Law Codes in the Old Testament

The Biblical Law Codes
New Revised Standard Version
Last Revised: 9/25/01

**The Covenant Code**
Decalogue:	(1)	(2)	(3)
(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
(8)	(9)	(10)	Code:
Cultic Laws 20:21-26 Idols Altars	Civil/ Criminal Laws 21:1-22:17 1.Slaves 2.Capital Crimes 3.Bodily Injury 4.Property	Moral/Religious Laws 22:18-23:19 1.Capital Offenses 2.Ethical Responsibility 3.Cultic Regulations 4.Enemies 5.Sabbath Festivals	Promises 23:20-33 lex talionis

**The Deuteronomic Code**
Decalogue:	(1)	(2)	(3)
(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
(8)	(9)	(10)	Expostion
Code:	Worship 12:1-31	Idolatry 12:32-13:28	Holy People, 14:1-15:23
Holy Festivals, 16:1-17 Passover Weeks Booths	Officials 16:18-18:22 Judges Altars/Sacrifices Kings Levites Prophet	Sanctity of Life 19:1-21 Waging War 20:1-20 Miscellaneous Laws 21:1-23:14 Humanitarian & Religious Obligations 23:15-25:19	Concluding Liturgies & Exhortations 26:1-19 lex talionis

**The Priestly Code**
Tabernacle Ex. 25:1-31:17

Exodus 20:1-21 (Decalogue)
20:1 Then God spoke all these words:

20:2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

(1)20:3 you shall have no other gods before^F43me.

(2)20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 20:6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation^F44of those who love me and keep my commandments.

(3)20:7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

(4)20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 20:10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 20:11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

(5)20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(6)20:13 You shall not murder.^F45

(7)20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

(8)20:15 You shall not steal.

(9)20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

(10)20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
20:18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid^F46and trembled and stood at a distance, 20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

Deut. 5:1-33 (Decalogue)
5:1 Moses convened all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. 5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 5:4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. 5:5 (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words^F11of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

5:6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

(1) 5:7 you shall have no other gods before^F12me.
(2)5:8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 5:10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation^F13of those who love me and keep my commandments.

(3)5:11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

(4)5:12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 5:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 5:14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

(5)5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(6)5:17 You shall not murder.^F14

(7)5:18 Neither shall you commit adultery.

(8)5:19 Neither shall you steal.

(9)5:20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

(10)5:21 Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife.
     Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
      5:22 These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 5:23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; 5:24 and you said, "Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live. 5:25 So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die. 5:26 For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? 5:27 Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and do it."
      5:28 The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: "I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. 5:29 If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! 5:30 Go say to them, "Return to your tents.' 5:31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess." 5:32You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. 5:33 You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

Expostion of the Commandments (6:1-11:32)
The Meaning of the First Commantment
(6:1-25):       6:1 Now this is the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances— that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 6:2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 6:3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^F15 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.6:6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 6:7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 6:8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem ^F16on your forehead, 6:9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
      6:10 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you — a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, 6:11 houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant — and when you have eaten your fill, 6:12 take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 6:13 The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. 6:14 Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, 6:15 because the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth. 6:16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 6:17 You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 6:18 Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you, 6:19 thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
      6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?" 6:21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 6:22 The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 6:23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 6:24 Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 6:25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."

Life in Canaan (7:1-26): 7:1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you — the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you — 7:2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. 7:3 Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 7:4 for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 7:5 But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, F17and burn their idols with fire. 7:6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7:7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you — for you were the fewest of all peoples. 7:8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 7:10 and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. 7:11 Therefore, observe diligently the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances — that I am commanding you today. 7:12 If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors; 7:13 he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you. 7:14 You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock. 7:15 The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 7:16 You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. 7:17 If you say to yourself, "These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?" 7:18 do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 7:19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 7:20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence ^F18against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed. 7:21 Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God. 7:22 The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you. 7:23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed. 7:24 He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. 7:25 The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God. 7:26 Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

Temptation to Pride and Self-sufficiency
(8:1-20): 8:1This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 8:2 Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 8:3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ^F19 8:4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 8:5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. 8:6 Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 8:7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8:8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 8:9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 8:10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.
8:11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 8:12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 8:13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 8:14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous ^F20snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 8:16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 8:17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 8:18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 8:19 If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 8:20 Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Temptation to Self-righteousness
(9:1-10:11):      9:1 Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, 9:2 a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said of them, "Who can stand up to the Anakim?" 9:3 Know then today that the Lord your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you. 9:4 When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, "It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land"; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
      9:6 Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. 9:7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. 9:8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 9:10And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 9:11 At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 9:12 Then the Lord said to me, "Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves." 9:13 Furthermore the Lord said to me, "I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. 9:14 Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they." 9:15 So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 9:16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 9:17So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 9:18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight. 9:19 For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 9:20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 9:21 Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust; and I threw the dust of it into the stream that runs down the mountain. 9:22 At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath. 9:23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, "Go up and occupy the land that I have given you," you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. 9:24 You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has ^F21
known you.
     9:25 Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you, 9:26 I prayed to the Lord and said, "Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 9:28 otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, "Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.' 9:29For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm."
     10:1 At that time the Lord said to me, "Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 10:2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark." 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 10:4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments ^F22that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. 10:5 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me. 10:6 (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan ^F23to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. 10:7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. 10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 10:9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.) 10:10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 10:11 The Lord said to me, "Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them."

What the Lord Requires (10:12-11:32)      10:12 So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 10:13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God ^F24and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 10:14 Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, 10:15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. 10:16 Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, 10:18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. 10:19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10:20 You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. 10:21 He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. 10:22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.
     11:1 You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always. 11:2 Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 11:3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 11:4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea ^F25flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day; 11:5 what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 11:6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company; 11:7 for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.
     11:8 Keep, then, this entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy, 11:9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 11:10 For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. 11:11 But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, 11:12 a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
     11:13 If you will only heed his every commandment ^F26that I am commanding you today — loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul — 11:14 then he^F27will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 11:15 and he ^F28will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. 11:16 Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, 11:17 for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
     11:18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem ^F29on your forehead. 11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 11:20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 1:21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 11:22 If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 11:23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than yourselves. 11:24 Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea. 11:25 No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.
     11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 11:27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today; 11:28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 11:30 As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak ^F30of Moreh.
     11:31 When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it, 11:32 you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

Exodus 20:21-23:33 (Code)

Cultic Laws (20:21-26): 20:21 Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. 20:22 The Lord said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the Israelites:"You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven. 20:23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.

20:24 You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. 20:25 But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. 20:26 You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it."

Laws concerning Hebrew slaves (21:1-11) 21:1 These are the ordinances that you shall set before them: 21:2 When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. 21:3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 21:4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's and he shall go out alone. 21:5 But if the slave declares, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person," 21:6 then his master shall bring him before God.^F47He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. 21:7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. 21:8 If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. 21:9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. 21:10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife.^F4821:11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.

Capital Offenses (21:12-17): 21:12 Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death. 21:13 If it was not premeditated, but came about by an act of God, then I will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee. 21:14 But if someone willfully attacks and kills another by treachery, you shall take the killer from my altar for execution. 21:15 Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death. 21:16 Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death. 21:17 Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.

Bodily Injury Laws (21:18-32): 21:18 When individuals quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or fist so that the injured party, though not dead, is confined to bed, 21:19 but recovers and walks around outside with the help of a staff, then the assailant shall be free of liability, except to pay for the loss of time, and to arrange for full recovery. 21:20 When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. 21:21 But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner's property. 21:22 When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman's husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. 21:23 If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 21:25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 21:26 When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. 21:27 If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth 21:28 When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. 21:29 If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. 21:30 If a ransom is imposed on the owner, then the owner shall pay whatever is imposed for the redemption of the victim's life. 21:31 If it gores a boy or a girl, the owner shall be dealt with according to this same rule. 21:32 If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay to the slaveowner thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Property Rights (21:33-22:17): 21:33 If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 21:34 the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal. 21:35 If someone's ox hurts the ox of another, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead animal they shall also divide. 21:36 But if it was known that the ox was accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not restrained it, the owner shall restore ox for ox, but keep the dead animal. 22:1^F49When someone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, the thief shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.^F50The thief shall make restitution, but if unable to do so, shall be sold for the theft. 22:2^F51If a thief is found breaking in, and is beaten to death, no bloodguilt is incurred; 22:3 but if it happens after sunrise, bloodguilt is incurred. 22:5 When someone causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets livestock loose to graze in someone else's field, restitution shall be made from the best in the owner's field or vineyard. 22:6 When fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, the one who started the fire shall make full restitution. 22:7 When someone delivers to a neighbor money or goods for safekeeping, and they are stolen from the neighbor's house, then the thief, if caught, shall pay double. 22:8 If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall be brought before God,^F52to determine whether or not the owner had laid hands on the neighbor's goods. 22:9 In any case of disputed ownership involving ox, donkey, sheep, clothing, or any other loss, of which one party says, "This is mine," the case of both parties shall come before God;^F53the one whom God condemns^F54shall pay double to the other. 22:10 When someone delivers to another a donkey, ox, sheep, or any other animal for safekeeping, and it dies or is injured or is carried off, without anyone seeing it, 22:11 an oath before the Lord shall decide between the two of them that the one has not laid hands on the property of the other; the owner shall accept the oath, and no restitution shall be made. 22:12 But if it was stolen, restitution shall be made to its owner. 22:13 If it was mangled by beasts, let it be brought as evidence; restitution shall not be made for the mangled remains. 22:14 When someone borrows an animal from another and it is injured or dies, the owner not being present, full restitution shall be made. 22:15 If the owner was present, there shall be no restitution; if it was hired, only the hiring fee is due. 22:16 When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. 22:17 But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins.

Capital Offenses (22:18-20): 22:18 You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live. 22:19 Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. 22:20 Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

Ethical &Moral Responsibility (22:21-28): 22:21 You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22:22 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. 22:23 If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; 22:24 my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans. 22:25 If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. 22:26 If you take your neighbor's cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; 22:27 for it may be your neighbor's only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate. 22:28You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people.

Religious Regulations (22:29-31): 22:29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.^F55The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. 22:30 You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. 22:31 You shall be people consecrated to me; therefore you shall not eat any meat that is mangled by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

Justice &Duty toward One's Enemy (23:1-9): 23:1 You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness. 23:2 You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice; 23:3 nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit. 23:4 When you come upon your enemy's ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back. 23:5 When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.^F56 23:6 You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. 23:7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. 23:8 You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. 23:9 You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Laws governing Religious Institutions &Practices
(23:10-19): 23:10 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; 23:11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. 23:12 Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. 23:13 Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
23:14 Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. 23:15 You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed. 23:16 You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 23:17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. 23:18 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning. 23:19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Promises &Instruction
for Entry into the Promised Land
(23:20-33) 23:20 I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 23:21 Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. 23:22 But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. 23:23 When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 23:24 you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces. 23:25 You shall worship the Lord your God, and I^F57will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you. 23:26 No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 23:27 I will send my terror in front of you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 23:28 And I will send the pestilence^F58in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 23:29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you. 23:30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 23:31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea^F59to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you. 23:32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 23:33 They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

Deut. 12:1-28:68 (Statutes and Ordinances)

Centralization of Worship (12:1-31):        12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.
      12:2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. 12:3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^F31with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. 12:4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways. 12:5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there, 12:6 bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. 12:7 And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
      12:8You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, 12:9 for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. 12:10 When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety, 12:11 then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord. 12:12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).
      12:13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. 12:14 But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes — there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.
      12:15 Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer. 12:16The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 12:17 Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; 12:18 these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings. 12:19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
       12:20 When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, "I am going to eat some meat," because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire. 12:21 If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 12:22Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it. 12:23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. 12:24 Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 12:25 Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 12:26 But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose. 12:27 You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside^F32the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.
      12:28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today,^F33so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
       12:29 When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, 12:30 take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, "How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same."
       12:31 You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

Warning against Idolatry (12:32-13:18)      12:32^F34You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it. 13:1^F35If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, 13:2 and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, "Let us follow other gods" (whom you have not known) "and let us serve them," 13:3 you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. 13:4 The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast. 13:5 But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery — to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
      13:6 If anyone secretly entices you — even if it is your brother, your father's son or ^F36your mother's son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, "Let us go worship other gods," whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, 13:7 any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, 13:8 you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. 13:9 But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 13:10 Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13:11 Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any such wickedness.
      13:12 If you hear it said about one of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you to live in, 13:13that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods," whom you have not known, 13:14 then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you, 13:15 you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it — even putting its livestock to the sword. 13:16 All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt. 13:17 Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors, 13:18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

A Holy People (14:1-15:23)         14:1 You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead. 14:2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
       14:3 You shall not eat any abhorrent thing. 14:4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 14:5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. 14:6 Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 14:7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. 14:8 And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.
        14:9 Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 14:10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
       14:11 You may eat any clean birds. 14:12 But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 14:13 the buzzard, the kite of any kind; 14:14 every raven of any kind; 14:15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; 14:16 the little owl and the great owl, the water hen 14:17 and the desert owl,^F37the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 14:18 the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.^F38 14:19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 14:20 You may eat any clean winged creature.
      14:21 You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner.
       For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
       14:22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. 14:23 In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 14:24 But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you, 14:25 then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the Lord your God will choose; 14:26 spend the money for whatever you wish — oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together. 14:27 As for the Levites resident in your towns, do not neglect them, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you.
       14:28 Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; 14:29 the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.
      15:1 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. 15:2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed. 15:3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 15:4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 15:5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 15:6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
       15:7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. 15:8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 15:9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, "The seventh year, the year of remission, is near," and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 15:10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 15:11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land."
       15:12 If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^F39to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. 15:13 And when you send a male slave^F40out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. 15:14 Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. 15:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today. 15:16 But if he says to you, "I will not go out from you," because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, 15:17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave^F41forever.
       You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.^F42
        15:18 Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.
        15:19 Every firstling male born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not do work with your firstling ox nor shear the firstling of your flock. 15:20 You shall eat it, you together with your household, in the presence of the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. 15:21 But if it has any defect — any serious defect, such as lameness or blindness — you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God; 15:22 within your towns you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as you would a gazelle or deer. 15:23 Its blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Holy Festivals (16:1-17) 16:1 Observe the month^F43of Abib by keeping the passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You shall offer the passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock and the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name. 16:3 You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it — the bread of affliction — because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt. 16:4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; and none of the meat of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall remain until morning. 16:5 You are not permitted to offer the passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you. 16:6 But at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name, only there shall you offer the passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt. 16:7 You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose; the next morning you may go back to your tents. 16:8 For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord your God, when you shall do no work.
16:9 You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 16:10 Then you shall keep the festival of weeks to the Lord your God, contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the Lord your God. 16:11 Rejoice before the Lord your God — you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you — at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 16:12 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and diligently observe these statutes.
16:13You shall keep the festival of booths^F44for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press. 16:14 Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns. 16:15 Seven days you shall keep the festival to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose; for the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, and you shall surely celebrate.
16:16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths.^F45They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed; 16:17 all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

Officials (16:18-18:22) 16:18 You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people. 16:19You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. 16:20 Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
16:21 You shall not plant any tree as a sacred pole^F46beside the altar that you make for the Lord your God; 16:22 nor shall you set up a stone pillar — things that the Lord your God hates.
        17:1 You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect, anything seriously wrong; for that is abhorrent to the Lord your God.
        17:2 If there is found among you, in one of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and transgresses his covenant 17:3 by going to serve other gods and worshiping them — whether the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden — 17:4 and if it is reported to you or you hear of it, and you make a thorough inquiry, and the charge is proved true that such an abhorrent thing has occurred in Israel, 17:5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or that woman who has committed this crime and you shall stone the man or woman to death. 17:6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness. 17:7The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
         17:8 If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another — any such matters of dispute in your towns — then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose, 17:9 where you shall consult with the levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case. 17:10 Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. 17:11 You must carry out fully the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you; do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left. 17:12 As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God, or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 17:13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.
17:14When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me," 17:15 you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community. 17:16 Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, "You must never return that way again." 17:17And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself. 17:18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests. 17:19 It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 17:20 neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.

Levites (18:1-14)        18:1 The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no allotment or inheritance within Israel. They may eat the sacrifices that are the Lord's portion^F4718:2 but they shall have no inheritance among the other members of the community; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.
       18:3 This shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two jowls, and the stomach. 18:4 The first fruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 18:5 For the Lord your God has chosen Levi^F48out of all your tribes, to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.
       18:6 If a Levite leaves any of your towns, from wherever he has been residing in Israel, and comes to the place that the Lord will choose (and he may come whenever he wishes), 18:7 then he may minister in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord. 18:8 They shall have equal portions to eat, even though they have income from the sale of family possessions.^F49
      18:9 When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. 18:10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, 18:11 or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. 18:12 For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 18:13 You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God. 18:14 Although these nations that you are about to dispossess do give heed to soothsayers and diviners, as for you, the Lord your God does not permit you to do so.

Prophet (18:15-22) 18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet^F50like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.^F5118:16 This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: "If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." 18:17 Then the Lord replied to me: "They are right in what they have said. 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet^F52like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet,^F53who shall speak to them everything that I command. 18:19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet^F54shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. 18:20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak — that prophet shall die." 18:21 You may say to yourself, "How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?" 18:22 If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

Sanctity of Life (19:1-21)         19:1 When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and in their houses, 19:2 you shall set apart three cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 29:3You shall calculate the distances^F55and divide into three regions the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any homicide can flee to one of them.
        19:4 Now this is the case of a homicide who might flee there and live, that is, someone who has killed another person unintentionally when the two had not been at enmity before: 19:5 Suppose someone goes into the forest with another to cut wood, and when one of them swings the ax to cut down a tree, the head slips from the handle and strikes the other person who then dies; the killer may flee to one of these cities and live. 19:6 But if the distance is too great, the avenger of blood in hot anger might pursue and overtake and put the killer to death, although a death sentence was not deserved, since the two had not been at enmity before. 19:7 Therefore I command you: You shall set apart three cities.
        19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors — and he will give you all the land that he promised your ancestors to give you, 19:9 provided you diligently observe this entire commandment that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and walking always in his ways — then you shall add three more cities to these three, 19:10 so that the blood of an innocent person may not be shed in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.
         19:11 But if someone at enmity with another lies in wait and attacks and takes the life of that person, and flees into one of these cities, 19:12 then the elders of the killer's city shall send to have the culprit taken from there and handed over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. 19:13 Show no pity; you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.
        19:14 You must not move your neighbor's boundary marker, set up by former generations, on the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
        19:15 A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained. 19:16 If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of wrongdoing, 19:17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days, 19:18 and the judges shall make a thorough inquiry. If the witness is a false witness, having testified falsely against another, 19:19 then you shall do to the false witness just as the false witness had meant to do to the other. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 19:20 The rest shall hear and be afraid, and a crime such as this shall never again be committed among you. 19:21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Rules for Waging War 10:1-20          20:1 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. 20:2 Before you engage in battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the troops, 20:3 and shall say to them: "Hear, O Israel! Today you are drawing near to do battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart, or be afraid, or panic, or be in dread of them; 20:4 for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory." 20:5 Then the officials shall address the troops, saying, "Has anyone built a new house but not dedicated it? He should go back to his house, or he might die in the battle and another dedicate it. 20:6 Has anyone planted a vineyard but not yet enjoyed its fruit? He should go back to his house, or he might die in the battle and another be first to enjoy its fruit. 20:7 Has anyone become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? He should go back to his house, or he might die in the battle and another marry her." 20:8 The officials shall continue to address the troops, saying, "Is anyone afraid or disheartened? He should go back to his house, or he might cause the heart of his comrades to melt like his own." 20:9 When the officials have finished addressing the troops, then the commanders shall take charge of them.
         20:10 When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace. 20:11 If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you at forced labor. 20:12 If it does not submit to you peacefully, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 20:13 and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. 20:14 You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 20:15 Thus you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of the nations here. 20:16 But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. 20:17 You shall annihilate them — the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites — just as the Lord your God has commanded, 20:18 so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.
         20:19 If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you? 20:20 You may destroy only the trees that you know do not produce food; you may cut them down for use in building siegeworks against the town that makes war with you, until it falls.

Miscellaneous Laws, 21:1-23:14          21:1 If, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, a body is found lying in open country, and it is not known who struck the person down, 21:2 then your elders and your judges shall come out to measure the distances to the towns that are near the body. 21:3 The elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke; 21:4 the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the wadi. 21:5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord, and by their decision all cases of dispute and assault shall be settled. 21:6 All the elders of that town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi, 21:7 and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it. 21:8 Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel." Then they will be absolved of bloodguilt. 21:9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, because you must do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
        21:10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them captive, 21:11 suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry, 21:12 and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails, 21:13 discard her captive's garb, and shall remain in your house a full month, mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 21:14But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
        21:15 If a man has two wives, one of them loved and the other disliked, and if both the loved and the disliked have borne him sons, the firstborn being the son of the one who is disliked, 21:16 then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn. 21:17 He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion^F56 of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.
         21:18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, 21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. 21:20 They shall say to the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." 21:21 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.
         21:22 When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, 21:23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.
         22:1 You shall not watch your neighbor's ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner. 22:2 If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until the owner claims it; then you shall return it. 22:3 You shall do the same with a neighbor's donkey; you shall do the same with a neighbor's garment; and you shall do the same with anything else that your neighbor loses and you find. You may not withhold your help.
         22:4 You shall not see your neighbor's donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.
         22:5 A woman shall not wear a man's apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.
         22:6 If you come on a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 22:7 Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.
         22:8 When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.
         22:9 You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, or the whole yield will have to be forfeited, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.
         22:10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
         22:11 You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.
         22:12 You shall make tassels on the four corners of the cloak with which you cover yourself.
         22:13 Suppose a man marries a woman, but after going in to her, he dislikes her 22:14 and makes up charges against her, slandering her by saying, "I married this woman; but when I lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity." 22:15 The father of the young woman and her mother shall then submit the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 22:16 The father of the young woman shall say to the elders: "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man but he dislikes her; 22:17 now he has made up charges against her, saying, "I did not find evidence of your daughter's virginity.' But here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity." Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town. 22:18 The elders of that town shall take the man and punish him; 22:19 they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman's father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
         22:20 If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman's virginity was not found, 22:21 then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
         22:22 If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
         22:23 If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, 22:24 you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
         22:25 But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 22:26 You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor. 22:27 Since he found her in the open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
         22:28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, 22:29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman's father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
         22:30^F57 A man shall not marry his father's wife, thereby violating his father's rights.^F58
         23:1 No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
         23:2 Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
         23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, 23:4 because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 23:5 (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) 23:6 You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.
         23:7 You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land. 23:8 The children of the third generation that are born to them may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
         23:9 When you are encamped against your enemies you shall guard against any impropriety. 23:10 If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp. 23:11 When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.
         23:12 You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. 23:13 With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. 23:14 Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Humanitarian & Religious Obligations
23:15-25:19          23:15 Slaves who have escaped to you from their owners shall not be given back to them. 23:16 They shall reside with you, in your midst, in any place they choose in any one of your towns, wherever they please; you shall not oppress them.
         23:17 None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute. 23:18You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a male prostitute^F59 into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
         23:19 You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent. 23:20 On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
         23:21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt. 23:22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt. 23:23 Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.
         23:24 If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.
         23:25 If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.
         24:1 Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house 24:2 and goes off to become another man's wife. 24:3 Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); 24:4 her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.
         24:5 When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year, to be happy with the wife whom he has married.
         24:6 No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.
         24:7 If someone is caught kidnaping another Israelite, enslaving or selling the Israelite, then that kidnaper shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
         24:8 Guard against an outbreak of a leprous^F60 skin disease by being very careful; you shall carefully observe whatever the levitical priests instruct you, just as I have commanded them. 24:9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your journey out of Egypt.
         24:10 When you make your neighbor a loan of any kind, you shall not go into the house to take the pledge. 24:11 You shall wait outside, while the person to whom you are making the loan brings the pledge out to you. 24:12 If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the garment given you as^F61 the pledge. 24:13 You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the cloak and bless you; and it will be to your credit before the Lord your God.
         24:14 You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. 24:15 You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.
         24:16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.
         24:17 You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow's garment in pledge. 24:18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
         24:19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. 24:20 When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
         24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. 24:22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.
         25:1 Suppose two persons have a dispute and enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them, declaring one to be in the right and the other to be in the wrong. 25:2 If the one in the wrong deserves to be flogged, the judge shall make that person lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes proportionate to the offense. 25:3 Forty lashes may be given but not more; if more lashes than these are given, your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.
         25:4 You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
         25:5 When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband's brother to her, 25:6 and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 25:7 But if the man has no desire to marry his brother's widow, then his brother's widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me." 25:8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, "I have no desire to marry her," 25:9 then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, "This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house." 25:10 Throughout Israel his family shall be known as "the house of him whose sandal was pulled off."
         25:11 If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, 25:12 you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.
         25:13 You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, large and small. 25:14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, large and small. 25:15 You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 25:16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
         25:17 Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt, 25:18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God. 25:19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies on every hand, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.

Concluding Liturgies & Exhortations
26:1-19           26:1 When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 26:2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 26:3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us." 26:4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 26:5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 26:6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 26:7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 26:8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 26:9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 26:11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
         26:12 When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns, 26:13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: "I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments: 26:14 I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed any of it while I was unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God, doing just as you commanded me. 26:15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey."
         26:16 This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. 26:17 Today you have obtained the Lord's agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. 26:18 Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments; 26:19 for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.

Exodus 25:1-31:18 (Legal Codes)

Ark, Table, Lampstand
(25:1-40)          25:1 The Lord said to Moses:
         25:2 Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. 25:3 This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 25:4 blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats' hair, 25:5 tanned rams' skins, fine leather,^F61 acacia wood, 25:6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 25:7onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece. 25:8 And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them. 25:9 In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
         25:10 They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 25:11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall
overlay it, and you shall make a molding of gold upon it all around. 25:12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side. 25:13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 25:14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, by which to carry the ark. 25:15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 25:16 You shall put into the ark the covenant^F62 that I shall give you.
         25:17 Then you shall make a mercy seat^F63 of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width. 25:18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat.^F64 25:19 Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the mercy seat^F65 you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. 25:20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat^F66 with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the mercy seat.^F67 25:21 You shall put the mercy seat^F68 on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant^F69 that I shall give you. 25:22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat,^F70 from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant,^F71 I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.
         25:23 You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high. 25:24 You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold around it. 25:25 You shall make around it a rim a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. 25:26 You shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 25:27 The rings that hold the poles used for carrying the table shall be close to the rim. 25:28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. 25:29 You shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 25:30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me always. 25:31 You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of
                        the lampstand shall be made of hammered work; its cups, its
                        calyxes, and its petals shall be of one piece with it;

                   25:32and there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches
                        of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the
                        lampstand out of the other side of it;

                   25:33three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals,
                        on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each
                        with calyx and petals, on the other branch—so for the six branches
                        going out of the lampstand.

25:34On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond
blossoms, each with its calyxes and petals.

                   25:35There shall be a calyx of one piece with it under the first pair of
                        branches, a calyx of one piece with it under the next pair of branches,
                        and a calyx of one piece with it under the last pair of branches—so for
                        the six branches that go out of the lampstand.

25:36Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the
whole of it one hammered piece of pure gold.

25:37You shall make the seven lamps for it; and the lamps shall be set up
so as to give light on the space in front of it.

25:38Its snuffers and trays shall be of pure gold.

25:39It, and all these utensils, shall be made from a talent of pure gold.

25:40And see that you make them according to the pattern for them, which
is being shown you on the mountain.

                   Exodus 26     Read This Chapter
                   26:1Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine
                        twisted linen, and blue, purple, and crimson yarns; you shall make
                        them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.

26:2The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width
of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall be of the same size.

26:3Five curtains shall be joined to one another; and the other five curtains
shall be joined to one another.

                   26:4You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in
                        the first set; and likewise you shall make loops on the edge of the
                        outermost curtain in the second set.

                   26:5You shall make fifty loops on the one curtain, and you shall make fifty
                        loops on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set; the loops
                        shall be opposite one another.

26:6You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and join the curtains to one
another with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be one whole.

26:7You shall also make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the
tabernacle; you shall make eleven curtains.

26:8The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each
curtain four cubits; the eleven curtains shall be of the same size.

                   26:9You shall join five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by
                        themselves, and the sixth curtain you shall double over at the front of
                        the tent.

                   26:10You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost
                        in one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost
                        in the second set.

26:11You shall make fifty clasps of bronze, and put the clasps into the
loops, and join the tent together, so that it may be one whole.

26:12The part that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that
remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.

                   26:13The cubit on the one side, and the cubit on the other side, of what
                        remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the
                        sides of the tabernacle, on this side and that side, to cover it.

26:14You shall make for the tent a covering of tanned rams' skins and an
outer covering of fine leather. F72

26:15You shall make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

26:16Ten cubits shall be the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the
width of each frame.

26:17There shall be two pegs in each frame to fit the frames together; you
shall make these for all the frames of the tabernacle.

26:18You shall make the frames for the tabernacle: twenty frames for the
south side;

                   26:19and you shall make forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two
                        bases under the first frame for its two pegs, and two bases under the
                        next frame for its two pegs;

26:20and for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side twenty
frames,

26:21and their forty bases of silver, two bases under the first frame, and two
bases under the next frame;

26:22and for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six frames.

26:23You shall make two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear;

                   26:24they shall be separate beneath, but joined at the top, at the first ring;
                        it shall be the same with both of them; they shall form the two
                        corners.

                   26:25And so there shall be eight frames, with their bases of silver, sixteen
                        bases; two bases under the first frame, and two bases under the next
                        frame.

26:26You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one
side of the tabernacle,

26:27and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five
bars for the frames of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward.

26:28The middle bar, halfway up the frames, shall pass through from end to
end.

26:29You shall overlay the frames with gold, and shall make their rings of
gold to hold the bars; and you shall overlay the bars with gold.

26:30Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that
you were shown on the mountain.

                   26:31You shall make a curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of
                        fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into
                        it.

26:32You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, which
have hooks of gold and rest on four bases of silver.

                   26:33You shall hang the curtain under the clasps, and bring the ark of the
                        covenant F73 in there, within the curtain; and the curtain shall separate
                        for you the holy place from the most holy.

26:34You shall put the mercy seat F74 on the ark of the covenant F75 in the
most holy place.

                   26:35You shall set the table outside the curtain, and the lampstand on the
                        south side of the tabernacle opposite the table; and you shall put the
                        table on the north side.

                   26:36You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue, purple,
                        and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, embroidered with
                        needlework.

                   26:37You shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them
                        with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five bases of
                        bronze for them.

                   Exodus 27     Read This Chapter
                   27:1You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five
                        cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and it shall be three cubits high.

27:2You shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of
one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze.

                   27:3You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and
                        basins and forks and firepans; you shall make all its utensils of
                        bronze.

27:4You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze; and on the
net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.

27:5You shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net shall
extend halfway down the altar.

27:6You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay
them with bronze;

27:7the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles shall be on
the two sides of the altar when it is carried.

27:8You shall make it hollow, with boards. They shall be made just as you
were shown on the mountain.

                   27:9You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the
                        court shall have hangings of fine twisted linen one hundred cubits long
                        for that side;

27:10its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the
hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver.

                   27:11Likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings one
                        hundred cubits long, their pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of
                        bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver.

27:12For the width of the court on the west side there shall be fifty cubits of
hangings, with ten pillars and ten bases.

27:13The width of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits.

27:14There shall be fifteen cubits of hangings on the one side, with three
pillars and three bases.

27:15There shall be fifteen cubits of hangings on the other side, with three
pillars and three bases.

                   27:16For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, of
                        blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, embroidered
                        with needlework; it shall have four pillars and with them four bases.

27:17All the pillars around the court shall be banded with silver; their hooks
shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze.

                   27:18The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty, and
                        the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twisted linen and bases of
                        bronze.

27:19All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all
the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.

                   27:20You shall further command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of
                        beaten olives for the light, so that a lamp may be set up to burn
                        regularly.

                   27:21In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that is before the covenant,
                        F76 Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before
                        the Lord. It shall be a perpetual ordinance to be observed throughout
                        their generations by the Israelites.

                   Exodus 28     Read This Chapter
                   28:1Then bring near to you your brother Aaron, and his sons with him,
                        from among the Israelites, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron's
                        sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

28:2You shall make sacred vestments for the glorious adornment of your
brother Aaron.

                   28:3And you shall speak to all who have ability, whom I have endowed
                        with skill, that they make Aaron's vestments to consecrate him for my
                        priesthood.

                   28:4These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an
                        ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, and a sash. When they
                        make these sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons to
                        serve me as priests,

28:5they shall use gold, blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen.

28:6They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson
yarns, and of fine twisted linen, skillfully worked.

28:7It shall have two shoulder-pieces attached to its two edges, so that it
may be joined together.

                   28:8The decorated band on it shall be of the same workmanship and
                        materials, of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine
                        twisted linen.

28:9You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of
the sons of Israel,

28:10six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining
six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.

                   28:11As a gem-cutter engraves signets, so you shall engrave the two
                        stones with the names of the sons of Israel; you shall mount them in
                        settings of gold filigree.

                   28:12You shall set the two stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as
                        stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel; and Aaron shall bear
                        their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.

28:13You shall make settings of gold filigree,

28:14and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach
the corded chains to the settings.

                   28:15You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work; you shall
                        make it in the style of the ephod; of gold, of blue and purple and
                        crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen you shall make it.

28:16It shall be square and doubled, a span in length and a span in width.

28:17You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of carnelian, F77
chrysolite, and emerald shall be the first row;

28:18and the second row a turquoise, a sapphire F78 and a moonstone;

28:19and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

28:20and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be set in
gold filigree.

                   28:21There shall be twelve stones with names corresponding to the names
                        of the sons of Israel; they shall be like signets, each engraved with its
                        name, for the twelve tribes.

28:22You shall make for the breastpiece chains of pure gold, twisted like
cords;

28:23and you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold, and put the
two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece.

28:24You shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the
breastpiece;

28:25the two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings,
and so attach it in front to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod.

28:26You shall make two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the
breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod.

                   28:27You shall make two rings of gold, and attach them in front to the lower
                        part of the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, at its joining above the
                        decorated band of the ephod.

                   28:28The breastpiece shall be bound by its rings to the rings of the ephod
                        with a blue cord, so that it may lie on the decorated band of the
                        ephod, and so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the
                        ephod.

                   28:29So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece
                        of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place, for a
                        continual remembrance before the Lord.

                   28:30In the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the
                        Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before
                        the Lord; thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the Israelites on his
                        heart before the Lord continually.

28:31You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

                   28:32It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven
                        binding around the opening, like the opening in a coat of mail, F79 so
                        that it may not be torn.

                   28:33On its lower hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and
                        crimson yarns, all around the lower hem, with bells of gold between
                        them all around—

28:34a golden bell and a pomegranate alternating all around the lower hem
of the robe.

                   28:35Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard
                        when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes
                        out, so that he may not die.

28:36You shall make a rosette of pure gold, and engrave on it, like the
engraving of a signet, "Holy to the Lord."

28:37You shall fasten it on the turban with a blue cord; it shall be on the
front of the turban.

                   28:38It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall take on himself any
                        guilt incurred in the holy offering that the Israelites consecrate as their
                        sacred donations; it shall always be on his forehead, in order that they
                        may find favor before the Lord.

                   28:39You shall make the checkered tunic of fine linen, and you shall make
                        a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with
                        needlework.

28:40For Aaron's sons you shall make tunics and sashes and
headdresses; you shall make them for their glorious adornment.

                   28:41You shall put them on your brother Aaron, and on his sons with him,
                        and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, so that
                        they may serve me as priests.

28:42You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked
flesh; they shall reach from the hips to the thighs;

                   28:43Aaron and his sons shall wear them when they go into the tent of
                        meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy
                        place; or they will bring guilt on themselves and die. This shall be a
                        perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants after him.

                   Exodus 29     Read This Chapter
                   29:1Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, so that
                        they may serve me as priests. Take one young bull and two rams
                        without blemish,

                   29:2and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and
                        unleavened wafers spread with oil. You shall make them of choice
                        wheat flour.

29:3You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and
bring the bull and the two rams.

29:4You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of
meeting, and wash them with water.

                   29:5Then you shall take the vestments, and put on Aaron the tunic and
                        the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird
                        him with the decorated band of the ephod;

29:6and you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy diadem on
the turban.

29:7You shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head and anoint
him.

29:8Then you shall bring his sons, and put tunics on them,

                   29:9and you shall gird them with sashes F80 and tie headdresses on
                        them; and the priesthood shall be theirs by a perpetual ordinance.
                        You shall then ordain Aaron and his sons.

29:10You shall bring the bull in front of the tent of meeting. Aaron and his
sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull,

29:11and you shall slaughter the bull before the Lord, at the entrance of the
tent of meeting,

                   29:12and shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of
                        the altar with your finger, and all the rest of the blood you shall pour
                        out at the base of the altar.

                   29:13You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the appendage
                        of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and turn
                        them into smoke on the altar.

29:14But the flesh of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with
fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

29:15Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay
their hands on the head of the ram,

29:16and you shall slaughter the ram, and shall take its blood and dash it
against all sides of the altar.

29:17Then you shall cut the ram into its parts, and wash its entrails and its
legs, and put them with its parts and its head,

29:18and turn the whole ram into smoke on the altar; it is a burnt offering to
the Lord; it is a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord.

29:19You shall take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their
hands on the head of the ram,

                   29:20and you shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and put it
                        on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the lobes of the right ears of his
                        sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of
                        their right feet, and dash the rest of the blood against all sides of the
                        altar.

                   29:21Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar, and some
                        of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his vestments and on
                        his sons and his sons' vestments with him; then he and his vestments
                        shall be holy, as well as his sons and his sons' vestments.

                   29:22You shall also take the fat of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers
                        the entrails, the appendage of the liver, the two kidneys with the fat
                        that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination),

29:23and one loaf of bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer,
out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord;

29:24and you shall place all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms
of his sons, and raise them as an elevation offering before the Lord.

                   29:25Then you shall take them from their hands, and turn them into smoke
                        on the altar on top of the burnt offering of pleasing odor before the
                        Lord; it is an offering by fire to the Lord.

29:26You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron's ordination and raise it
as an elevation offering before the Lord; and it shall be your portion.

                   29:27You shall consecrate the breast that was raised as an elevation
                        offering and the thigh that was raised as an elevation offering from the
                        ram of ordination, from that which belonged to Aaron and his sons.

                   29:28These things shall be a perpetual ordinance for Aaron and his sons
                        from the Israelites, for this is an offering; and it shall be an offering by
                        the Israelites from their sacrifice of offerings of well-being, their offering
                        to the Lord.

29:29The sacred vestments of Aaron shall be passed on to his sons after
him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them.

29:30The son who is priest in his place shall wear them seven days, when
he comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place.

29:31You shall take the ram of ordination, and boil its flesh in a holy place;

29:32and Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread
that is in the basket, at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

                   29:33They themselves shall eat the food by which atonement is made, to
                        ordain and consecrate them, but no one else shall eat of them,
                        because they are holy.

                   29:34If any of the flesh for the ordination, or of the bread, remains until the
                        morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire; it shall not be
                        eaten, because it is holy.

29:35Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, just as I have
commanded you; through seven days you shall ordain them.

                   29:36Also every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement.
                        Also you shall offer a sin offering for the altar, when you make
                        atonement for it, and shall anoint it, to consecrate it.

                   29:37Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and consecrate it,
                        and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall
                        become holy.

29:38Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old
regularly each day.

29:39One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall
offer in the evening;

                   29:40and with the first lamb one-tenth of a measure of choice flour mixed
                        with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for
                        a drink offering.

                   29:41And the other lamb you shall offer in the evening, and shall offer with it
                        a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing
                        odor, an offering by fire to the Lord.

                   29:42It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the
                        entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with
                        you, to speak to you there.

29:43I will meet with the Israelites there, and it shall be sanctified by my
glory;

29:44I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; Aaron also and his
sons I will consecrate, to serve me as priests.

29:45I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God.

                   29:46And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them
                        out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord
                        their God.

                   Exodus 30     Read This Chapter
                   30:1You shall make an altar on which to offer incense; you shall make it of
                        acacia wood.

30:2It shall be one cubit long, and one cubit wide; it shall be square, and
shall be two cubits high; its horns shall be of one piece with it.

30:3You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, and its sides all around and
its horns; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around.

                   30:4And you shall make two golden rings for it; under its molding on two
                        opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall hold the
                        poles with which to carry it.

30:5You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

                   30:6You shall place it in front of the curtain that is above the ark of the
                        covenant, F81 in front of the mercy seat F82 that is over the covenant,
                        F83 where I will meet with you.

30:7Aaron shall offer fragrant incense on it; every morning when he
dresses the lamps he shall offer it,

30:8and when Aaron sets up the lamps in the evening, he shall offer it, a
regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations.

30:9You shall not offer unholy incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain
offering; and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.

                   30:10Once a year Aaron shall perform the rite of atonement on its horns.
                        Throughout your generations he shall perform the atonement for it
                        once a year with the blood of the atoning sin offering. It is most holy to
                        the Lord.

30:11The Lord spoke to Moses:

                   30:12When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, at
                        registration all of them shall give a ransom for their lives to the Lord,
                        so that no plague may come upon them for being registered.

                   30:13This is what each one who is registered shall give: half a shekel
                        according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty
                        gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.

30:14Each one who is registered, from twenty years old and upward, shall
give the Lord's offering.

                   30:15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the
                        half shekel, when you bring this offering to the Lord to make
                        atonement for your lives.

                   30:16You shall take the atonement money from the Israelites and shall
                        designate it for the service of the tent of meeting; before the Lord it will
                        be a reminder to the Israelites of the ransom given for your lives.

30:17The Lord spoke to Moses:

                   30:18You shall make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. You
                        shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall
                        put water in it;

30:19with the water F84 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their
feet.

                   30:20When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the
                        altar to minister, to make an offering by fire to the Lord, they shall
                        wash with water, so that they may not die.

                   30:21They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die: it
                        shall be a perpetual ordinance for them, for him and for his
                        descendants throughout their generations.

30:22The Lord spoke to Moses:

                   30:23Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels, and of
                        sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred fifty, and
                        two hundred fifty of aromatic cane,

30:24and five hundred of cassia—measured by the sanctuary shekel—and
a hin of olive oil;

30:25and you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the
perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.

30:26With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the
covenant, F85

30:27and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils,
and the altar of incense,

30:28and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with
its stand;

30:29you shall consecrate them, so that they may be most holy; whatever
touches them will become holy.

30:30You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, in order
that they may serve me as priests.

30:31You shall say to the Israelites, "This shall be my holy anointing oil
throughout your generations.

                   30:32It shall not be used in any ordinary anointing of the body, and you
                        shall make no other like it in composition; it is holy, and it shall be
                        holy to you.

30:33Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an
unqualified person shall be cut off from the people."

                   30:34The Lord said to Moses: Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and
                        galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (an equal part of
                        each),

30:35and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt,
pure and holy;

                   30:36and you shall beat some of it into powder, and put part of it before the
                        covenant F86 in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you; it
                        shall be for you most holy.

30:37When you make incense according to this composition, you shall not
make it for yourselves; it shall be regarded by you as holy to the Lord.

30:38Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from the
people.

Exodus 31 Read This Chapter
31:1The Lord spoke to Moses:

31:2See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe
of Judah:

31:3and I have filled him with divine spirit, F87 with ability, intelligence, and
knowledge in every kind of craft,

31:4to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,

31:5in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft.

                   31:6Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the
                        tribe of Dan; and I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may
                        make all that I have commanded you:

31:7the tent of meeting, and the ark of the covenant, F88 and the mercy
seat F89 that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent,

31:8the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils,
and the altar of incense,

31:9and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with
its stand,

31:10and the finely worked vestments, the holy vestments for the priest
Aaron and the vestments of his sons, for their service as priests,

31:11and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the holy place. They
shall do just as I have commanded you.

31:12The Lord said to Moses:

                   31:13You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: "You shall keep my
                        sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your
                        generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord,
                        sanctify you.

                   31:14You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who
                        profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be
                        cut off from among the people.

                   31:15Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of
                        solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath
                        day shall be put to death.

31:16Therefore the Israelites shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath
throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant.

                   31:17It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six
                        days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he
                        rested, and was refreshed."

                   31:18When God F90 finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave
                        him the two tablets of the covenant, F91 tablets of stone, written with
                        the finger of God.

Leviticus

Numbers

FOOTNOTES:
F43: Or [besides]
F44: Or [to thousands]
F45: Or [kill]
F46: Sam Gk Syr Vg: MT [they saw]
F47: Or [to the judges]
F48: Heb [of her]
F49: Ch 21.37 in Heb
F50: Verses 2, 3, and 4 rearranged thus: 3b, 4, 2, 3a
F51: Ch 22.1 in Heb
F52: Or [before the judges]
F53: Or [before the judges]
F54: Or [the judges condemn]
F55: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F56: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F57: Gk Vg: Heb [he]
F58: Or [hornets]: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F59: Or [Sea of Reeds]

FOOTNOTES:
F11: Q Mss Sam Gk Syr Vg Tg: MT [word]
F12: Or [besides]
F13: Or [to thousands]
F14: Or [kill]
F15: Or [The Lord our God is one Lord,] or [The Lord our God, the Lord is one,] or [The Lord is our God, the Lord is one]
F16: Or [as a frontlet]
F17: Heb [Asherim]
F18: Or [hornets]: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F19: Or [by anything that the Lord decrees]
F20: Or [fiery]; Heb [seraph]
F21: Sam Gk: MT [I have]
F22: Heb [the ten words]
F23: Or [the wells of the Bene-jaakan]
F24: Q Ms Gk Syr: MT lacks [your God]
F25: Or [Sea of Reeds]
F26: Compare Gk: Heb [my commandments]
F27: Sam Gk Vg: MT [I]
F28: Sam Gk Vg: MT [I]
F29: Or [as a frontlet]
F30: Gk Syr: Compare Gen 12.6; Heb [oaks] or [terebinths]
F31: Heb [Asherim]
F32: Or [on]
F33: Gk Sam Syr: MT lacks [today]
F34: Ch 13.1 in Heb
F35: Ch 13.2 in Heb
F36: Sam Gk Compare Tg: MT lacks [your father's son or]
F37: Or [pelican]
F38: Identification of several of the birds in verses 12-18 is uncertain
F39: Or [sells himself or herself]
F40: Heb [him]
F41: Or [bondman]
F42: Or [bondwoman]
F43: Or [new moon]
F44: Or [tabernacles]; Heb [succoth]
F45: Or [tabernacles]; Heb [succoth]
F46: Heb [Asherah]
F47: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F48: Heb [him]
F49: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F50: Or [prophets]
F51: Or [such prophets]
F52: Or [prophets]
F53: Or [mouths of the prophets]
F54: Heb [he]
F55: Or [prepare roads to them]
F56: Heb [two-thirds]
F57: Ch 23.1 in Heb
F58: Heb [uncovering his father's skirt]
F59: Heb [a dog]
F60: A term for several skin diseases; precise meaning uncertain
F61: Heb lacks [the garment given you as]

FOOTNOTES:
F61: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F62: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F63: Or [a cover]
F64: Or [the cover]
F65: Or [the cover]
F66: Or [the cover]
F67: Or [the cover]
F68: Or [the cover]
F69: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F70: Or [the cover]
F71: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F72: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F73: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F74: Or [the cover]
F75: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F76: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F77: The identity of several of these stones is uncertain
F78: Or [lapis lazuli]
F79: Meaning of Heb uncertain
F80: Gk: Heb [sashes, Aaron and his sons]
F81: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F82: Or [the cover]
F83: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F84: Heb [it]
F85: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F86: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F87: Or [with the spirit of God]
F88: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]
F89: Or [the cover]
F90: Heb [he]
F91: Or [treaty], or [testimony]; Heb [eduth]