Feb 12 - Deuteronomy 18-21
Deuteronomy
1"The priests and the Levites, and all who are from the same tribe, shall have no portion or inheritance with the rest of Israel. For they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord and his oblations2And they shall receive nothing else from the possession of their brothers. For the Lord himself is their inheritance, just as he said to them3This shall be the recompense for the priests from the people, and from those who offer victims, whether they will immolate an ox or a sheep. They shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast4the first-fruits of grain, wine, and oil, and a portion of the wool from the shearing of the sheep5For the Lord your God himself has chosen him out of all your tribes, so that he may stand and minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons, forever6If a Levite departs from one of the cities, throughout all of Israel, in which he lives, and if he wills and desires to go to the place which the Lord will choose7he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as do all his brothers, the Levites, who will be standing at that time in the sight of the Lord8He shall receive the same portion of food as the rest also receive, besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers9When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations10Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult11nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead12For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival13You shall be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God14These nations, whose land you shall possess, they listen to soothsayers and diviners. But you have been otherwise instructed by the Lord your God15The Lord your God will raise up for you a PROPHET from your nation and from your brothers, similar to me. You shall listen to him16just as you petitioned of the Lord your God at Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and you said: ‘Let me no longer hear the voice of the Lord my God, and let me no longer see this very great fire, lest I die.17And the Lord said to me: ‘They have spoken all these things well18I will raise up a prophet for them, from the midst of their brothers, similar to you. And I will place my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all the things that I will instruct him19But against anyone who is not willing to listen to his words, which he will speak in my name, I will stand forth as the avenger20But if a prophet, having been corrupted by arrogance, chooses to speak, in my name, things which I did not instruct him to say, or to speak in the name of foreign gods, he shall be put to death21But if, in silent thought, you respond: "How will I be able to recognize a word which the Lord has not spoken?22you shall have this sign. If whatever that prophet predicts in the name of the Lord does not happen, then the Lord has not spoken it. Instead, the prophet has formed it through the swelling of his own mind. And for this reason, you shall not fear him.’
1"When the Lord your God will have destroyed the nations, whose land he will deliver to you, and when you possess it and live in its cities and buildings2you shall separate for yourselves three cities in the midst of the land, which the Lord will give to you as a possession3paving the road carefully. And you shall divide the entire province of your land equally into three parts, so that he who is forced to flee because of manslaughter may have a place nearby to which he may be able to escape4This shall be the law of the killer who flees, whose life is to be saved. Whoever strikes down his neighbor unwillingly, and who has been proven to have had no hatred against him yesterday and the day before5such that he had gone with him into the forest simply to cut wood, and in cutting down the tree, the axe slipped from his hand, or the iron slipped from the handle, and it struck his friend and killed him: he shall flee to one of the cities stated above, and he shall live6Otherwise, perhaps the near relative of him whose blood was shed, impelled by his grief, might pursue and apprehend him, unless the way is too long, and he might strike down the life of him who is not guilty unto death, since he had demonstrated that he had no prior hatred against him who was slain7For this reason, I instruct you to separate three cities at equal distance from one another8And when the Lord your God will have enlarged your borders, just as he swore to your fathers, and when he will have given to you all the land that he has promised to them9(but this is only so if you will keep his commandments and do the things which I instruct to you this day, so that you love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways at all times) you shall add for yourselves three other cities, and so you shall double the number of the three cities stated above10So may innocent blood not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord your God will give you to possess, lest you be guilty of blood11But if anyone, having hatred for his neighbor, will have lain in ambush for his life, and, rising up, will have struck him, and he will have died, and if he will have fled to one of the cities stated above12the elders of his city shall send, and they shall take him from the place of refuge, and they shall deliver him into the hand of the relative of him whose blood was shed, and he shall die13You shall not take pity on him, and so shall you take away the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may be well with you14You shall not take up or move the landmark of your neighbor, which those before you have placed, in your possession that the Lord your God will give to you, in the land you will receive to possess15One witness shall not stand against another, no matter what the sin or outrage may be. For every word shall stand by the mouth of two or three witnesses16If a lying witness will have stood against a man, accusing him of a transgression17both of those whose case it is shall stand before the Lord in the sight of the priests and the judges who shall be in those days18And when, after a very diligent examination, they will have found that the false witness had told a lie against his brother19they shall render to him just as he intended to do to his brother. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst20Then the others, upon hearing this, will be afraid, and they will by no means dare to do such things21You shall not take pity on him. Instead, you shall require a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.
1"If you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horsemen and chariots, and that the multitude of your adversary’s army is greater than your own, you shall not fear them. For the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, is with you2Then, as the battle now draws near, the priest shall stand before the front ranks, and he shall speak to the people in this manner3‘Listen, O Israel! Today you engage in a battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart be overwhelmed with fear. Do not be apprehensive. Do not yield. You should have no dread of them4For the Lord your God is in your midst, and he will contend against your enemies on your behalf, so that he may rescue you from peril.5Likewise, the officers shall proclaim, throughout every company, in the hearing of the soldiers: ‘What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may dedicate it6What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not yet caused it to be common, so that all may eat from it? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in the battle, and another man may carry out his office7What man is there, who has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go, and return to his house, lest perhaps he may die in battle, and another man may take her.8After these things have been declared, they shall add the remainder, and shall say to the people: ‘What man is there who is overwhelmed by fear and is fainthearted? Let him go, and return to his house, lest he cause the hearts of his brothers to fear, just as he himself has been thoroughly stricken with fear.9And when the officers of the army have become silent, and have completed their speech, each one shall prepare his unit to wage war10When, at any time, you approach a city to fight against it, you shall first offer peace to it11If they receive it, and open the gates to you, then all the people who are in it shall be saved, and they shall serve you by paying tribute12But if they are not willing to enter into an agreement, and they begin to act against you in warfare, then you shall besiege it13And when the Lord your God will have delivered it into your hands, you shall strike down anyone who is in it, of the male gender, with the edge of the sword14but not the women and young children, nor the cattle and the other things that are within the city. And you shall divide all the plunder to the soldiers, and you shall eat the spoils from your enemies, which the Lord your God will give to you15So shall you do to all the cities which are at a great distance from you, those which are not among the cities that you shall receive as a possession16But among those cities which shall be given to you, you shall not permit anyone at all to live17Instead, you shall put them to death with the edge of the sword, specifically: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you18Otherwise, they may teach you to do all the abominations which they have committed for their own gods. And then you would sin against the Lord your God19When you will have besieged a city for a long time, and you will have encircled it with fortifications, so that you may fight against it, you shall not cut down trees from which one is able to eat, neither shall you cause devastation with axes to the surrounding region. For it is a tree, and not a man. It is not able to increase the number of those who are fighting against you20But if there are any trees which are not fruitful, but are wild, and if these are fit for other uses, then cut them down, and make machines, until you have captured the city that is contending against you.
1"When there will have been found in the land, which the Lord your God will give to you, the corpse of a man who has been killed, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder2your judges and those greater by birth shall go out and measure, from the place of the corpse, the distance to each of the surrounding cities3And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow4And they shall lead it into a rough and stony valley, one which has never been tilled or sown. And in that place, they shall cut the neck of the calf5And the priests the sons of Levi shall approach, those whom the Lord your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and to decide every controversy by their word, and to judge which things are clean and which are unclean6And those greater by birth of that city, nearest to the one who was slain, shall go and shall wash their hands over the calf that was killed in the valley7And they shall say: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it8Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not charge them with innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And so the guilt of the blood will be taken away from them9Then you will be free from the blood that was shed against the innocent, when you will have done as the Lord has instructed you10If you have gone out to fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand, and if, as you are leading away the captives11you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her, and you are willing to have her as a wife12then you shall lead her into your house. And she shall shave off her hair, and cut her nails short13and remove the garment in which she was captured. And she shall sit in your house and weep for her father and mother, for one month. And after that, you shall enter to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife14But if afterwards she does not sit well in your mind, you shall set her free. You cannot sell her for money, nor can you oppress her by force. For you have humiliated her15If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have produced children by him, and if the son of the hated wife is the firstborn16and if he wishes to divide his substance among his sons: he cannot make the son of the beloved wife the firstborn, and so prefer him before the son of the hated wife17Instead, he shall acknowledge the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and he shall give to him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first among his children, and the rights of the firstborn are owed to him18If a man produces a disobedient and reckless son, who will not listen to the orders of his father or mother, and, having been corrected, shows contempt for obedience19they shall take him and lead him to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment20And they shall say to them: ‘This our son is reckless and disobedient. He shows contempt when listening to our admonitions. He occupies himself with carousing, and self-indulgence, and feasting.21Then the people of the city shall stone him to death. And he shall die, so that you may take away the evil from your midst. And so may all of Israel, upon hearing it, be very afraid22When a man will have sinned in a matter which is punished by death, and, having been judged unto death, he has been hanged on a gallows23his corpse shall not remain on the tree. Instead, he shall be buried on the same day. For he who hangs from a tree has been cursed by God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God will give to you as a possession.