New International Version (NIV)

The Ten Commandments

1 Moses summoned all Israel and said:

Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.

2 TheLordour God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

3 It was not with our ancestorsthat theLordmade this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

4 TheLordspoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.

5 (At that time I stood between theLordand you to declare to you the word of theLord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

6 “I am theLordyour God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

7 “You shall have no other gods beforeme.

8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, theLordyour God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 “You shall not misuse the name of theLordyour God, for theLordwill not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as theLordyour God has commanded you.

13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to theLordyour God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that theLordyour God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore theLordyour God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

16 “Honor your father and your mother, as theLordyour God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land theLordyour God is giving you.

17 “You shall not murder.

18 “You shall not commit adultery.

19 “You shall not steal.

20 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

22 These are the commandments theLordproclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me.

24 And you said, “TheLordour God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them.

25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of theLordour God any longer.

26 For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?

27 Go near and listen to all that theLordour God says. Then tell us whatever theLordour God tells you. We will listen and obey.”

28 TheLordheard you when you spoke to me, and theLordsaid to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.

29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

30 “Go, tell them to return to their tents.

31 But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”

32 So be careful to do what theLordyour God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.

33 Walk in obedience to all that theLordyour God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/5-6f7df169632e2a2dd18f596369565618.mp3?version_id=111—

Love the Lord Your God

1 These are the commands, decrees and laws theLordyour God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear theLordyour God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.

3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as theLord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: TheLordour God, theLordis one.

5 Love theLordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

10 When theLordyour God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,

11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied,

12 be careful that you do not forget theLord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

13 Fear theLordyour God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;

15 for theLordyour God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

16 Do not put theLordyour God to the test as you did at Massah.

17 Be sure to keep the commands of theLordyour God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.

18 Do what is right and good in theLord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land theLordpromised on oath to your ancestors,

19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as theLordsaid.

20 In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws theLordour God has commanded you?”

21 tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but theLordbrought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

22 Before our eyes theLordsent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.

23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors.

24 TheLordcommanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear theLordour God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.

25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before theLordour God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/6-624b8c1d5061cc3822dc62c62b4cf629.mp3?version_id=111—

Driving Out the Nations

1 When theLordyour God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

2 and when theLordyour God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and theLord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah polesand burn their idols in the fire.

6 For you are a people holy to theLordyour God. TheLordyour God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 TheLorddid not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But it was because theLordloved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that theLordyour God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

10 But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;

he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then theLordyour God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors.

13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.

15 TheLordwill keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.

16 You must destroy all the peoples theLordyour God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

17 You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?”

18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what theLordyour God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.

19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which theLordyour God brought you out. TheLordyour God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

20 Moreover, theLordyour God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.

21 Do not be terrified by them, for theLordyour God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

22 TheLordyour God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.

23 But theLordyour God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.

25 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to theLordyour God.

26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/7-7abcb34bdef36fb4c1696b7051b472a0.mp3?version_id=111—

Do Not Forget the Lord

1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land theLordpromised on oath to your ancestors.

2 Remember how theLordyour God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of theLord.

4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so theLordyour God disciplines you.

6 Observe the commands of theLordyour God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.

7 For theLordyour God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;

8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;

9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise theLordyour God for the good land he has given you.

11 Be careful that you do not forget theLordyour God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,

13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,

14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget theLordyour God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.

16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

18 But remember theLordyour God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

19 If you ever forget theLordyour God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.

20 Like the nations theLorddestroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying theLordyour God.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/8-46f7477b5313be7f176e1f58f1506058.mp3?version_id=111—

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

1 Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.

2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”

3 But be assured today that theLordyour God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as theLordhas promised you.

4 After theLordyour God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “TheLordhas brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that theLordis going to drive them out before you.

5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, theLordyour God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that theLordyour God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The Golden Calf

7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of theLordyour God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against theLord.

8 At Horeb you aroused theLord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you.

9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that theLordhad made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.

10 TheLordgave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments theLordproclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, theLordgave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12 Then theLordtold me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

13 And theLordsaid to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!

14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against theLordyour God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that theLordhad commanded you.

17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

18 Then once again I fell prostrate before theLordfor forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in theLord’s sight and so arousing his anger.

19 I feared the anger and wrath of theLord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again theLordlistened to me.

20 And theLordwas angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.

21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

22 You also made theLordangry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

23 And when theLordsent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of theLordyour God. You did not trust him or obey him.

24 You have been rebellious against theLordever since I have known you.

25 I lay prostrate before theLordthose forty days and forty nights because theLordhad said he would destroy you.

26 I prayed to theLordand said, “SovereignLord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.

28 Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because theLordwas not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’

29 But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/9-a426e4766c62ab9240f5e75e60b7253b.mp3?version_id=111—

Tablets Like the First Ones

1 At that time theLordsaid to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.

2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

4 TheLordwrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And theLordgave them to me.

5 Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as theLordcommanded me, and they are there now.

6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

8 At that time theLordset apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of theLord, to stand before theLordto minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.

9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; theLordis their inheritance, as theLordyour God told them.)

10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and theLordlistened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.

11 “Go,” theLordsaid to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

Fear the Lord

12 And now, Israel, what does theLordyour God ask of you but to fear theLordyour God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve theLordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13 and to observe theLord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

14 To theLordyour God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

15 Yet theLordset his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

17 For theLordyour God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

20 Fear theLordyour God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now theLordyour God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/10-a9d4092f984ec7b17c91268e128888db.mp3?version_id=111—

Love and Obey the Lord

1 Love theLordyour God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of theLordyour God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;

3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;

4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Seaas they were pursuing you, and how theLordbrought lasting ruin on them.

5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place,

6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things theLordhas done.

8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

9 and so that you may live long in the land theLordswore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.

11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

12 It is a land theLordyour God cares for; the eyes of theLordyour God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love theLordyour God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—

14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.

15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.

17 Then theLord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land theLordis giving you.

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land theLordswore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love theLordyour God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—

23 then theLordwill drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.

24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

25 No one will be able to stand against you. TheLordyour God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—

27 the blessing if you obey the commands of theLordyour God that I am giving you today;

28 the curse if you disobey the commands of theLordyour God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

29 When theLordyour God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.

30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.

31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land theLordyour God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,

32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/11-4fad29390a5494c5e5ba1099dee6d949.mp3?version_id=111—

The One Place of Worship

1 These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that theLord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.

2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.

3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

4 You must not worship theLordyour God in their way.

5 But you are to seek the place theLordyour God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;

6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7 There, in the presence of theLordyour God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because theLordyour God has blessed you.

8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,

9 since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance theLordyour God is giving you.

10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land theLordyour God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.

11 Then to the place theLordyour God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to theLord.

12 And there rejoice before theLordyour God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.

14 Offer them only at the place theLordwill choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

15 Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing theLordyour God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

16 But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

17 You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

18 Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of theLordyour God at the place theLordyour God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before theLordyour God in everything you put your hand to.

19 Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

20 When theLordyour God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, “I would like some meat,” then you may eat as much of it as you want.

21 If the place where theLordyour God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks theLordhas given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.

22 Eat them as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat.

23 But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of theLord.

26 But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place theLordwill choose.

27 Present your burnt offerings on the altar of theLordyour God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of theLordyour God, but you may eat the meat.

28 Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of theLordyour God.

29 TheLordyour God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,

30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”

31 You must not worship theLordyour God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things theLordhates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/12-ab348ea142b83a15e187eb5803c449a2.mp3?version_id=111—

Worshiping Other Gods

#

1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder,

2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,”

3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. TheLordyour God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 It is theLordyour God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against theLordyour God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way theLordyour God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known,

7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other),

8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them.

9 You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.

10 Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from theLordyour God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.

12 If you hear it said about one of the towns theLordyour God is giving you to live in

13 that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known),

14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you,

15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely,both its people and its livestock.

16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to theLordyour God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt,

17 and none of the condemned thingsare to be found in your hands. Then theLordwill turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors—

18 because you obey theLordyour God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/13-56ccaa3e1c5c26f42ed7bdc66f8e6d90.mp3?version_id=111—

Clean and Unclean Food

1 You are the children of theLordyour God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,

2 for you are a people holy to theLordyour God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, theLordhas chosen you to be his treasured possession.

3 Do not eat any detestable thing.

4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.

6 You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.

7 However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.

8 The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

9 Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales.

10 But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.

11 You may eat any clean bird.

12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

13 the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon,

14 any kind of raven,

15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,

18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

19 All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them.

20 But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.

21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to theLordyour God.

Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithes

22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of theLordyour God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere theLordyour God always.

24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by theLordyour God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where theLordwill choose to put his Name is so far away),

25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place theLordyour God will choose.

26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of theLordyour God and rejoice.

27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns,

29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that theLordyour God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/DEU/14-bd845b9d2bc8356bd02169f74e130931.mp3?version_id=111—