New International Version (NIV)

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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Year for Canceling Debts

1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because theLord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.

3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.

4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land theLordyour God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,

5 if only you fully obey theLordyour God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

6 For theLordyour God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land theLordyour God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.

8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.

9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to theLordagainst you, and you will be found guilty of sin.

10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this theLordyour God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Freeing Servants

12 If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free.

13 And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed.

14 Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as theLordyour God has blessed you.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and theLordyour God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

16 But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,

17 then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.

18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And theLordyour God will bless you in everything you do.

The Firstborn Animals

19 Set apart for theLordyour God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your cows to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.

20 Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of theLordyour God at the place he will choose.

21 If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to theLordyour God.

22 You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer.

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

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The Passover

1 Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of theLordyour God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 Sacrifice as the Passover to theLordyour God an animal from your flock or herd at the place theLordwill choose as a dwelling for his Name.

3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.

5 You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town theLordyour God gives you

6 except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversaryof your departure from Egypt.

7 Roast it and eat it at the place theLordyour God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.

8 For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to theLordyour God and do no work.

The Festival of Weeks

9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to theLordyour God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings theLordyour God has given you.

11 And rejoice before theLordyour God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

The Festival of Tabernacles

13 Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

15 For seven days celebrate the festival to theLordyour God at the place theLordwill choose. For theLordyour God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

16 Three times a year all your men must appear before theLordyour God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before theLordempty-handed:

17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way theLordyour God has blessed you.

Judges

18 Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town theLordyour God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.

19 Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent.

20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land theLordyour God is giving you.

Worshiping Other Gods

21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to theLordyour God,

22 and do not erect a sacred stone, for these theLordyour God hates.

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