firstborn.
23:9 [21:17] On the contrary, he must acknowledge the son of the unloved one as the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of everything that he possesses, for he is the first-fruit of his vigour; the right of the firstborn is therefore his.
Dealing With a Rebellious Son
23:10 [21:18] If any parent has a disobedient and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice either of his father or his mother, and who, even when they have disciplined him, will still not listen to them,
23:11 [21:19] then [the son’s] father and mother are to take hold of him, and bring him out to the elders of his town – to the very gates of his hometown.
23:12 [21:20] The parents shall then say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is disobedient and rebellious! He will not heed what we tell him. He is a glutton and a drunkard!”
23:13 [21:21] Then all the people of his town must pelt him with stones until he is dead. In this way you shall purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will come to hear of it and be afraid.
Not Leaving up a Hanged Man overnight
23:14 [21:22] Now, if a man has committed a crime which gets the death penalty, and is executed, and you hang him on a gallows,
23:15 [21:23a] then his corpse must not remain overnight on the gallows, but you must be sure to bury him the very same day;
23:16 [21:23b] for {leaving up} a hanged man is an affront to God; you shall not thus defile the soil that Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Purification of the Land in the case of a person murdered by an unknown assailant
23:17 [21:1] If someone is found murdered on the soil which Yahveh your God is giving you to possess, just lying out in the fields, and it is not known who has killed him,
23:18 [21:2] then your elders and your magistrates shall go out, and they must measure {how far it is} to the towns which are around {the body of} the one who was killed.
23:19 [21:3] When it has been decided which town is closest to {the body of} the person killed, then the elders of that town shall take a young heifer which has never been worked – one that has never drawn {a plough attached to} a yoke;
23:20 [21:4] and the elders of that town must bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which has neither been ploughed nor sown; and there they shall break the heifer’s neck in the valley.
23:21 [21:5] At that point the priests, the sons of Levi, must come forward; for Yahveh your God has chosen them to minister to [God], and to pronounce blessings in the Name of Yahveh; and every dispute and every {case of} assault is subject to their ruling.
23:22 [21:6] Then all the elders of that town, which is nearest to the murdered person, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
23:23 [21:7] Then they shall respond and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not witnessed {this murder}.
23:24 [21:8] Provide expiation then, O Yahveh, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and let not {the sin-guilt of} innocent blood remain in the midst of Your people Israel.” And so expiation for the blood-guilt will be made for them.
23:25 [21:9] In this way you are to remove the sin-guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you will be doing what is upright and pleasing in the sight of Yahveh.
Chapter 24: Animal Welfare, Sexual Relations & Miscellaneous Rulings
Animal Welfare
24:1 [22:1] If you should see your [Israelite] brother’s ox, his sheep [or goat], or any of his animals go astray, then you must not pretend you did not see them. You must without fail take them back to your [Israelite] brother.
24:2 [22:2] If your [Israelite] brother does not [live] near you, or if you do not know who he is, then you are to herd [the stray animal] back to the safety of your own homestead, and it shall remain with you until your [Israelite] brother comes looking for it – in which case, you must return it to him.
24:3 [22:3] In the same way, you must do so with his donkey, with his mantle, and with anything that has been lost by your [Israelite] brother – anything which he has mislaid and you have found; you must not pretend {to him that you have found nothing}.
24:4 [22:4] If you should see your [Israelite] brother’s donkey, his ox or any of his animals collapse along the road, then you must not pretend {you did not see} them. You must without fail help him to lift them up.
24:5 [22:6] If you happen across a bird’s nest along your travels, whether it be in a tree or on the ground, {then if there are} young ones or eggs, and the mother is sitting on the young or the eggs, you are not to take the mother along with the young.
24:6 [22:7] Without fail you must let the mother go, but you may take the young {or the eggs} for yourself, so that things may fare well with you, and that you may have a long life.
Building a parapet for the roof
24:7 [22:8] When you build a new house, you must make a parapet for your roof, so that you bring no blood-guilt on your household, should any person {or animal} [happen to] fall from there.
Mixing of Two Kinds
24:8 [22:5] A woman must not wear a man’s apparel, nor is a man to put on a woman’s clothing. For everyone who does these things [is doing] what is detestable to Yahveh your God.
24:9 [22:9] You must not sow your vineyard with two [different] kinds of seeds, or else the yield of the seed which you have sown, and the ripe produce of your vineyard will become defiled.
24:10 [22:10] You must not plough with an ox and a donkey {yoked} together.
24:11 [22:11] You must not wear clothing made of mixed fibres, such as wool and linen together.
24:12 [22:12] You must, however, make [knotted] tassels on the four corners of your over-mantle with which you cover yourself.
False Claims of Virginity
24:13 [22:13] If any man takes a wife, and has sexual relations with her, and then takes a strong dislike to her,
24:14 [22:14] and accuses her of shameful behaviour, and publicly impugns her reputation, saying, “I married this woman, but when I had relations with her, I found her not to be a virgin,”
24:15 [22:15] then the father and mother of the young woman must produce {the evidence} of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the town at the town-gates.
24:16 [22:16] The young woman’s father must then say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he has rejected her.
24:17 [22:17] What is more, he has laid upon her charges of shameful behaviour, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ However, this {is the evidence of} my daughter’s virginity.” And they shall spread out the {blood-stained, bridal} bed‑cloth before the elders of the town.
24:18 [22:18] Thereupon the elders of that town must take that man and punish him;
24:19 [22:19a] they must fine him a hundred {sheqels of} silver, and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has publicly impugned the reputation of a virgin of Israel.
24:20 [22:19b] Thereafter, she is to {legally} remain his wife; {even though she now lives in her father’s house}, he may not divorce her as long as he lives, {but must continue to pay for her upkeep}.
24:21 [22:20] However, if this accusation {turns out} to be true, and no {evidence of} virginity can be found for the young woman,
24:22 [22:21a] then they shall bring the young woman out to the door of her father’s house, and the people of her town shall pelt her with stones until she is dead, because she has brought disgrace to Israel by acting like a whore in her father’s house.
24:23 [22:21a] In this way you shall purge the evil from among you.
Adultery and other Acts of Impropriety
24:24 [22:22] If a man is discovered lying with a woman who is already married to someone, then both of them must die – both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman herself; in this way you shall purge the evil from Israel.
24:25 [22:23] If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a man, and [another] man finds her inside the town, and has sexual relations with her,
24:26 [22:24a] then you must bring them both out to the gates of that town, and you must pelt them with stones until they are dead – the young woman, because she did not cry out {for help} even though {she was} inside the town, and the man because he has violated the wife of his fellow man.
24:27 [22:24b] In this way you shall purge the evil from among you.
24:28 [22:25] However, if a man finds a young betrothed woman in the [open] countryside {outside the town}, and the man forces her and rapes her, then only the man who raped her shall die.
24:29 [22:26] {As for} the young woman, you are not to do anything {to her}. There is no sin {deserving} of the death [penalty] {to be found} in the young woman, for just as when a man rises up against his neighbour and murders him, so it is with this matter;
24:30 [22:27] for he found her in the [open] countryside {outside the town}; {even if} the young betrothed woman had cried out, there was no one [around] to save her.
24:31 [22:28] If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, but is not betrothed to be married, and he seizes her and rapes her, and [these things] are found out,
24:32 [22:29] then the man who lay with her must give fifty {sheqels} of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall be his {legal} wife, by dint of the fact that he has violated her; {and even though she lives in her father’s house}, he may not divorce her as long as he lives, {but must continue to pay for her upkeep}.
24:33 [J: 23:1, X: 22:30] A man must not marry his father’s wife, and so in this way dishonour his father.
Chapter 25: Membership of the Assembly of Israel & Miscellaneous Laws
Exclusion from the Assembly of Israel
25:1 [J: 23:2, X: 23:1] No one who is castrated, or has his male organ cut off, may enter into the Assembly of Yahveh.
25:2 [J: 23:3, X: 23:2] No one of illegitimate birth may enter the Assembly of Yahveh. Even to his tenth generation, no one descended from him may enter the into Assembly of Yahveh.
25:3 [J: 23:4, X: 23:3] No male Ammonite or Moabite may enter into the Assembly of Yahveh. None {of their descendants}, even in their tenth generation {and beyond}, may ever enter into the Assembly of Yahveh,
25:4 [J: 23:5, X: 23:4] for the reason that they did not meet you with bread and water along the way, when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired against you Bil`ām, son of Bė`ōr of Pėthōr of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
25:5 [J: 23:6, X: 23:5] Nevertheless, Yahveh your God would not listen to Bil`ām. Instead, Yahveh your God turned the curse into a blessing on you, because Yahveh your God loves you.
25:6 [J: 23:7, X: 23:6] You are not ever to seek treaties of peace or cooperation with them as long as you live.
Those who may be admitted into the Assembly of Israel
25:7 [J: 23:8, X: 23:7] You are not to abhor the Edomites, for they are your brothers and sisters. You shall not abhor the Egyptians, because you were once a sojourner in their country.
25:8 [J: 23:9, X: 23:8] The children who are born of them may enter the Assembly of Yahveh in their third generation.
Uncleanness in the Camp
25:9 [J: 23:10, X: 23:9] When the army goes out {ready for battle} against your enemies, then you shall guard yourself from every unseemly thing.
25:10 [J: 23:11, X: 23:10] If there should be among you any man who has become [ritually] unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must leave the camp. He may not re-enter the camp {before becoming ritually clean again}.
25:11 [J: 23:12, X: 23:11] So to that end, when evening comes, he must bathe himself in water, and [only after] sunset may he come back into the midst of the camp.
25:12 [J: 23:13, X: 23:12] You must also have designated areas outside the camp where one may go outside {to relieve oneself}.
25:13 [J: 23:14, X: 23:13] You must have an iron peg amongst your battle gear. This is so that, when you relieve yourself outside, you must use it to dig with, and afterwards push back {the soil} and so cover up your excrement.
25:14 [J: 23:15, X: 23:14] For it is Yahveh your God who moves about in the midst of your camp, to deliver your enemies {into your hands} and give you victory. For this reason, your camp must be holy, so that [God] does not see any indecent thing among you, and so turn away from you.
Various Laws
25:15 [J: 23:16, X: 23:15] You must not deliver back to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his {foreign} master.
25:16 [J: 23:17, X: 23:16] He is {to be allowed to remain} with you and dwell among you, in a place which he [himself] chooses in one of your [settlements], wherever seems best to him; you must not mistreat him.
25:17 [J: 23:18, X: 23:17] There must never be any [pagan] temple-prostitutes among the daughters of Israel, nor any temple-prostitutes among the sons of Israel.
25:18 [J: 23:19, X: 23:18] You must never bring the wages of a whore or the pay of a dog (‘male prostitute’) into the house of Yahveh your God for any vow, for both of these are detestable to Yahveh your God.
25:19 [J: 23:20, X: 23:19] You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow [Israelite] – {whether it be} interest on money, interest on food, or on anything else that may be lent with interest.
25:20 [J: 23:21, X: 23:20] You may charge interest to a [non-resident] foreigner, but to your [fellow Israelite] you may not lend with interest, so that Yahveh your God may bless you in everything you apply yourself to, in the land which you are about to enter to possess.
25:21 [J: 23:22, X: 23:21] Whenever you make a solemn vow to Yahveh your God, you must not put off fulfilling it, for Yahveh your God will surely require [its payment] of you; otherwise, it would be {counted as} a sin against you.
25:22 [J: 23:23, X: 23:22] However, if you refrain from making a solemn vow, it will not be {counted as} a sin against you.
25:23 [J: 23:24, X: 23:23] The {words} which depart from your lips you must faithfully do, even your freewill offerings; {you shall do} just as you have vowed to Yahveh your God, whatever you have promised with your mouth.
25:24 [J: 23:25, X: 23:24] When you go into your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat grapes to your fill {to satisfy} your appetite, but you may not put any in your basket.
25:25 [J: 23:26, X: 23:25] When you enter into the standing grain of your neighbour, you may pluck the unripe ears with your hands, but you may not wield a sickle on your neighbour’s standing grain.
Laws About Divorce
25:26 [24:1] When a man takes a wife and consummates the marriage, and it so happens that she finds no favour in his eyes, because he has found something objectionable about her, then let him write her a certificate of divorce and put it in her hand and send her out of his house.
25:27 [24:2] When she departs from his house, she {is then free to} go and become another man’s wife.
25:28 [24:3] If the second husband [also] rejects her, and he too writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if her second husband dies – the one who took her to be his wife,
25:29 [24:4] then her first husband – the one who {first} divorced her – may not take her back again to be his wife, since she is defiled, and it would therefore be a detestable thing before Yahveh; for you must not bring sin-guilt on the land which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Chapter 26: Protection of Individual Rights
26:1 [24:5] When a man [is newly married], he shall not go out with the army {to war}, or be conscripted to it for any purpose; he is to be exempt [from service] for one year for the sake of his family, so that he may bring happiness to his wife whom he has [just] married.
26:2 [24:6] No one shall take a lower or upper millstone as security [for a loan], for they would be taking a [person’s] life as security.
26:3 [24:7] If anyone is apprehended having kidnapped any of their fellow Israelites, whether he has enslaved them [himself] or sold them on, then that kidnapper must die; in this way you shall purge the evil from among you.
26:4 [24:8] Be vigilant with any outbreak of skin-diseases, by carefully observing and acting according to all the regulations that the Levitical priests teach you {to do}. Just as I have commanded them, so you must carefully do –
26:5 [24:9] remember what Yahveh your God did to Miryām on the journey, after you came out of Egypt.
26:6 [24:10] When you make a loan of any kind to your fellow [Israelites], you may not go into their house to seize their security-pledge.
26:7 [24:11] Instead, you must remain outside, and the one to whom you have made the loan must bring the item pledged [as security] outside to you.
26:8 [24:12] If the person is destitute, {and they can only give you their mantle as security for the loan}, you may not go to sleep with their security-pledge {still in your possession}.
26:9 [24:13] You must without fail return the pledge to him when the sun sets, so that he may sleep in his own mantle and bless you, and it will [counted as a] righteous merit to you before Yahveh your God.
26:10 [24:14] You shall not exploit a hired worker who is destitute and needy, {nor defraud them of their wages}, whether they be one of your fellow [Israelites], or one of the resident foreigners who live among you in your land, within the gates {of your towns}.
26:11 [24:15] You must give them their [proper] wages each and every day before the sun sets on them, for they are poor, and their very life depends on [their daily wage], or else they will cry against you to Yahveh, and it will be [counted as] a sin against you.
26:12 [24:16] Parents may not be put to death for {the sins of} their children, nor shall children be put to death for {the sins of} their parents. A person can only be put to death for their own sins.
26:13 [24:17] You must not subvert the rights of the resident foreigner or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s cloak as a pawned pledge.
26:14 [24:18] On the contrary, you must remember {what it was like when} you were a slave in Egypt, and that Yahveh your God redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do these things.
The Gleaning Laws
26:15 [24:19a] Whenever you reap the harvests in your fields, and {you realise} you have forgotten a sheaf out in the field, you may not go back to get it.
26:16 [24:19b] It shall remain [there] for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that Yahveh your God may bless you in everything you undertake to do.
26:17 [24:20a] When you beat your olive trees, you may not go over [the boughs] again.
26:18 [24:20b] Instead, [any unbeaten boughs] shall remain for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
26:19 [24:21a] When you gather [the grapes of] your vineyard, you shall not pick over [the vines] again.
26:20 [24:21b] [Whatever remains] shall be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
26:21 [24:22] You must remember {what it was like when} you were a slave in the land of Egypt. That is why I command you to do these things.
26:22 [25:4] You must not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain.
26:23 [25:1] If there is a dispute between [two] parties, and they resolve to go to court for judgment, and a decision is made declaring one in the right, and the other in the wrong,
26:24 [25:2] then it shall be, if the guilty person is sentenced to be flogged, then the judge must have him lie down and flogged in his presence, with the number of lashes dealt, by count, in accordance with his sentence.
26:25 [25:3] He may be given up to forty lashes but no more, in case, in being flogged further to excess, your fellow [Israelite] be thus degraded in your sight.
Chapter 27: The Levirate Laws
27:1 [25:5a] If brothers dwell together {on the same estate}, and one of them dies without having had any children, the widow of the deceased may not re-marry outside [the family] to [someone who is unrelated to him].
27:2 [25:5b] Her husband’s brother must go to her and take her as his own wife, and perform the levirate-duty of a husband’s brother for her.
27:3 [25:6] Thereafter it shall be, that the firstborn child whom she bears shall succeed [and inherit] the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from {among the families of} Israel.
27:4 [25:7a] However, if the man does not have any desire to marry his brother’s widow, then let his brother’s widow go up to the town-gate, {address} the town-elders and declare,
27:5 [25:7b] “My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel. He does not consent to perform the levirate-duty of a husband’s brother.”
27:6 [25:8] Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak with him; and if he insists and says, “I have no desire to marry her,”
27:7 [25:9a] then his brother’s widow must come to him in full sight of the town-elders, remove his sandal from his {right} foot, and spit in his face, making this declaration:
27:8 [25:9b] “Thus shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house!”
27:9 [25:10] Thereafter [the brother’s] family name will be called in Israel, “Beit Chaluts ha-Ná`al” (‘Family of the one whose sandal was removed’).”
Improper Intervention in Fights
27:10 [25:11] When two men are fighting together – a man and his fellow [Israelite] – and the wife of the one draws near in order to deliver her husband out of the clutches of the one who is attacking him, and reaches out her hand and seizes him by the private parts,
27:11 [25:12] then you must cut off her hand. You must not look upon her with any pity.
The Importance of having proper Weights and Measures
27:12 [25:13] You must not have in your pouch differing stone-weights {purporting to be for the same weight} – a heavier one and a lighter one.
27:13 [25:14] You must not have in your house differing measuring-cups {purporting to be for the same volume}, a larger one and a smaller one.
27:14 [25:15] Rather, you must have honest and correct weights, and you must have honest and correct measuring-cups, so that you may live a long time on the soil which Yahveh your God is giving you;
27:15 [25:16] for everyone who engages in such {deceitful} practices, and everyone who acts unjustly, is an abomination to Yahveh your God.
Blotting out the name of `Amāleiq
27:16 [25:17] Remember what `Amāleiq did to you during the journey when you were coming out of Egypt,
27:17 [25:18] how he met you during the journey, and attacked all those who were stragglers behind you in your rear ranks, when you were exhausted and weary; he had no reverence for God.
27:18 [25:19] Therefore it shall be, when Yahveh your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance to take possession of, that you must wipe out the remembrance of `Amāleiq from under heaven; you must not forget [to do] it.
Chapter 28: First-Fruits and Tithes
The Declaration to be made at the Festival of First-Fruits
28:1 [26:1] Now, it shall be, when you have entered the land which Yahveh your God is apportioning to you by lot as an inheritance – once you have taken possession of it, and are dwelling in it,
28:2 [26:2a] that you shall take from the first [yield] of all the produce of the soil, which you will harvest from your land that Yahveh your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket.
28:3 [26:2b] Then, {at the festival of First-Fruits}, you shall go to the place where Yahveh your God will choose to have [God’s] Name dwell.
28:4 [26:3] You shall go to [whomsoever] might be the priest [officiating] at that time and say to him, “I declare this day to Yahveh your God that I have entered [and settled] the land which Yahveh swore [on oath] to our patriarchs to give us.”
28:5 [26:4] The priest will then take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahveh your God.
28:6 [26:5] Then you must profess and say before Yahveh your God, “My father was an Aramean about to perish, so he went down into Egypt and sojourned there. {His family was only} a few in number, but there [they] became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
28:7 [26:6] However, the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, and inflicted harsh labour upon us.
28:8 [26:7] And when we cried out to Yahveh God of our ancestors, Yahveh heard our pleas, and looked {with concern} upon our oppression, our toil, and our distress.
28:9 [26:8] So Yahveh brought us forth out of Egypt with great power and unparalleled displays of might, with grand spectacles and with signs and wonders.
28:10 [26:9] Then [God] brought us into this place, and gave us this land, a land that overflows with abundant natural bounty.
28:11 [26:10a] So now behold, I bring the first yield of the produce of the soil, which you, O Yahveh, have given me.”
28:12 [26:10b] Then you must set it down [and leave it] before Yahveh your God, and then prostrate yourself [in worship] before Yahveh your God.
28:13 [26:11] In this way you shall rejoice – you and the Levites, as well as the resident foreigners who are among you – in every good thing which Yahveh your God has given to you and your household.
The Tithes of the Third Year
28:14 [26:12] When you have set aside in full the tithe of your yield [in] the third year, which is the year of {the poor} tithe, and have given it to the Levite, the resident foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your [towns] and be satisfied,
28:15 [26:13] then you shall say before Yahveh your God, “I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and I have given it to the Levite, to the resident foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have enjoined upon me; I have not transgressed Your commandments nor neglected them.
28:16 [26:14a] I have not eaten any {of the sacred tithe} while in mourning, nor have I had to get rid of any of it while in a state of ritual uncleanness, nor have I offered any {of it as food} for the dead.
28:17 [26:14b] I have [instead] obeyed the pronouncements of Yahveh my God, and have carried out everything that You have commanded me [to do].
28:18 [26:15] Look upon us then from Your holy habitation in heaven, and bless Your people Israel as well as the soil, which You have given us just as You swore on oath to our patriarchs – a land overflowing in abundant natural bounty.”
Mutual Duties between God and Israel
28:19 [26:16] This day, Yahveh your God has commanded you to carry out these statutes and customs. You must therefore be careful to observe them with all your heart [and mind], and with all your soul.
28:20 [26:17] It is Yahveh that you have affirmed today to be your God – that you will walk in [God’s] ways, observe [God’s] statutes, [God’s] commandments, and [God’s] customs, and obey [God’s] pronouncements.
28:21 [26:18] In turn, Yahveh has affirmed you today to be [God’s] people, [God’s] treasured possession, just as [God] has promised you; that is why you should observe all [God’s] commandments.
28:22 [26:19] [God] will exalt you in praise, fame and honour high above all the nations which [God] has made; and you shall be a people holy to Yahveh your God, just as [God] has decreed.
Chapter 29: Ceremonies for Israel’s Arrival in the Land
29:1 [27:1] Thereafter Mosheh, [backed up by] the elders of Israel, gave strict instructions to the people, saying, “Keep this entire body of commandments which I enjoin upon you today.
29:2 [27:2] Now, it shall be, on the very day when you cross over the Jordan into the land which Yahveh your God is giving you, that you must set up for yourselves great stone stelae, and paint them over with whitewash.
29:3 [27:3] Then you must write all the words of this Teaching on them, once you have crossed over, so that you may {rightfully and legally} enter into the land which Yahveh your God is giving you, a land overflowing in abundant natural bounty, just as Yahveh God of your ancestors promised you.
29:4 [27:4] So it shall be, when you cross over the Jordan, that you must erect these stone stelae, which I am enjoining you today {to do}, {at Gilgāl on the eastern border of Jericho}; and you shall paint them over with whitewash.
29:5 [27:5] There also you must build an altar to Yahveh your God, an altar of [unhewn] stones; you must not use any iron tools on them.
29:6 [27:6] They must be whole stones with which you build the altar of Yahveh your God; and you shall offer whole burnt-offerings on it to Yahveh your God.
29:7 [27:7] You shall also offer fellowship-offerings there to Yahveh your God; and you shall eat until you are satisfied, and so rejoice before Yahveh your God.
29:8 [27:8] You must write all the words of this Teaching very clearly on the stone stelae.”
29:9 [27:9] Then Mosheh and the Levitical priests spoke to the whole of Israel, saying: “Be silent now and listen, O Israel. This day you have become the people of Yahveh your God.
29:10 [27:10] Therefore, you must obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, and carry out [God’s] commandments and [God’s] statutes, which I am enjoining upon you today.
The Proclamations from Mt G’rizīm and Mt `Eivāl
29:11 [27:11] The same day, Mosheh gave strict instructions to the people, saying:
29:12 [27:12] These {tribes} shall stand on Mount Gėrizīm to bless the people once you have crossed over the Jordan: Shim`ōn, Yėhūdhāh, Yissakhār, Menasseh, Efrayim and Binyāmin.
29:13 [27:13] And these {tribes} must stand on Mount `Eivāl for the curses: Re’ūvein, Gādh, Āsheir, Zėvūlun, Dān, and Naftālī.
The Blessings to be proclaimed on Mt. Gerizim
29:14 The Levites will stand facing Mount Gėrizīm [for the people there to] respond, and they will say in a loud voice,
29:15 “Blessed be the one who loves Yahveh their God, and worships Yahveh alone, and serves only Yahveh.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:16 “Blessed be the one who pays no regard to vain idols or cast-metal images.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:17 “Blessed be the one who does not swear oaths in the Name of Yahveh in order to deceive.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:18 “Blessed be the one who sanctifies the Seventh-day, and ceases work on it.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:19 “Blessed be the one who honours their father and their mother.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:20 “Blessed be the one who does not take vengeance, and does not hold any enmity against the life of their fellow human beings.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:21 “Blessed be the one who does not defile his neighbour’s wife.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:22 “Blessed be the one who does not defraud their fellow human beings.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:23 “Blessed be the one who shows no partiality, nor takes any bribes!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:24 “Blessed be the one who does not deal falsely, nor practices deceit towards their fellow human beings.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:25 “Blessed be the one who does not cast an envious eye towards the property of their neighbour.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:26 “Blessed be the one who has kind regard for their fellow human beings.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:27 “Blessed is the one who confirms all the words of this Teaching by putting them into practice!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
The Curses to be proclaimed on Mt ‛Eivāl
29:28 Then the Levites shall continue, facing towards Mount ‛Eivāl, and they shall call out with a loud voice for all the people there to respond, and say:
29:29 “Cursed be the one who hates God, and despises God’s ways in their heart!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:30 “Cursed be the one who makes any carved or cast-metal image – which are abhorred by Yahveh, the handiwork of craftsmen – and sets it up in a secret place!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:31 “Cursed be the one who swears by the Name of Yahveh to deceive!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:32 “Cursed be the one who secretly does any work on the seventh day and so profanes it.” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:33 “Cursed be the one who disrespects their father or their mother!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:34 “Cursed be the one who strikes down another person in secret!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:35 “Cursed be the one who receives pay to take a life and shed innocent blood!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:36 “Cursed be the man who lies with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s bed!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:37 “Cursed be the man who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:38 “Cursed be the man who lies with his mother-in-law!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:39 “Cursed be the man who lies with his wife’s sister!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:40 “Cursed be the one who lies with any kind of animal!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:41 “Cursed be the one who moves their neighbour’s boundary-markers!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:42 “Cursed be the one who misdirects a blind person along their journey!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:43 “Cursed be the one who takes a bribe to give false testimony against their fellow human beings!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:44 “Cursed be the one who subverts justice for the resident foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:45 “Cursed be the one who casts a longing eye at his neighbour’s wife, or at his house, or at his neighbour’s maidservant, or at anything that belongs to him!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
29:46 “Cursed be the one who hates their neighbour in their heart!” And all the people shall say, “Amein!”
29:47 “Cursed be the one who does not confirm all the words of this Teaching by carrying them out!” And all the people shall respond and say, “Amein!”
Chapter 30: Blessings that result from Obedience to God’s Ways
30:1 [28:1] Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, being careful to carry out all of [God’s] commandments which I am enjoining upon you today, then Yahveh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
30:2 [28:2] Thereafter, all these blessings will come upon you and take effect, if you will but obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God.
30:3 [28:3] Blessed shall you be in the town, and blessed shall you be out in the countryside.
30:4 [28:4] Blessed shall be the issue of your womb, along with the produce of your soil and the offspring of your livestock – the calving of your cattle and the lambing of your flocks.
30:5 [28:5] Blessed shall be your harvest-baskets and your kneading bowls.
30:6 [28:6] Blessed shall you be in your comings, and blessed shall you be in your goings.
30:7 [28:7] Yahveh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be routed before you; they will march out against you from one direction, and flee from before you in many directions.
30:8 [28:8] Yahveh will ordain blessings for you in your barns and in everything that you undertake to do, and [God] will bless you in {the produce of} the land which Yahveh your God is giving you.
30:9 [28:9] Yahveh will establish you as [God’s] own holy people, just as [God] swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of Yahveh your God and walk in [God’s] ways.
30:10 [28:10] In this way, all the peoples of the earth will see that the Name of Yahveh is invoked upon you, and they will be in awe of you.
30:11 [28:11] Yahveh will make you abound in prosperity, in the issue of your womb, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your soil, in the land which Yahveh swore on oath to your patriarchs to assign to you.
30:12 [28:12] Yahveh will open up to you [God’s] bounteous storehouse, the skies, providing rain for your land in its season, and blessing everything you undertake to do. [As a result] you will lend to many nations, but you will be debtor to none.
30:13 [28:13] Yahveh will make you the head and not the tail; you will always be at the top and never the bottom, if you will but obey the commandments of Yahveh your God, which I am enjoining upon you today, by carefully carrying them out.
30:14 [28:14] Also, you must not turn aside from any of the decrees which I am enjoining upon you today, deviating neither to the right or to the left, by going after other gods and serving them.
Warnings Against Disobedience
30:15 [28:15] However, it will so happen, if you do not listen to the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, by being careful to carry out all [God’s] commandments and [God’s] statutes which I am enjoining upon you today, that all these curses will come upon you and take effect:
30:16 [28:16] Cursed will you be in the town and cursed will you be out in the countryside.
30:17 [28:18] Cursed will be the issue of your womb, along with the produce of your soil and the offspring of your livestock – the calving of your cattle, and the lambing of your flocks.
30:18 [28:17] Cursed will be your harvest-baskets and your kneading bowls.
30:19 [28:19] Cursed will you be in your comings, and cursed will you be in your goings.
30:20 [28:20] Yahveh will let loose against you calamity, confusion and cumbrance in everything that you undertake to do, so that you will soon be brought to utter ruin because of the wickedness of your actions, by which you have forsaken Me.
30:21 [28:21] Yahveh will make pestilence cling to you until it has wiped you clean from the soil which you are going to possess.
30:22 [28:22] Yahveh will strike you with wasting diseases, fevers, and inflammations; with extreme heat and drought, with blight and mildew; and they shall plague you until they have ruined you.
30:23 [28:23] The skies which are over your head will be {as dry as} bronze, and the earth that is under you will be {as barren as} iron.
30:24 [28:24] Yahveh will turn the rain of your land into dust, and sandstorms will come down upon you from the skies until [they] have ruined you.
30:25 [28:25] Yahveh will cause you to suffer defeat in the face of your enemies – you will march out against them in one direction, and flee before them in many directions, and you will become a terrifying example to all the kingdoms of the earth.
30:26 [28:26] Your carcasses will become food for all the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth, for there will be no one to frighten them away, {and no one to bury you}.
30:27 [28:27] Yahveh will strike you with the skin diseases of Egypt and haemorrhoids, with boils and the itch, from which you cannot be healed.
30:28 [28:28-29a] Yahveh will strike you with madness, blindness, and dementia, so that you will grope about at noon, just as a blind man gropes about in darkness;
30:29 [28:29b] You will not prosper in your ventures. Instead you will be constantly harried and plundered, and no one will save you.
30:30 [28:30] You will be engaged to a woman, but another man shall enjoy her. You will build a house, but you will not dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not harvest its grapes.
30:31 [28:31] Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be seized right in front of you, and will not be returned to you. Your sheep [and goats] will be handed over to your enemies, and there will be no one to rescue them for you.
30:32 [28:32] Your sons and your daughters will be given over to another people, while you can only look on. You will strain your eyes looking out for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do.
30:33 [28:33a] The produce of your soil and of all your hard work will be consumed by a nation that you have not known before,
30:34 [28:33b-34] and you will be nothing but abused and downtrodden all the while, until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold.
30:35 [28:35] Yahveh will strike you in the knees, legs {and body} with severe sores that cannot be healed, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
30:36 [28:36] Yahveh will lead you and your king, whom you yourselves are going to set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your ancestors have ever known, and there you will serve other gods, of wood and of stone.
30:37 [28:37] You will become a [derogatory] name, a [harsh] proverb, and a cautionary tale among all the nations where Yahveh will drive you to.
30:38 [28:38] You will cast seed in plenty out on your fields, but will gather little in, for the locust will consume it.
30:39 [28:39] You will plant vineyards and tend them, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather in the grapes, for worms will eat them.
30:40 [28:40] You will have olive trees throughout the whole of your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will [wither and] drop off.
30:41 [28:41] You will give birth to sons and daughters, but they will not remain with you, for they will go into captivity.
30:42 [28:42] All your trees and the produce of your soil will be devoured by swarms of locusts.
30:43 [28:43] The foreigner who resides among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.
30:44 [28:44] It is he who will lend to you, for you will be unable to lend to him. It is he who will be the head, and you who will be the tail.
30:45 [28:45] All of these curses will come upon you; they will pursue you and overtake you, until you are utterly ruined, because you did not heed Yahveh your God and keep [God’s] commandments or statutes which [God] enjoined upon you.
30:46 [28:46] They will serve as signs and proofs against you and your descendants for all time.
Chapter 31: Siege and Exile as a Punishment for abandoning God’s Ways
31:1 [28:47] Now, because you would not serve Yahveh your God in {times of} joy and gladness of heart, when you had an abundance of everything,
31:2 [28:48] you will [instead] serve your enemies whom Yahveh will let loose against you, in hunger, thirst and nakedness, when you will want for everything; [God] will put a yoke of iron on your necks until [God] has brought you to your knees.
31:3 [28:49] Yahveh will bring up against you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down upon you as swift as an eagle – a nation whose language you will not understand;
31:4 [28:50] a nation of ruthless demeanour, who will show the old no respect, and the young no mercy.
31:5 [28:51] They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, until you have been completely cleaned out; you will be left with no grain, no wine or oil, nor the calves of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, to the point where they have utterly ruined you.
31:6 [28:52a] They will lay siege to you in all your towns, until the high and fortified walls in which you placed your trust come down throughout your whole land.
The Horrors of Life under Siege
31:7 [28:52b] And when they are laying siege to you in all your towns throughout the whole of your land which Yahveh your God has given you,
31:8 [28:53] you will eat the offspring of your own womb – the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom Yahveh your God has given you, because of the siege and the dire straits to which your enemies will have reduced you.
31:9 [28:54] The man who is caring and refined among you, shall become selfish and mean toward his kin and his beloved wife, and toward the remaining children he has spared,
31:10 [28:55] so that he will not even share with a single one of them the flesh of his children which he eats, because he has nothing else left to him as a result of the siege and the dire straits to which your enemies will reduce you in all your towns.
31:11 [28:56-57a] The delicate and refined woman among you, who would not [normally] venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground {because of her} delicate and refined nature, will become stingy and selfish toward her beloved husband, her son and her daughter, {hiding from them} the afterbirth that issues forth from between her legs, and the babies she bears.
31:12 [28:57b] For she [intends to] secretly eat them out of sheer want during the siege of your towns, because of the desperate straits your enemies will reduce you to.
31:13 [28:58] If you are not careful to observe all the words of this Teaching that are written in this scroll, so that you may come to reverence this glorious and awesome Name of Yahveh your God,
31:14 [28:59] then Yahveh will inflict extraordinary plagues upon you and your descendants – strange and long-lasting plagues, malignant and chronic diseases.
31:15 [28:60] Moreover, [God] will bring back all the diseases of Egypt upon you, which you were so afraid of, and you will not be able to rid yourselves of them.
31:16 [28:61] Furthermore, every sickness and every plague which is not written in this Book of the Teaching, Yahveh will bring upon you until [God] has ruined you.
31:17 [28:62] Whereas [before] you were as numerous as the stars of the skies, you will now be left few in number, because you would not obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God.
The Ultimate Punishment – Exile
31:18 [28:63] Then it will be that, just as Yahveh was once determined to make you prosperous and numerous, so Yahveh will now be determined to bring you to ruin and sweep you away; you will be torn from the soil which you are about to go in to possess.
31:19 [28:64] Yahveh will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will serve other gods, which neither you nor your ancestors have known, {gods of} wood and stone.
31:20 [28:65] Yet even among these nations you will find no repose, nor will the sole of your foot have any place to rest. Instead, Yahveh will give you there an anguished heart, fearful eyes and a despondent spirit.
31:21 [28:66] The life you face will be precarious. You will be in dread day and night, and you will have no assurance of survival.
31:22 [28:67] In the morning you will say, “Would to God that it were evening!” And in the evening you will say, “Would to God that it were morning!” simply because of what your heart will dread, and because of what your eyes will see.
31:23 [28:68] Yahveh will send you back to Egypt in slave-galleys, by a route about which I promised you, “You will not see it ever again.” And there you will be put up for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
31:24 [J: 28:69, X: 29:1] These are the terms of the Covenant which Yahveh commanded Mosheh to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which [God] made with them at Choreiv.
Chapter 32: Renewal of the Covenant
32:1 [J: 29:1a, X: 29:2a] Then Mosheh called the whole of Israel [together], and said to them:
32:2 [J: 29:1b-2, X: 29:2b-3] “You yourselves have seen everything that Yahveh did right before your very eyes in the land of Egypt – to the Pharaoh, to all his court officials and to his entire country – the wondrous feats which your own eyes have seen, those great signs and portents;
32:3 [J: 29:3, X: 29:4] yet until this day, Yahveh has not given you {the insight to interpret these events properly} – a mind to understand, nor eyes to see, or ears to hear.
32:4 [J: 29:4, X: 29:5] I have led you {these past} forty years in the wilderness, yet your mantles have not worn out on your {backs}, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet;
32:5 [J: 29:5, X: 29:6] and it was not bread {from the earth} that you ate, nor was it wine or grape-brandy that you drank, {rather it was manna from the skies that you ate, and water from the rocks that you drank}, so that you might know that I am Yahveh your God.
32:6 [J: 29:6, X: 29:7] Then, when you came to this place, Sīchon the king of Cheshbōn, and `Ōgh the king of Bāshān, came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.
32:7 [J: 29:7, X: 29:8] Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reuvenites, the Gadites, and to half of the tribe of Manassites.
32:8 [J: 29:8, X: 29:9] Therefore, observe the words of this Covenant and put them into practice, so that you may prosper in everything you do.
The Covenant is renewed with the whole Assembly of Israel
32:9 [J: 29:9a, X: 29:10a] You have taken up your positions here today – all of you – in the presence of Yahveh your God, {not only} the chieftains of your tribes, your elders, and your law-officers,
32:10 [J: 29:9b-10, X: 29:10b-11] {but} all the men of Israel, your wives, your little ones, and also the foreigners who reside among you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood, to the one who draws your water –
32:11 [J: 29:11, X: 29:12] so that you may [all] pass through into the Covenant of Yahveh your God, which Yahveh your God is concluding with you today, along with its sanctions;
32:12 [J: 29:12, X: 29:13] and in order that [God] may establish you today as [God’s] own people, and so that [Yahveh] may be your God, just as [God] has promised you, and just as [God] swore to your patriarchs – to Avrāhām, to Yitzchāq, and to Ya`aqov.
32:13 [J: 29:13, X: 29:14] It is not with you alone that I am making this Covenant with its sanctions;
32:14 [J: 29:14, X: 29:15] {I am making it} both with those who are alive here today, standing with us before Yahveh our God, and [also] with those {future generations} who are not [standing] here with us today.
Warnings against turning to serve other gods
32:15 [J: 29:15, X: 29:16] Well you know yourselves how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of various other nations;
32:16 [J: 29:16, X: 29:17] you have seen their abominable idols, and their fetishes of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which they had among them.
32:17 [J: 29:17, X: 29:18] So, lest there should be among you any man or woman, or some clan or tribe whose heart is even now turning away from Yahveh our God to go and serve the gods of these nations – lest there be among you shoots which are sprouting poisonous hemlock and bitter wormwood;
32:18 [J: 29:18, X: 29:19] and it so happens that, when they hear the words of these curses, they {nevertheless} [deceive] themselves in their heart, saying, “I shall be safe, even though I follow the wilfulness of my own heart” – so that both the guilty and the innocent alike are swept away.
32:19 [J: 29:19a, X: 29:20a] Yahveh will never consent to forgive them; rather the anger of Yahveh and [God’s] zealous fury will rage against that person,
32:20 [J: 29:19b, X: 29:20b] until all the sanctions that are written in this scroll have come to settle on them, and Yahveh has blotted out their name from under the skies.
32:21 [J: 29:20, X: 29:21] Out of all the tribes of Israel, Yahveh will single them out for adversity, according to all the sanctions of the Covenant that are written in this Book of the Teaching.
How future Generations will interpret the visible Results of the Curses
32:22 [J: 29:21, X: 29:22] Then the generations to come – your descendants who rise up after you, and the foreigners who come from a distant land – when they behold the plagues {that have struck} [this] land, and the sicknesses which Yahveh has afflicted it with, will say,
32:23 [J: 29:22a, X: 29:23a] “The whole land is {naught but} sulphur and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and not a blade of grass grows there;
32:24 [J: 29:22b, X: 29:23b] {it is just} like {the aftermath of} the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admāh and Tsėvoyim, which Yahveh overthrew in [God’s] anger and wrath.”
32:25 [J: 29:23, X: 29:24] Then all the nations will say, “Why has Yahveh done such things to this land? What does the fierce heat of this great anger mean?”
32:26 [J: 29:24, X: 29:25] And people will say, “It is because they have forsaken the Covenant of Yahveh, God of their ancestors, which [God] cut with them when [God] brought them out of the land of Egypt;
32:27 [J: 29:25, X: 29:26] for they went and served other gods, and bowed down in worship to them – gods which they had never experienced, and which [God] had not assigned to them.
32:28 [J: 29:26, X: 29:27] Therefore the anger of Yahveh burned against this land, bringing down upon it all the curses that are written in this scroll.
32:29 [J: 29:27, X: 29:28] Yahveh uprooted them from their [native] soil in anger, in wrath and in great indignation, and cast them out onto another land, as is the case today.”
32:30 [J: 29:28, X: 29:29] Concealed wrongdoings {committed by individuals} are the prerogative of Yahveh our God {to chastise}, but overt wrongdoings are our {responsibility and the responsibility of} our descendants {to penalise}, so that {as a people} we may keep all the words of this Teaching forever.
Chapter 33: The Promise of Restoration
33:1 [30:1] When all these things have befallen you – the blessings and the curses which I have set before you – and you call [these words] to mind amidst the various nations to where Yahveh your God has driven you,
33:2 [30:2] and you return to Yahveh your God, and you and your descendants {begin once more to} pay heed to [God’s] pronouncements with all your heart, and with all your soul, just as I am enjoining you today,
33:3 [30:3] then Yahveh your God will rescind your {sentence of} captivity and have compassion on you; and [God] will bring you back from among all the nations where Yahveh your God has scattered you.
33:4 [30:4] Even if your dispersed exiles are at the furthest ends of the horizon, Yahveh your God will gather you even from there, and from there [God] will reclaim you.
33:5 [30:5] Yahveh your God will bring you back to the land which your ancestors once possessed, and you shall retake possession of it; and [God] will make you even more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors were.
33:6 [30:6] Yahveh your God will circumcise {the thickness from around} your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you will [finally] love Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may thrive.
33:7 [30:7] Yahveh your God will then inflict all these curses on your enemies – upon your foes who persecuted you,
33:8 [30:8] because you are once again paying heed to the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, and obeying all [God’s] commandments which I am enjoining upon you today.
33:9 [30:9a] Furthermore, Yahveh your God will grant you abundant prosperity in everything you undertake to do, in the offspring of your womb, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your soil;
33:10 [30:9b] for Yahveh will once again delight in your well-being, just as [God] once delighted in your ancestors,
33:11 [30:10] if you will but obey the pronouncements of Yahveh your God, by keeping [God’s] commandments, [God’s] statutes and [God’s] customs that are written in this Book of the Teaching – when you return to Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
33:12 [30:11] This [body of] commandments which I enjoin upon you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far beyond your reach.
33:13 [30:12] It is not up in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and observe it?”
33:14 [30:13] Nor is it across the ocean, so that you should say, “Who will go over the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and observe it?”
33:15 [30:14] Rather, the Message is very near to you – in your mouth, in your heart, and in your hand – so that you may put it into practice.
33:16 [30:15] Behold, today I have set before you both life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
33:17 [30:16] for if you obey the commandments of Yahveh your God, which I am enjoining upon you today, to love Yahveh your God, to walk in [God’s] ways, and to keep [God’s] commandments, [God’s] statutes and [God’s] customs, then you will thrive and increase in number, and Yahveh your God will bless you in the land which you are about to enter to inherit.
33:18 [30:17] However, if your heart turns away, so that you pay [them] no heed, but instead are enticed to bow down in worship to other gods and serve them,
33:19 [30:18] then I declare to you today that you will come to utter ruin, and that you will not long endure on the soil which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of.
33:20 [30:19a] I therefore call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
33:21 [30:19b-20a] Therefore choose life, so that both you and your descendants may live, by loving Yahveh your God, heeding [God’s] pronouncements, and holding fast to [God];
33:22 [30:20b] for your life and your lifespan depend on it, so that you may long remain on the soil that Yahveh swore to your patriarchs – to Avrāhām, Yitzchāq, and Ya`aqov – to give them.
Chapter 34: Yėhoshúa` to lead the Israelites into Canaan
34:1 [31:1] After Mosheh had finished speaking all these words to the entire Israelite people,
34:2 [31:2] he then said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today. I am no longer able to sally forth and return {with you at the head of your forces}, for Yahveh has told me, ‘You may not cross over this Jordan [river].’
34:3 [31:3] It will be Yahveh your God who will cross over before you, and it will be [God] who will destroy those nations before you, so that you may dispossess them; and it will be Yėhoshúa` who will be crossing over at your head, just as Yahveh has promised.
34:4 [31:4] Yahveh will do to them just as [God] did to Sīchon and to `Ōgh, the kings of the Emorrites, and to their land, when [God] destroyed them.
34:5 [31:5] Yahveh will deliver them over to you, so that you may deal with them in accordance with all the orders which I have commanded you.
34:6 [31:6] Be strong therefore and of good courage. Don’t be afraid, and have no dread of them, for Yahveh your God is the One who goes along with you. [God] will not fail you, nor will [God] forsake you.”
34:7 [31:7a] Then Mosheh called Yėhoshúa` [forward], and in the sight of the whole of Israel, he said to him,
34:8 [31:7b] “Be strong and of good courage, for it is you who will be bringing this people into the land which Yahveh has sworn to their ancestors to give them, and it is you who will apportion it to them.
34:9 [31:8] However, it will be Yahveh who will be going before you {at your head}; [God] is the One who will be with you. [God] will neither fail you nor forsake you. Therefore, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed.”
34:10 [31:9] Thereafter, Mosheh wrote this Teaching in a scroll, and delivered it over to the priests, the Levites who carried the Ark of Yahveh’s Covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.
Reading the whole of Torah every Sabbatical Year
34:11 [31:10] Then Mosheh gave them strict instructions, saying, “At the end of every seven years, during the appointed Year of Debt-Cancellation, at the Festival of Booths,
34:12 [31:11] when the whole of Israel comes to appear before Yahveh your God, in the place where [God] will choose {to place God’s Name}, you shall read [aloud] this Teaching before the whole of Israel, so that they may hear it.
34:13 [31:12] Gather [all] the people together – men, women and children, and also the foreigners who [reside] with you within your [towns] – so that they may hear [it], and so that they may learn to revere Yahveh their God in awe, and carefully observe all the words of this Teaching.
34:14 [31:13] Then [your] descendants, who have not experienced {the things that this generation have}, may hear [it], and learn to revere Yahveh your God in awe, for as long as they are living on the soil which you are about to cross over yonder Jordan to take possession of.”
A Prediction of Israel’s Rebellion
34:15 [31:14a] Yahveh said to Mosheh, “Behold, the time is drawing near when you are to die. Summon Yėhoshúa` therefore, and station yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.”
34:16 [31:14b] So Mosheh and Yėhoshúa` went and stationed themselves at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
34:17 [31:15] Then Yahveh appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, the pillar of cloud having come to rest over the entrance of the Tent.
34:18 [31:16] Yahveh said to Mosheh, “Behold, you will soon go to rest with your ancestors. However, this people will thereafter proceed to prostitute themselves after the gods of the foreigners of the Land, into the midst of whom they are going; they will withdraw from Me and break My covenant which I cut with them.
34:19 [31:17a] Then My anger will flare up against them on that day, and I will withdraw from them; I will hide My Presence from them, and they will become ready prey {for their enemies}.
34:20 [31:17b] A great many misfortunes and troubles will befall them, so that they will say on that day, ‘Surely it is because our God is not among us that these misfortunes have befallen us!’
34:21 [31:18] For it is indeed I who will keep My Presence hidden from them in those days, because of all the evil things which they will have done by turning away to other gods.
The Reasons for the Song of Witness
34:22 [31:19] So now therefore, write down the words of this poem for yourself, and teach it to the [people of] Israel. Have them memorise it {by reciting it periodically}, so that this poem may serve as a witness for Me against the [people of] Israel.
34:23 [31:20] For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their patriarchs to give them, {a land} overflowing in abundant natural bounty; and they have eaten and had their fill, and they have become fat {on their abundance}, then they will turn away to other gods and serve them – they will spurn Me, and break My Covenant.
34:24 [31:21a] Then it shall come to pass, when so many misfortunes and troubles have befallen them, that this poem will confront them as a witness, for it must never depart from the mouths of their descendants.
34:25 [31:21b] For I already know the inclination {of their hearts}, even before I have brought them into the land which I promised on oath to their ancestors.”
34:26 [31:22] And so that same day, Mosheh wrote down this poem, and taught it to the Israelites.
34:27 [31:23] Then [God] gave Yėhoshúa` son of Nūn an exhortation, saying, “Be strong and of good courage, for you are the one who will bring the Israelites into the land which I swore on oath to them, and I Myself will be with you.’ ”
The Book of the Teaching of Mosheh is deposited beside the Ark
34:28 [31:24] So it was, when Mosheh had finished writing down the words of this Teaching in a scroll, right to its very end,
34:29 [31:25] Mosheh then gave charge to the Levites, who bore the Ark of Yahveh’s Covenant, saying,
34:30 [31:26] “Take this Book of the Teaching, and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of Yahveh your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you.
34:31 [31:27] For I myself have experienced your rebellion and your stiff-necked [stubbornness]. To this day, even during my own lifetime among you, you have been rebellious against Yahveh; how much more so [will you be] after my death!
34:32 [31:28] Have all the chieftains of your tribes, your elders, your judges and your law-officers assemble [before] me, so that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
34:33 [31:29a] For I know that after my death, you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the Way which I have enjoined upon you.
34:34 [31:29b] In the end, misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of Yahveh, [thus] provoking [God] to anger through the actions that you undertake to do.”
Chapter 35: The Song of Mosheh
35:1 [31:30] Then Mosheh spoke the words of this poem from start to finish, so that the whole assembly of Israel could hear:
35:2 Give ear, O skies, and I will speak; [32:1]
pay heed, O earth, to the utterances of my mouth.
35:3 Let my teachings drop like rain, [32:2]
and my sayings condense like dew –
35:4 like droplets onto fresh grass,
and light showers onto vegetation.
35:5 When I proclaim the Name of Yahveh, [32:3]
ascribe greatness to our God!
35:6 The Rock! [God’s] deeds are perfect; [32:4]
for all [God’s] ways are just –
35:7 a God of faithfulness, never unjust;
true and upright is [our God]!
35:8 Yet how corruptly has [God] been treated by [God’s] children – [32:5]
by this perverse and crooked generation.
35:9 Is this how you repay Yahveh, [32:6]
O foolish and witless people?
35:10 Is [God] not your Maker, who created you?
Was it not [God] who fashioned you,
and brought you into existence?
35:11 Remember the days of old, [32:7]
consider the times of ages past;
35:12 Ask your parents, and they will inform you;
your elders, and they will tell you:
35:13 When the Most High assigned the nations their homelands, [32:8]
when [God] separated out the human race,
35:14 [God] set the boundaries of each people,
according to the number of heavenly beings.
35:15 But Ya‛aqov, [God’s] people, [became] Yahveh’s [own] share; [32:9]
Yiśrā’eil [was taken as the] portion of God’s [own] inheritance.
35:16 [God] found him in a desert land – [32:10]
in a howling, desolate waste.
35:17 [God] encircled him and cared for him,
protecting him just like the pupil of one’s eye.
35:18 [God was] like the eagle who stirs up her nestlings, [32:11]
as she hovers over her young.
35:19 She spreads out her wings and bears them up
{to teach them how to fly};
then she takes them safely onto her pinions
{should they tire and fall}.
35:20 So it was Yahveh alone who guided him, [32:12]
and there was no foreign god with him.
35:21 [God] let him ride over the highlands, [32:13]
to feast on the bounty of the fields;
35:22 [God] suckled him on honey from crags,
and olive oil from flinty rock –
35:23 on curds from the herd and milk from the flock, [32:14]
along with the best of lambs and rams,
on cattle bred in Bāshān, and he-goats;
35:24 along with the best kernels of wheat,
[he] drank the blood of the grape –
thus Ya`aqov ate and was sated.
35:25 But Yeshurun grew fat and kicked; [32:15]
you grew fat and plump and gross.
35:26 So they forsook the God who made them,
and spurned the Rock of their salvation.
35:27 They made [God] jealous with foreign gods; [32:16]
with detestable idols they enraged [God].
35:28 They sacrificed to desert-spirits – to non-gods, [32:17]
to pagan gods they had never experienced;
35:29 to new gods only recently come along,
before whom your ancestors trembled not.
35:30 You have forgotten the Rock who begot you – [32:18]
neglected the God who gave you birth.
35:31 When Yahveh saw it, [God] was incensed, [32:19]
spurned by [God’s] own sons and daughters.
35:32 [God] said: I will hide My Presence from them, [32:20]
to see how they fare in the end;
35:33 a most difficult generation are they,
children with no faithfulness in them.
35:34 They have incensed Me with non-gods, [32:21]
and vexed Me with their foolish idols.
35:35 So I in turn will incense them with a {barbarous} non-people;
with a foolish nation I will vex them.
35:36 For a fire has flared up in My anger, [32:22]
burning to the lowest part of Sheol;
35:37 it shall consume the Land and its produce –
eat it down to the base of the hills.
35:38 I will heap up misfortunes upon them; [32:23]
and spend My arrows against them:
35:39 wasting hunger, devouring pestilence, [32:24]
plague and incurable diseases;
35:40 the teeth of wild beasts I will send against them,
and the venom of reptiles that crawl in the dust.
35:41 Outside, the sword bereaves them, [32:25]
in their innermost rooms, terror strikes;
35:42 the young man and the maiden alike are slain,
the tiny babe along with the grey-haired.
35:43 I had thought, “I will make an end of them, [32:26]
and cause them to disappear from human memory.”
35:44 But I feared their enemies could instead deny it, [32:27]
their adversaries misinterpret it,
35:45 saying, “By our own might we triumphed!
Yahveh wrought none of this!”
35:46 For they are a nation devoid of sense; [32:28]
there is no discernment in them.
35:47 Were they wise, they would think on this, [32:29]
and reflect on their fortunes:
35:48 ‘How could one have routed a thousand, [32:30]
or two put ten thousand to flight,
35:49 unless their Rock had given them up,
and Yahveh had surrendered them?’
35:50 For their rock is not like our Rock; [32:31]
our enemies themselves concede this.
35:51 Hence their vintage will be from the vines of Sodom, [32:32]
and {their grapes} from the vineyards of Gomorrah;
35:52 their grapes will be grapes of poison;
their clusters will be bitter gall.
35:53 Their wine will be the venom of cobras, [32:33]
the pitiless poison of vipers.
35:54 Is [all] this not laid up in store with Me, [32:34]
and sealed up in My wine-cellars?
35:55 It shall be My vengeance and My payback; [32:35]
[ready] for the time when their foot falters –
35:56 for the day when their calamity is at hand,
and the fate prepared [for them] rushes to meet them.
35:57 For Yahveh will vindicate [God’s] people, [32:36]
and take revenge for {the suffering of} [God’s] servants,
35:58 When [God] sees that their power is gone,
and there’s no one left, neither bondsman nor free,
35:59 then Yahveh will say: Where are their gods, [32:37]
their rocks in whom they trusted –
35:60 which ate the fat of their sacrifices, [32:38]
and drank the wine of their libations?
35:61 Let them rise up and help you –
let them be your protectors!
35:62 Do you see now that I, and I alone, am [God] – [32:39]
that there is no [other] god besides Me?
35:63 I am the One who deals death, and I the One who gives life;
I am the One who wounds, and I the One who heals;
none can deliver from what I have ordained.
35:64 Behold, I swear on oath by the heavens, [32:40]
and say: ‘As I live forever,
35:65 when I sharpen My flashing blade, [32:41]
and take hold of my weapon of judgment,
35:66 I shall render vengeance on My enemies,
paying it back to those who hate Me.
35:67 I will make My arrows drunk with blood – [32:42]
as My sword devours flesh –
35:68 with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the long-haired chieftains of the enemy.
35:69 Rejoice then, O [citizens of] heaven, alongside God,
and let all God’s angels bow in worship to God!
35:70 Rejoice, O Nations, alongside [God’s] people; [32:43]
for [God] will avenge the blood of [God’s] servants –
35:71 [God] will render vengeance upon [God’s] adversaries,
repaying those who hate [God] with their just deserts,
and providing expiation of the land for [God’s] people!”
35:72 [32:44] Mosheh wrote down this poem on that day; then he came, accompanied by Yėhoshúa` son of Nūn, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people; thus he taught it to the Israelite [people].
35:73 [32:45-46a] When Mosheh had finished reciting all these words to the whole of Israel, he said to them,
35:74 [32:46b] “Take to heart all the words {of this Teaching} which I exhort you today; enjoin them upon your children, so that they may faithfully observe all the words of this Teaching.
35:75 [32:47] For this is no trifling matter for you – your very life depends on it, for by this Message you shall long endure on the soil which you will be crossing over the Jordan to take possession of.”
Mosheh to Die on Mount Nebo
35:76 [32:48] Yahveh spoke to Mosheh that same day, saying,
35:77 [32:49] “Go up the `Avārīm mountain [range] to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and {from there} you may view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite [people] as [their] inheritance.
35:78 [32:50] You are going to die on the mountain you are about to ascend, and there you will be gathered to your kin – just as Aharon, your brother, died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his kin;
35:79 [32:51] for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people at the waters of Mėrivath Qādheish, in the Wilderness of Tsin, by failing to uphold My holiness in the midst of the Israelite [people].
35:80 [32:52] Nevertheless, you may behold the land before you, but you may not enter it – the land which I am giving to the Israelite [people].”
Chapter 36: Mosheh Blesses the Tribes of Israel
36:1 [33:1-2a] Now these are the blessings with which Mosheh, the [prophet] of God, blest the Israelites {in farewell} before his death. He said:
36:2 “Yahveh came forth from Sinai,
and dawned from Sei`īr upon them;
[God] shone forth from Pārān –
[God] came with myriads of holy ones;
from the south, lightning flashed upon them.
36:3 Indeed, [as] the One who cherishes [all] peoples, [33:3]
all [God’s] holy ones are in Your [possession];
but they are the ones who sat down at Your feet,
receiving Your pronouncements.
36:4 Mosheh decreed to us Torah, [33:4]
the inheritance of the Assembly of Ya`aqov;
But [God] [alone] was king over Yeshurun, [33:5]
when the heads of the people assembled,
and the tribes of Israel were together.”
36:5 {Of Re’ūvein and Shim`on he said}: [33:6]
“Let Re’ūvein live, and not die,
and Shim`on, may his men be {great} [in] number.”
36:6 This is the blessing for Yėhūdhāh. He said: [33:7]
“Listen, O Yahveh, to Yėhūdhāh’s voice {in battle},
and bring him back [home safely] to his people.
While his own hands defend {his cause},
be [his] help against his enemies.”
36:7 Of Leivi he said: [33:8]
“Let Your Thummim and Your Urim
be with Your godly one,
whom You tested at Massāh,
and challenged at the waters of Mėrivāh –
36:8 who said of his father and his mother, [33:9]
‘I will show them no favouritism.’
He did not even favour his brothers,
or show nepotism to his own children;
for Your precepts alone they have observed,
and so kept Your Covenant.
36:9 They will teach Your rulings to Ya`aqov, [33:10]
and Your teachings to Israel.
They will set incense for You to savour,
and the whole-offerings on your altar.
36:10 Bless therefore, O Yahveh, his assets, [33:11]
and favour all his undertakings;
render powerless those who rise against him,
as well as his enemies,
so that never shall they rise again.
36:11 Of Binyāmin he said: [33:12]
“The beloved of Yahveh
will dwell in safety beside [God].
[God] will protect him all the days of his life,
as [God] dwells within his borders.”
36:12 Of Yōseif he said: [33:13]
“May his territory be blest by Yahveh,
with the bounty of dew from the heavens,
and the underground waters that crouch below;
36:13 with the bounteous yield of the sun, [33:14]
and by the choicest crops of the moon,
with the finest from the ancient mountains, [33:15]
and the abundance of hills everlasting,
36:14 with the best from the earth and its fullness, [33:16]
and the favour of [God] who dwelt in the Bush.
May these blessings rest on the head of Yōseif,
atop the head of the chief among his brothers.
36:15 Like a firstling bull in his glory, [33:17]
his horns are like the horns of a wild aurochs;
with them he will gore the peoples
the ends of the earth, one and all.
36:16 These are the myriads of Efráyim,
and those are the thousands of Manasseh.”
36:17 Of Zėvūlun {and Yissakhār} he said: [33:18]
“Rejoice, O Zėvūlun, in your sea-journeys,
and Yissakhār in your {herders’} tents.
36:18 Together they will summon peoples to the mountain, [33:19]
and there, will offer sacrifices of righteousness;
for they will draw from the abundance of Lake [Kinneret],
and the hidden treasures of the sand.”
36:19 Of Gādh he said: [33:20]
“Blessed be the One who enlarges Gādh;
he sits poised like a lion,
ready to tear off arm and scalp.
36:20 He chose for himself the best portion, [33:21]
because there lies the revered chieftain’s portion.
He marches at the head of the people,
to execute the judgments of Yahveh,
and [God’s] rulings for Israel.”
36:21 Of Dān he said: [33:22]
“Dan is a lion’s whelp;
he leaps forth from Bāshān.”
36:22 Of Naftali he said: [33:23]
“O Naftali, sated with {God’s} favour
and full with the blessing of Yahveh,
take possession {of Kinneret’s} west and south.”
36:23 Of Āsheir he said: [33:24]
“Most blessed of {Ya`aqov’s} sons be Āsheir;
may he be favoured by his brothers,
and dip his feet in oil.
36:24 May your doorbolts be iron and brass; [33:25]
and your security endure all your days.”
36:25 {Then he said),
“There is none like the God of Yeshurun, [33:26]
who rides through the heavens to help you,
and through the skies in majesty.
36:26 The eternal God is your shelter {above you}, [33:27]
and beneath you is God’s everlasting embrace;
[God] will drive out the enemy before you,
and will say, “Destroy them!”
36:27 Thus Israel dwells in safety – [33:28]
untroubled is Ya`aqov’s abode,
in a land of fresh grain and new wine,
under heaven’s dripping dew.
36:28 How fortunate you are, O Israel! [33:29]
for who is like you,
a people delivered by Yahveh –
the shield of your protection,
the sword of your triumph!
36:29 Your enemies will come cringing before you;
you will place your foot on their backs.”
Chapter 37: The Death of Mosheh on Mt Nebo
37:1 [34:1a] Mosheh went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the highest point of the Pisgāh range, which lies opposite Jericho. Then Yahveh let him see the whole of the Land –
37:2 [34:1b-2] from Gil`ādh as far as Dān; the whole of Naftāli and the territories of Efráyim and Manásseh; the entire territory of Yėhūdhāh, as far as the [Mediterranean] Sea;
37:3 [34:3] the Negev and the {Dead Sea} Valley region from Jericho – the City of Palm Trees – as far as Tso`ar.
37:4 [34:4] Then Yahveh said to him, “This is the land which I swore on oath to Avrāhām, to Yitzchāq, and to Ya`aqov, saying, ‘I have assigned it to your descendants.’ I have allowed you to see it with your [own] eyes, but you may not cross over there [into it].”
37:5 [34:5] So Mosheh, the servant of Yahveh, died there in the land of Moab at the command of Yahveh.
37:6 [34:6] [God] then {removed his body and} buried him in a ravine in the land of Moab, [somewhere] near Beyt Pė`ōr. However, to this day no one knows of his burial place.
37:7 [34:7] Now Mosheh was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, but his eyes were undimmed, and his vigour undiminished.
37:8 [34:8] Thereafter, the Israelites bewailed Mosheh on the plains of Moab for thirty days, but then the period of weeping and mourning for Mosheh came to an end.
37:9 [34:9] Now Yėhoshúa` son of Nūn, was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Mosheh had laid his hands on him; therefore the Israelites paid heed to him, doing just as Yahveh had commanded Mosheh.
37:10 [34:10] Since then, there has not arisen in Israel a prophet [anything] like Mosheh – whom Yahveh singled out {by conversing with him} directly –
37:11 [34:11] [equalling] all the signs and wonders which Yahveh sent him to display in the land of Egypt against the Pharaoh, against all his courtiers, and against his whole country,
37:12 [34:12] or [equalling] all that great might and all those great spectacles which Mosheh displayed in the sight of the whole of Israel.