DEUTERONOMY.
- These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel, on the bank of the Jordan, west of the wilderness which reacheth to the Red sea, between Pharantophal and Lobon, and Aulon,
2 and Katachrusea, eleven days’ journey from Choreb, the way by mount Seir to Kades-Barne.
3 In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to all the children of Israel, accord-
4 ing to all that the Lord had given him in charge to them. After he had smitten Seon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Ese-
5 bon; and Og, king of Basan, who dwelt at Astaroth and Edrain, Moses began, on the bank of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, to explain the law fully, saying.
6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Choreb, saying, You
7 have tarried long enough by this mount. Turn ; strike your tents, and march to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all the inhabitants around Araba—to the mountain and to the plain, and to the south, and to the land of the Chananites, on the sea shore, and to Antilibanus, till you reach the river—
8 the great river Euphrates. Behold I have delivered up the land before you. Go in, and take possession of the land, which with an oath I promised to give to your fathers—to Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob—to them and their seed after them.
9 Then I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able 10 alone to bear you. The Lord your God hath multiplied you; and behold you are this day like the stars of heaven for mul-
11 titude. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you as he hath
12 promised you ! How can I alone bear the burden of you, even
13 the whole weight of you, and your contentions? Appoint for yourselves men of wisdom, knowledge and understanding, for your several tribes, and I will make them leaders over you.
14 And you answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast
15 proposed to do is good. So I took from among you men of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and appointed them to be leaders over you—captains of thousands, and captains cf hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens; and
16 promulgators of the law for your judges. And I gave a charge to your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and
17 his brother, and the stranger who is with him. Thou shalt not respect a person in judgment. Against the low and the high thou shalt pass sentence, and not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s. And if the matter be too hard for
18 you, bring it to me, and I will hear it. And when I had given
19 you in charge, at that time, all the things which you were to do, we removed from Choreb, and marched through all that great and frightful wilderness which you saw, on the way to the mountain of the Amorite, as the Lord our God command-
20 ed us. And when we came to Kades-barne, I said to you, You are come to the mountain of the Amorite, which the
21 Lord our God giveth you. Behold the Lord your God hath delivered up to you the land before you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, commanded
22 you. Fear not, nor be faint hearted. Whereupon you all came to me, and said, Let us send men before us, and let them traverse the land for us, and bring us word what way we shall go
23 up, and to what cities we shall come. And the proposal was agreeable to me. So I took from among you twelve men—a”
24 man for every tribe. And they turned, and went up to the
25 mountain, and came to the valley of the bunch of grapes. And when they had thoroughly viewed it, they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land, and brought it to you, and said,
26 The land is good, which the Lord our God giveth us. Not-
27 withstanding this, you would not go up; but disobeyed the command of the Lord our God, and murmured in your tents, saying, Because the Lord hateth us he hath brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amo-
28 rites, to destroy us utterly, wherever we go. When your bre- ‘ thren disheartened you, saying, It is a nation great and numerous, and stronger than we; and the cities are large, and walled up to the sky. Indeed we have seen there sons of giants.
29 I said to you, Be not terrified, nor afraid of them. The Lord
30 your God is marching before you. He will assist you in subduing them, according to all that he hath done for you in the land
31 of Egypt, and in that wilderness, which you have seen in your march to this mountain of the Amorite. The Lord thy God will take charge of thee, as a man would of a son—as he hath
32 done all the way you marched, till you came to this place. Not-
33 withstanding this speech you did not confide in the Lord our God who was marching before you in the way to chuse a place for you, conducting you by night with fire, pointing out to you the way in which you were to march; and by day, with
34 a pillar of cloud. And the Lord heard the sound of your words,
35 and being provoked to wrath, he sware saying, Not one of these men shall see that good land which I, with an oath, pro-
36 mised their fathers, save Chaleb son of Jephonne. He shall see it. And to him I will give the land to which he went up, and to his children, because he vindicateth the cause of the
37 Lord. With me also the Lord was angry on your account,
38 and said, Neither shalt thou go in there. Joshua son of Nave
39 who is thy attendant—he shall go thither. Encourage him, for he shall distribute it, by lot, to Israel. And with respect to your children, who do not know good or evil, they shaB go thither, and to them I will give it, and they shall inherit it.
40 But as for you, turn, and march into the wilderness, by the way
41 to the Red sea. Then you answered, and said, We have sinned before the Lord our God. We will go up, and fight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. So, every one seizing his implements of war, you assembled tumultu-
42 ously to go up the mountain. Whereupon the Lord said to me, Say to them, You shall not go up, nor fight; for I am not
43 with you. And you should not be trodden down before your enemies. Accordingly I spoke to you; but you hearkened not to me; but transgressed the command of the Lord, and pre- 44 sumptuously ascended the mountain. And the Amorites, who dwelt on the mountain, came out to meet you, and pursued you, as bees would do, and slaughtered you from Seir to Her- 45 ma. Then you sat down, and wept before the Lord our God; but the Lord hearkened not to your voice, nor paid attention to you. So you abode at Kades many days, as many as you had II. staid there before. Then we turned, and took up our march into the wilderness, by the way to the Red sea, as the Lord
2 spoke to me. And when we had been many days circling
3 round mount Seir, the Lord said to me, You have been long enough circling round this mountain, therefore turn northward,
4 and give thou a charge to this people, saying, You are about to march along by the borders of your brethren, the children of Esau who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, and
5 dread you exceedingly. You must not come to battle with them; for I will not give you a foot of their land, because I have given mount Seir to the children of Esau for a possession.
6 Buy provisions of them for money, that you may eat, and re- ceive of them water by measure, for money, that you may
7 drink; (for the Lord our God had blessed thee in all the works of thy hands.)
Recollect how thou didst traverse that great and frightful wilderness. Behold! for forty years the Lord thy God was with
8 thee. Thou wast not in want of any tiling. And when we had passed by our brethren the children of Esau, who inhabit Seir, by the way of Araba, from Ailon to Gesion-gaber, and
9 wheeling about had crossed the wilderness of Moab, the Lord said to me, Act not as enemies against the Moabites; nor come to a battle with them; for I will not give you for a possession any of their land; for I have given Aroer to the children of Lot,
10 that they may inherit it. (Now the Ommins had formerly dwelt
11 there, a nation great and numerous, and mighty as the Ena- kims—they as well as the Enakims may be accounted Ra-
12 phains; but the Moabites call them Ommins. And in Seir the Chorrites were formerly settled, but the children of Esau destroyed them, and rooted them out from before them, and dwelt in their stead, in the same manner as Israel hath done with the
vor,. i. pp
13 land of their possession which the Lord hath given them.) Now therefore arise, and strike your tents, and cross the valley of Zaret.
14 Now the time we spent from Kades-barne till we came to the valley of Zaret, was thirty eight years; until all the genera-
15 tion of the warriors had fallen, and died out of the camp. As the Lord had, with an oath denounced against them, the hand of the Lord was upon them to destroy them from among the
16 host until they had all fallen. And when all the warriors had
17 fallen, and died from among the people, the Lord spoke to me, saying, Thou art now to pass by Aroer, along the borders of
18 Moab; when you come near to the children of Amman you
19 must not act hostilely against them, nor come to battle with them; for I will not give thee any of the land of the children of Amman for a possession; because I have given it for a pos-
20′ session to the children of Lot. (It may be accounted the land of the Raphains, for the Raphains formerly dwelt there, but the
21 Ammanites call them Zochommins. They, as well as the Ena- kims, were a nation great and numerous, and much stronger than you; but the Lord destroyed them from before the Ammanites, and they took possessioii of the country, and have
22 dwelt therein in their stead, even to this day. The same was the case with the children of Esau who inhabit Seir, they, in like manner, destroyed the Chorrites from before them, and took possession of their country, and have dwelt therein, in
23 their stead, even to this day. So it was with the Evites when they dwelt in Asedoth even to Gaza, the Cappadocians, who came out of Cappadocia, rooted them out, and dwelt in their
24 stead.) Now therefore arise, strike your tents, and cross the vale of Arnon; behold I have delivered into thy hand Seon, king of Esebon, the Amorite, with his land. Begin to take pos-
25 session. Join battle with him this day. Begin to impress the fear of thee, and the dread of thee, on the face of all the nations under heaven. They who hear of thy name shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.
26 Now I had sent messengers from the wilderness of Keda-
27 moth to Seon, king of Esebon, with words of peace, saying, Let me pass through thy land. I will march along the liigh-
28 way, and not turn aside to the right, nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me provisions for money, that I may eat; and thou shalt sell me water for money, that I may drink, just till I can march
29 through on foot; as the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and the children of Moab, who dwell in Aroer have done to me, until I cross the Jordan, to the land which the Lord our
30 God giveth us. But Seon, king of Eseb6n, would not consent that we should pass by him, for the Lord our God had emboldened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might be
* delivered into thy hands, as at this day.
31 Then the Lord said to me, Behold I have begun to deliver up before thee Seon, king of Esebon, the Amorite, and his land.
32 Begin therefore to take possession of his land. So Seon, king of Esebon, came out to meet us, he and all his people, to bat-
33 tie at Jassa. And the Lord our God delivered him up before
34 us. And we smote him and his sons, and all his people, and took all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every city
35 one after another; with their wives and children. We left none to be taken alive. Besides making a prey of their cattle, we
36 took the spoils of their cities. From Aroer, which is on the banks of the brook Arnon, including the city in the vale, even to mount Galaad, there was not a city which escaped us. The
37 Lord our God delivered them all into our hands. Moreover, when, without approaching the children of Amman, we had taken all his territories on the brook Jabok, and his cities in the hilly country, as the Lord our God commanded us, we
III. turned and went up the way to Basan. And when Og,
2 king of Basan came out to meet us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrain, the Lord said to me, Fear him not; for into thy hand I have delivered him, and all his people, and all his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou hast done to Seon, the
3 king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Esebon. So the Lord our God delivered also into our hands Og, king of Basan, and all his people, and we smote him till there was none of his seed left.
4 And we took all his cities at that time^ There was not a city which we did not take from them—three score cities, the whole region of Argob, belonging to Og, king of Basan; All the ci-
5 ties fortified with high walls, bars and gates, besides the towns of the Pherezites, which were very many, we utterly destroyed.
6 As we had done to Seon, king of Esebon, we destroyed every
7 city, one after another, and the women and children. But all the cattle, and the spoils of the cities, we took for ourselves.
8 So, at that time, we took this land out of the hands of the two kings of the Amorites, who were on the banks of the Jordan,
9 from the brook Arnon even to Aermon (now the Phoenicians call Aermon Sanior and the Amorites call it Sanir) including
10 all the cities of Misor, and all Galaad, and all Basan, as far as Elcha, and Adraim, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Basan.
11 (For besides Og, king of Basan, there was not one of the Ra- phains left. Behold his bed was a bed of iron. Behold it is in the citadel of the Ammanites. The length of it is nine cubits, and the breadth of it four cubits, after the cubit of a man.)
12 And we took possession of this land, at that time, from Aroer, which is on the bank of the brook Arnon, and the half of mount Galaad; and I gave all the cities thereof to Reuben, and Gad.
‘ 13 And the rest of Galaad, and all Basan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half of the tribe of Manasses, with all the region of Argob, even all that part of Basan which is to be accounted the
14 land of the Raphains. (Now when Jair the Manassite took the region of Argob, even to the borders of Gergesi, and Macha- thi, he called it after his own name Basan-Thavoth-Jair which is now its name.)
15 Now when I gave Galaad to the Machirhes and to Reu-
16 ben and Gad, all below Galaad, to the brook Arnon, the middle of the brook being the boundary ; and as far as Jabok,
17 this brook being the boundary of the Ammanites, and Araba, and the Jordan the boundary of Machanareth, even to the sea
18 of Araba, the salt sea below Asedoth, the Phasga of the East, I gave you a charge at that time, saying, The Lord your God hath given you this land for a possession, you shall go armed
19 before your brethren, the children of Israel, all of you who are fit for war, (but your wives, and your children, and your cattle, for I know that you have much cattle, are to dwell in your
20 cities, which I have given you) until the Lord your God shall have given your brethren rest, as well as you ; and until they shall have taken possession of the land which the Lord our
21 God giveth them, on the other side of the Jordan. Then you shall return, every one to his possession which I have given you. And at the same time I gave a charge to Joshua, saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God hath done to these two kings. In the same manner the Lord our God will deal with all those kingdoms against which you are going to
22 cross over. You shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord
23 our God will fight for you. I also supplicated the Lord, at
24 that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy majesty, and thy power, and thy mighty hand, and thy outstretched arm; for what god is there in heaven, or on earth, who can do as thou hast done, or according to thy ma-
25 jesty. Let me cross over, and see that land, that good land which is beyond the Jordan, and that goodly mountain Antili-
26 banus. But the Lord overlooked me, because of you, and would not hearken to me. And the Lord said to me, Let this
27 suffice thee. Speak no more on this subject. Go up to the top of the craggy mountain, and raise thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and take a view
28 of it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not cross this Jordan. And give a charge to Joshua, and strengthen and encourage him; for he shall cross over before this people, and shall give them the possession of all this land which thou hast seen. So we halted at the forest, near the house of Phogor.
- Now therefore, hear, O Israel, the rules of rectitude, and the judgments, which I this day teach you to practise, that you may live, and multiply, and go in, and possess the land, which
2 the Lord the God of your fathers giveth you. You shall not add any thing to what I command you; nor shall you diminish from it. You shall keep the commandments of the Lord
3 our God, which I, this day, give you in charge. Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God did because of Beelphe- gor—that as for every man who went after Beelphegor—him
4 the Lord our God destroyed from among you. But as for you who adhered to the Lord your God, you are all alive this day.
5 Behold, I have taught you rules of rectitude, and judgments, as the Lord commanded me; that you may act agreeably thereto, in the land to which you are going, to take possession
6 of it. Therefore keep them, and practise them. For this will be your wisdom, and your understanding, in the sight of all the nations. Whoever shall chance to hear all these rules of rectitude, will say, Behold this is a wise and understanding people
7 —a great nation. For how great must that nation be, which hath God near them, as the Lord our God is on all occasions,
8 if we call upon him! And how great must the nation be, which hath such rules of rectitude, and such righteous judgments, as are contained in the whole law, which I this day lay before you.
9 Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently. Forget not all the things which thine eyes have seen, and let them not depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; that thou mayst impress upon thy children, and thy. childrens’ children,
10 that day when you stood in the presence of the Lord our God at Choreb, on the day of the solemn assembly. For the Lord said to me, Assemble the people before me, and let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they
11 live on the earth. And let them teach their children. So you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. Though the mountain was blazing with fire up to heaven, there was chirk-
12 ness, thick darkness, a turbid tempest. And the Lord uttered to you, from the midst of the fire, the sound of words which
13 you heard. You saw no similitude, but only heard a voice. And when he had declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments, he
14 wrote them on two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you rules of rectitude, and judgments, for you to practise in the land to’which you are going,
15 to take possession of it. Therefore watch your souls with diligence ; for you saw no similitude on the day when the Lord spoke to you at Choreb, in the mount, out of the midst of the
16 fire; that you may not transgress, and make for yourselves a graven image—any kind of image, the likeness of man or
17 woman; the likeness of any of the beasts which are on the earth; the likeness of any winged bird, which flieth in the air;
18 the likeness of any reptile, which creepeth on the ground; the likeness of any fish which is in the waters below the earth ;
19 and that upon looking up to heaven, and seeing the sun, and the ‘moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, thou mayst not be led astray, and worship them, and perform religious service to those things which the Lord thy God hath arranged in
20 due order, for all the nations which are under heaven. God hath
indeed taken you and brought you out of the land of Egypt— out of the iron furnace—out of Egypt, to be to him a chosen
21 people, as at this day; but with me the Lord God was angry for the things spoken by you, and he solemnly said that I should not cross this Jordan, and that I should not enter that land,
22 which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession. For I am to die in this land, and not to cross that Jordan; but you
23 are to cross it. When you shall possess that good land, take heed to yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord our God, which he made with you, and transgress and make for yourselves a graven image of any of the things about
24 which the Lord thy God hath given thee a charge; for the
25 Lord thy God is a consuming fire—a zealous God. If therefore, when you have begotten sons, and sons’ sons, and have been long in the land, you transgress, and make a graven image —the likeness of anything whatever, and do evil in the sight of
26 the Lord your God, to provoke him to wrath, I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall surely perish from the land, to which you are going, to cross the Jordan there to take possession of it. You shall not prolong your days
27 therein, but shall be utterly rooted out. And the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, and you shall be left few in number,
28 among all the nations, to which the Lord will bring you. And there you shall serve other gods, the works of men’s hands, stocks and stones, which can neither see, nor hear, nor eat,
29 nor smell. Yet there, on seeking the Lord your God you will find him, when you seek him with your whole heart and with
30 your whole soul—In thy affliction, when all these things have come upon thee in the latter days, when thou shalt tuni to the Lord thy God, and hearken to his voice; because the Lord
31 thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee utterly, nor totally destroy thee. He will not forget the covenant of thy fathers, which the Lord confirmed to them with an oath.
32 Enquire of the days which are past—those which were before thee, from the day God created man on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other; hath there ever been
33 any thing like this great thing? Hath any thing been heard like it ? Hath any nation heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and
34 art still alive? Or hath God come, and made trial to take for himself a nation out of the midst of a nation, by trials, and by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, and with great visions, according to all that the Lord our God hath done in Egypt, before thine
35 eyes? So that thou must needs know that the Lord thy God is
36 very God, and that there is none else besides him. From heaven he caused his voice to be heard to instruct thee; and on earth he shewed thee his great fire. And thou hast heard his
37 words out of the midst of the fire. Because he loved thy fathers, he chose you their seed after them; and by his mighty
38 power he hath brought thee out of Egypt, to destroy nations greater and mightier than thou art, before thee—to bring thee in, and give thee their land for a possession, as is the case with
39 thee this day. Know therefore this day, and revolve it in thy mind, that the Lord thy God is alone God, in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and that there is none other
40 besides him. You shall therefore keep his commandments, and his rules of rectitude, which I this day give you in charge, that it may be well with thee and with thy children after thee —that you may live long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for ever.
41 Then Moses set apart three cities on the side of Jordan, to-
42 wards the rising of the sun, for the slayer to flee to. Whoever should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times
43 past, might flee to one of these cities, and live, namely, Bo- sor, in the wilderness, in the plain, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth, in Galaaditis, for the Gadites; and Gaulon, in Ba- san, for the Manassites.
44 This is the law which Moses laid before the children of
45 Israel—these are the testimonies, and the rules of rectitude, and the judgments, which Moses delivered in his speech to
46 the Israelites, after they came out of the land of Egypt on the bank of the Jordan, in the vale near the house of Phogor, in the land of Seon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Esebon, whom Moses and the Israelites slew after their coming out of the land of Egypt, when they took possession both of this land, and the land of Og king of Basan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were on the side of the Jordan towards the 48 rising of the sun, from Arc~r, which is on the border of the
49 brook Arnon, to the mountain of Seon, which is Aermon, comprehending all that part of Araba on the eastern bank of Jordan, below the cliff of Asedoth.
- When Moses had convened all Israel, he said to them, Hear, O Israel, the rules of rectitude and the judgments, which I this day deliver in your hearing, that you may learn them, and may be careful to perform them.
2 The Lord your God made a covenant with you at Choreb.
3 It was not only with your fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with you also—with you who are all here alive
4 this day. Face to face the Lord spoke to you, at that moun-
5 tain, out of the midst of the fire. I indeed stood between the Lord and you, at that time, to declare to you the words of the Lord, because you were terrified at the fire, and did not go
6 up to the mountain; and he said, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bon-
7 dage. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall
8 not make for thyself an idol, nor the likeness of any thing in the heaven above, or of any of the things which are on the earth
9 below, or which are in the waters below the earth. Thou shall not worship them, nor serve them; for I am the Lord thy God, a zealous God,retributing, to them who hate me, the sins of fathers upon children, to the third and fourth generation, and
10 shewing mercy for thousands [of generations] to them who
11 love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord thy God
12 will not purify him who taketh his name in vain. Keep the day of the sabbaths to hallow it, as the Lord thy God hath com-
13 manded thee. Labour six days, and do all thy works; but on
14 the seventh day are the sabbaths for the Lord thy God. On it thou shalt not do any work—neither thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant nor thy maid servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the proselyte who sojourneth wilh thee; that thy man servant, and thy maid
15 servant, and thy labouring beast may rest as well as thou. Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm; for this cause the Lord thy
yoi,. i.
God hath commanded thee to keep the day of the sabbaths
16 and hallow it. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayst live long in the land which the Lord thy
17 God giveth thee. Thou shalt not commit murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
21 not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his field, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any of his cattle, nor any thing which is thy neighbour’s.
22 These are the injunctions which the Lord delivered verbally, to all your congregation, at the mount, out of the midst of the fire. There was darkness, thick darkness, a turbid tempest, and a loud voice. And he added no more. And having written them on two tables of stone, he gave them to me.
23 Now when you heard the voice from the midst of the fire (the mountain indeed was burning with fire) you came to me, even
24 all the leaders of your tribes, and your elders, and said, Behold the Lord our God hath shewn us his glory, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire. We have this day seen
25 that God can speak to man, and he may live. Now therefore let us not die, for this great fire will consume us, if we continue any longer to hear the voice of the Lord our God; and we
26 shall die. For what mortal, who hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have,
27 can live. Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and thou shalt rehearse to us all that the Lord our
»28 God may speak to thee, and we will hear and do it. And the Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, I have heard the sound of the words of this people, even all that they have spoken to thee. All that
29 they have said is right. O that they may have their heart so disposed in them as to fear me, and to keep my commandments continually, that it may be well with them, and their children
30 for ever. Go say to them, Return to your houses. But as for
31 thee, Stand thou here with me, and I will speak to thee all the commandments, and the rules of rectitude, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them; and let them act accord-
32 ingly in the land which I give them for a possession. Be careful therefore to do as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.
33 Turn not aside to the right, nor to the left, from walking in all the way which the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that he may give thee rest, and that it may be well with thee, and that you may live long in the land, of which you shall take possession.
- Now these are the commandments, and the rules of rectitude, and the judgments, which the Lord our God commanded you to be taught, that you may act conformably thereto in the land to which you are going, there to take possession of it;
2 that you may fear the Lord your God. You shall keep all his statutes, and his commandments, which I this day command you, both thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children,
3 all the days of thy life, that you may live many days. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to perform; that it may be well with thee, and that you may be greatly multiplied, as the Lord, the God of thy fathers, hath promised to give thee a land flowing with milk and honey. These indeed are the rules of rectitude, and the judgments, which the Lord gave in charge to the children of Israel, in the wilderness, on their coming out of the land of Egypt.
4 Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And
5 thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole understanding,
6 and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole might. And these injunction^, which I this day give thee in charge, shall be in thy
7 heart, and in thy soul; and thou shalt impress them on thy children, and speak of them, when thou sittest at home, and when thou art walking abroad, and when thou liest down, and
8 when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them for a sign on thy right hand, and it shall be immoveably before thine eyes.
9 ‘You shall also write them on the posts of your houses and
10 gates. And when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land, which, with an oath he promised to thy fathers, to Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob, to give thee cities, great and
11 beautiful, which thou hast not builded—houses full of all good things, which thou hast not filled; cisterns of hewn stone, which thou hast not hewed; .vineyards, and olive yards which thou hast not planted; and when thou hast eaten, and art filled,
12 take heed to thyself, that thou forget not the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt—out of the house
13 of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him
14 alone, and cleave to him, and swear by his name. Go not af-
15 ter other gods—after any of the gods of the nations around you. (For the zealous God—the Lord thy God is among you) lest the Lord thy God, being provoked to wrath against thee,
16 destroy thee from the face of the land. Thou shalt not try the
17 Lord thy God, as you tried him at Temptation. Thou shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord thy God—all the testimonies, and the rules of rectitude, which he shall give
18 thee in charge; and thou shalt do what is well pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord thy God, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayst go in, and take possession of
19 that good land, out of which the Lord hath, with an oath, promised your fathers to drive all thine enemies from before thee,
20 as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy son shall, in time to come, ask thee, saying, What is the meaning of these testimonies, and these rules of rectitude, and these judgments,
21 which the Lord our God hath enjoined on us? Then thou shalt say to thy son, We were servants to Pharao, in the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought us out thence, with a
22 strong hand, and with an outstretched arm. And when the Lord had shewn signs, and wonders, great, and grievous, in
23 Egypt, on Pharao, and on his household, in our sight, he brought us out thence, to give us this land, which, with an
24 oath, he promised to give our fathers; and the Lord commanded us to practise all these rules—to fear the Lord our God, that it may be well with us always, that we may live, as
25 we now do. For we shall find mercy, if we be careful to perform all these commandments in the sight of the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
VII. Now when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into that land, to which thou art going, there to possess it, and hath removed from before thee mighty nations—the Chettite, and the Gergasite, and the Amorite, and the Chananite, and the Phe- resite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, seven nations, more 2 numerous, and stronger than you—When the Lord thy God
shall deliver them into thy hands, thou shalt smite them; thou shall utterly destroy them; thou shalt not make a covenant with
3 them. You shall neither shew them mercy, nor contract marriages with them. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son,
4 nor take his daughter for thy son. For she will cause thy son to apostatise from me, and to serve other gods, and the Lord will be provoked to wrath against you, and speedily destroy
5 thee. But in this manner thou shalt deal with them—their altars you shall destroy; their pillars you shall break to pieces; their groves you shall cut down; and the graven images of their
6 gods you shall burn with fire. For thou art a people dedicated ta the Lord thy God, and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be a peculiar people to himself, in preference to all the na-
7 tions which are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were the most numerous of all the nations, that the Lord preferred you, and made choice of you; for you are the fewest
8 of all the nations: but because the Lord loved you, therefore in performance of the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord led you out with a strong hand, and the Lord redeemed thee from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao
9 king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God is the only God—the God to be confided in, who keepeth covenant and mercy for thousands of generations with them who love
10 him, and keep his commandments; and who requiteth to their face them who hate him, so as to destroy them. To them indeed who hate him he will not be slack; to their face he will
11 requite them. Therefore keep the commandments, and the rules of rectitude, and these judgments, which I this day com-
12 mand thee to do. And it shall come to pass, that if you hearken to these rules, and keep and practise them, the Lord thy God will keep with thee the covenant, and the mercy, which he, with an
13 oath, confirmed to your fathers. And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; and he will bless the offspring of thy womb, and the product of thy land—thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, thy herds of cattle, and thy flocks of sheep, in the land which he, with an oath, promised thy fathers to give
14 thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all the nations. There shall not be a male without a progeny, nor a female barren among
15 you, or your cattle. And the Lord will remove from thee every malady, and will not lay upon thee any of the sore diseases of Egypt, which thou hast seen, which thou hast known: but will
16 lay them upon all that hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the spoils of the nations, which the Lord thy God giveth thee:
17 Thine eye shall not have pity on them. And thou shalt not per- , form religious service to their gods; for this is a snare for thee. Now if thou shouldst say in thy heart, This nation is stronger
18 than I; how shall I be able to exterminate them? Be not afraid of them; but keep up a lively remembrance of all that the Lord
19 thy God did to Pharao, and to all the Egyptians—the great trials whicli thine eyes have seen,—the signs and great wonders—the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm—As the Lord thy God brought thee out, so will the Lord your God
20 deal with all the nations, of whom you are afraid. The Lord thy God will indeed send hornets against them, until they who
21 are left, and hid from thee, are utterly destroyed. Thou shalt not be affrighted at them; for the Lord thy God—the Great and
22 Mighty God, is with thee. The Lord thy God will indeed consume those nations from before thee, by little and little. Thou wilt not be enabled to destroy them at once, lest the land be-
23 come a waste, and the wild beasts multiply against thee. But the Lord thy God will deliver them into thy hands, and thou shalt destroy them with a great destruction, until you may ut-
24 terly exterminate them. When he shall deliver their kings into your hands, you shall destroy their name out of that place. None shall be able to stand before thee, until thou hast utterly
25 destroyed them. The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Thou shalt not covet the silver nor the gold thereof. Thou shalt not take any of it for thyself, lest thou be
26 ensnared by it. Because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God, therefore thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house; for thou wilt be an Anathema as well as it. Thou shalt utterly detest it, and hold it in utter abomination; for it is an Anathema, [a devoted thing.]
VIII. All the commands which I this day give you in charge you shall be careful to perform, that you may live, and be multiplied, and go in, and possess the land which the Lord your 2 God solemnly promised to your fathers; and thou shalt keep in remembrance all the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the wilderness, that he might afflict thee, and prove thee, and know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his
3 commandments or not. And when he had afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, then he fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might shew thee, that man can live not on bread only; but that man can live on any thing
4 which God is pleased to appoint. Thy garments did not become too old for thee, nor were thy shoes worn out from un-
5 der thee; nor the feet galled during the whole forty years; so that thou must know in thy heart, that as a man chastiseth his
6 son, so the Lord thy God will chasten thee; keep therefore the commandments of the Lord thy God, by walking in his ways,
7 and fearing him. For the Lord thy God will bring thee to a good, and extensive land, where there are brooks of water, and
8 fountains from the deeps, issuing forth from the plains, and from the hills—a land of wheat, and barley, where there are vineyards, and fig trees, and pomegranates—a land of oil-olive
9 and honey—a land wherein thou shalt eat bread, without scarcity, and in which thou shalt not want any thing—a land, the stones of which are iron, and out of the mountains of which thou
10 shalt dig brass. Therefore when thou hast eaten, and art satisfied, thou shalt bless the Lord thy God in that good land, which
11 he hath given thee. Take heed to thyself, that thou forget not the Lord thy God, so as not to keep his commandments, and his judgments, and his rules of rectitude, which I this day
12 command thee. When thou hast eaten, and art satisfied, and
13 hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds, and thy flocks, are multiplied, and thou hast silver and
14 gold in abundance, and all thy possessions are multiplied, be not elated in heart, nor forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage—
15 who conducted you through that great and frightful wilderness, where there were biting serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water—who brought a fountain
16 of water for thee out of a flinty rock—who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thou didst not know, and which was not known by thy fathers, that he might afflict thee, and try thee, and do thee good in thy latter days.
17 Say not in thy heart, My own power, and the strength of
18 my own hand hath procured me this great wealth : but remember the Lord thy God, that it is he who giveth thee power to procure wealth, that he may establish the covenant which the
19 Lord made with thy fathers, as at this day. Indeed if thou forget the Lord thy God, and go after other gods* and serve them, and worship them, I call heaven and earth this day to witness
20 against you, that you shall surely perish. In like manner as the other nations which the Lord God destroyed before you, so shall you perish, because you have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord vour God.
– i
- Hear, O Israel! Thou art now about to cross the Jordan, to go in to possess nations much greater and stronger than
2 you, large cities, which are walled up to the sky, a people great and numerous, and of great stature, the children of Enak, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard it said,
:3 Who can stand before the sons of Enak? Know therefore this day, that the Lord thy God will himself march before thee. He is a consuming fire. He will destroy them. He will cause them to turn back from before thy face, and will destroy them
4 speedily, as the Lord hath said to thee. Now when the Lord thy God hath destroyed those nations from before thee, speak not in thy heart, say ing,-On the account of my righteousness
5 the Lord hath brought me in to possess this good land. It is not on the account of thy righteousness, nor for the sanctity of thy heart, that thou goest in to possess their land; but, be- cause of the wickedness of those nations, the Lord will drive them out from before thee, and that he may establish his covenant which the Lord made with our fathers—with Abraham,
6 and Isaak, and Jacob. Know therefore this day, that it is not for thy righteousness that the Lord thy God giveth thee that good land for a possession; for thou art a stiffhecked people.
7 Remember—never forget how often thou hast provoked to wrath the Lord thy God, in the wilderness. From the day you came out of Egypt, till your coming to this place, you have
8 gone on in a course of rebellion against the Lord. At Choreb you provoked the Lord, so that the anger of the Lord was kind-
9 led against you, to destroy you utterly. When I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone—the tables of the covenant wMch the Lord had made with you. Now I was on
10 the mount forty days, and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water; and the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, written with the finger of God—upon them indeed were written all the words which the Lord had spoken to you at the
11 mount, on the day of the solemn assembly. And after the forty days, and the forty nights, when the Lord gave me the two tables of stone—the tables of the covenant, the Lord said to
12 me, Arise, go down quickly from this place : for thy people, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt, have transgressed. They have gone aside quickly out of the way, to which thou didst enjoin them, and have made for themselves a molten
13 image. Moreover the Lord spoke to me, saying, I have
14 spoken to thee once and again and said, I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiffiiecked people; now therefore let me utterly destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make thee a nation, great and powerful, and
15 much more numerous than this. Whereupon I turned, and came down from the mount. Now the mount was blazing with fire up to heaven, and I had in my two hands the two
16 tables of the testimonies. And when I saw that you had sinned before the Lord your God, and that you had made for yourselves a molten image, and had turned aside from the way in which the Lord had commanded you to walk ; hav-
17 ing hold of the two tables, I threw them out of my liands
18 and broke them before your eyes. Then I made supplication before the Lord, a second time, as I had done before, forty days and forty nights—(I neither ate bread nor drank water)—for your sins which you had committed by doing evil
19 in the sight of the Lord God, to provoke him to wrath. Even now I tremble on account of the wrath and indignation. For the anger of the Lord was kindled against you, to destroy
20 you utterly. But the Lord hearkened to me at that time also. Even against Aaron, his wrath was kindled to destroy him ;
21 But I prayed for Aaron also at that time. Now I had taken your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire; and having stamped, and ground it, till it was very fine, and like dust, I threw the dust into the torrent which ran down
22 out of the mount. At Burning also, and at Temptation, and at
23 Monuments of longing desire, you provoked the Lord. And
VOL. I. RF
when the Lord sent you from Kades-barne, saying, Go up, and take possession of the land which I give you, you disobeyed the command of the Lord your God, and did not con-
24 fide in him, nor hearken to his voice. You have been disobedient to the commands of the Lord, from the day he made himself known to you.
25 When I was making supplication before the Lord, forty
26 days, and forty nights, as I had done before (for the Lord spoke of destroying you utterly,) I prayed to God, and said, O Lord, thou king of all the gods, destroy not thy people, and thy heritage, whom thou hast redeemed, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with thy mighty power, and with thy
27 strong hand, and with thine outstretched arm. Remember Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thyself. Look not upon the stubbornness of
28 this people, nor upon their wickedness, and their sins, lest they who dwell in the land, out of which thou hast brought them, should speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them; and because he hated them, he led them out into the wilderness’to kill
29 them. Now these are thy people, and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with thy mighty power, and with thy strong hand, and with thine outstretched arm.
- At that time the Lord said to me, Hew thee out two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mount;
2 and thou shall make thee an ark of wood, and thou shah write on these tables the words which were on the first tables, which
3 thou didst break, and shalt put them in the ark. So when I had made an ark of incorruptible wood, and hewed two tables of stone, like the first, and had gone up the mount with the
4 two tables in my hand; and he had written on these tables, according to the former writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spoke to you at the mount, out of the midst
5 of the fire; and the Lord had given them to me, and I had turned, and come down from the mount, and had puttheseta- bles in the ark which I had made, and they were there as the
6 Lord commanded me, then the children of Israel removed out of Beroth, the country belonging to the children of Jakin, into Misidai, the country where Aaron died, and where he was buried, and Eleazar executed the office of priest in his stead.
7 Thence they removed to Gadgad, and from Gadgad to Etaba-
8 tha, a land abounding with streams of water. Now the Lord, having at that time set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, and to
9 serve, and bless in his name, as they do at this day, for this cause the Levites have no portion or lot among their brethren. The Lord is their portion, as he said to them.
10 When I had been on the mount forty days, and forty nights, the Lord hearkened to me at that time also, for the
Lord was not willing to destroy you utterly ; and the Lord
11 said to me, Go, march before this people, and let them go in, and take possession of the land which I solemnly promised
12 their fathers to give them. Now therefore, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul—to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his rules of rectitude, which I this day command thee, that it
14 may be well with thee ? Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, belong to the Lord thy God, the earth also, and all
15 that are therein. Nevertheless the Lord made choice of your fathers to love them; and he chose you, their seed, after them,
16 in preference to all the nations, as at this day. Circumcise therefore the stubbornness of your hearts, and be no more stiff- necked. For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of
17 lords—the God, great, and mighty, and awful. He respect-
18 eth not persons, nor taketh a bribe. He administereth justice to the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and loveth the
19 stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
20 Thou shaltfear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and cleave
21 to him, and swear by his name. He is thy boast; and he is thy God, who hath done for thee those great, and those mar-
22 vellous things which thine eyes have seen. With seventy souls thy fathers went down to Egypt, and now the Lord thy God
- hath made thee like the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charges, and his rules of rectitude, and his commandments, and his
2 judgments, continually. You must now know, for I am not addressing your children, who have not known, nor seen, the chastisement of the Lord thy God, and his great acts, and his
3 outstretched arm, and his signs, and his wonders, which he did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharao, king of Egypt, and to
4 all his land; and what he did to the army of the Egyptians— to their chariots, and their cavalry, and their host—how the Lord caused the water of the Red sea to overwhelm them, when they were pursuing you, and destroyed them even to this
5 day: and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you
6 came to this place ; and what he did to Dathan and Abiron, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, whom the earth, opening its mouth, swallowed up, with their houses, and their tents, and all their substance with them, in the midst of all Israel.
7 Because your eyes have seen all these great acts of the Lord
8 which he hath done among you; therefore you shall keep all his commandments which I this day give thee in charge, that you may live, and multiply, and go in, and possess that land to which you are going to cross the Jordan, there to take posses-
9 sion of it—that you may prolong your days in that land, which the Lord, with an oath to your fathers, promised to give to them, and to their seed after them—a land flowing with milk
10 and honey. For the land to which you are going, to take possession of it, is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where, when they have sown the seed, they can
11 water it with their feet, like a garden of herbs. But the land to which you are going, to take possession of it, is a land of hills and dales, which drinketh up water from the rain of heaven—
12 a land over which the Lord thy God \eepeth a continual watch. The eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it, from the
13 beginning of the year to the end thereof. And if you will hearken diligently to all the commands which I this day command thee, to love the Lord thy God, and to serve him with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, he will give rain
14 for thy land in due season—the former and the latter rain; and thou shalt gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 He will also give grass in thy fields for thy cattle.
16 But when thou hast eaten, and art full, take heed to thyself that thy heart be not elated; and that you do not transgress,
17 and serve other gods, and worship them, lest the Lord, being provoked to wrath against 3rou, shut up heaven, so that there shall be no rain, and the land yield not its products, and ye quickly perish from that good land, which the Lord hath given
18 you. Therefore lay up these things in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them fora sign on your hand, that they may be
19 immoveably before your eyes. And you shall teach them to your children, by speaking of them, whenthou sittest at home, and when thou walkest abroad, and when thou liest down to
20 sleep, and when thou risest up. And you shall write them on
21 the door posts of your houses, and of your gates; that you may prolong your lives, that the days of your children in the land which the Lord solemnly promised your fathers to give
22 them, may be as the days of heaven over the earth. For it shall come to pass, that if you hearken diligently to all these commands, which I this day enjoin you to do—to love the Lord
23 our God,and to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to him, the Lord will drive out all those nations from before you, and you shall possess nations much greater and stronger than you.
24 Every place on which you shall imprint the track of your feet shall be yours, from the wilderness to Antilibanus, and from
25 the river, the great river Euphrates, to the western sea. These shall be your boundaries. None shall be able to stand before you. For the Lord your God will impress the fear of you, and the dread of you, on the face of all the land on which you shall tread, as the Lord hath said to you.
26 Behold I am going to lay before you this day the blessing
27 and the curse—the blessing, if you will hearken to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I this day command
28 you—and the curse, if you will not hearken to the commandments of the Lord our God, in all respects, as I this day command you; but turn aside out of the way to which I have enjoined you, and go to serve other gods, which you do not
29 know. And when the Lord thy God hath brought thce to the land, to which thou art going to cross over, there to take possession of it, thou shalt put the blessing on mount Garazin,
30 and the curse on mount Gaibal. Behold are not these on the bank of the Jordan, behind the road to the setting of the sun,
in the land of the Chananites, whose dwelling is to the westward, adjoining Golgol, near the lofty oak? for you are going to cross the Jordan.
31 When you have gone in, to possess the land which the Lord our God giveth you for a perpetual possession, and you shall dwell therein, be careful to perform all his commandments, and all these judgments, which I this day lay before you.
XII. Now these are the commandments, and the judgments, which you shall be careful to execute, in the land which the Lord the God of your fathers giveth you for a possession, all the days you live in the land.
2 You shall utterly destroy all those places, in which they whom you succeed, have worshipped their gods, on the lofty
3 mountains, and on the hills, and under every shady tree. You shall level their mounts, and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn the graven images of their gods with fire, so that their name may be destroyed out of that place.
4 You shall not do to the Lord your God, in the manner they
5 have done; but you shall seek out and come to the place, which the Lord thy God shall make choice of, in one of your
6 cities, to put his name there, and to be invoked; and to that place you shall bring your whole burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your oblations, and your vows, and your free will offerings, and your thank offerings, and the firstlings of your herds, and flocks; and you shall eat there before the Lord your
7 God, and rejoice with your households, for all your possessions, and the labours of your hands, as the Lord thy God hath blessed
8 thee. You shall not do all that we do here at this day; every
9 one what is agreeable in his own sight; for till now you have not come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord
10 your God giveth you: but when you cross the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord our God giveth you for a possession—when he shall give you rest from all your enemies round about, and you shall dwell in safety, then there shall be
11 a place, wherever the Lord thy God shall chuse, for his name to be invoked. To that place you shall bring all that I this day command you, your whole burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tenths, and the oblations of your hands, and the choice
12 of all your gifts which you may vow to the Lord your God; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men servants, and your maid servants, and the Levite who is at your gates, because he
13 hath no portion nor inheritance with you. Take heed to thyself, that thou offer not thy whole burnt offerings in every place
14 which thou mayst see; but only in the place which the Lord thy God shall make choice of, in one of thy tribes. There you shall offer your whole burnt offerings, and there you shall do
15 all that I this day command you. Nevertheless, to satisfy thy desire, thou mayst kill and eat flesh, in every city, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee. The unclean with thee, and the clean, may eat it together, as you now do a roebuck or a deer; but you must not eat the
16 blood: that you shall pour on the ground like water. Thou
17 shalt not be at liberty to eat, in thy cities, the tythe of thy corn, and of thy wine, and thine oil, nor the firstlings of thy herds, and thy flocks, nor any of thy vows, which you shall make, nor
18 your thank offerings, nor the oblations of thy hands. These thou shalt eat no where but before the Lord, in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse for himself; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, and
19 the stranger who is in thy cities. And when thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, for all thy possessions and all the labours of thy hand, take heed to thyself, that thou neglect not
20 the Levite, as long as thou livest in the land. And when the Lord thy God hath enlarged thy borders, as he hath said to thee, if thou shalt say, I will eat flesh; if thy soul desireth to eat flesh; thou mayst, to satisfy the longing of thy soul, eat
21 flesh: and if the place, which the Lord thy God may have chosen for his name to be invoked, be far from thee, thou mayst slay, in the manner I ha^fe commanded thee, some of thy herd or thy flock, which God hath given thee, and eat in thy cities,
22 according to the longing of thy soul. As the roebuck and the deer is eaten so thou shalt eat it. The unclean and the clean
23 may alike eat it. But be very cautious not to eat blood. For
24 his blood is life. Life must not be eaten with the flesh. You
25 must not eat it. You must pour it out on the ground, like water. Thou shalt not eat it, that it may be well with thee, and
26 thy children after thee. If thou wouldst do what is good, and well pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God, over and above thy hallowed things, if any thou hast; thou shalt take thy vows, and come to the place which the Lord thy God may have cho-
27 sen for his name to be there invoked, and having offered thy whole burnt offerings, thou shalt offer up the flesh at the altar of the Lord thy God, and pour out the blood of thy own sacrifices against the base of the altar of the Lord thy God, and eat the flesh of these.
28 Observe and hear, that thou mayst do all the things which I command thee, that it may be well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever.
29 When thou hast done what is well pleasing and good hi the , . sight of the Lord thy God; and when the Lord thy God shall
have driven out from before thee the nations, to which thou
30 art going, to take possession of their land, and thou shalt possess it, and dwell therein, take heed to thyself that thou seek not to follow them after they are driven out from before thee, saying, How did these nations sacrifice to their gods ? I will sa-
31 crifice in like manner. Thou shalt not do so to thy God; for they sacrificed to their gods the abominations of the Lord, which he hated; for they burned their sons, and their daughters, with fire, to their gods.
32 Be careful to do every thing which I this day command XIII. you. Thou shalt not add to it, nor diminish from it. If a
prophet should start up among you, or a dreamer of dreams,
2 and give thee a sign or a wonder; and the sign or the wonder should come to pass, which he mentioned to thee saying, Let
3 us go and worship other gods which you do not know; you shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or of that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord thy God trieth you, to know whether you love your God with you* whole heart, and with your
4 whole soul. You shall follow the Lord your God, and fear him,
5 and hearken to his voice, and cleave to him. And that prophet, or that dreamer, shall be put to death; for he hath spoken to lead thee astray from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, who redeemed thee from bondage—to put thee out of the way in which the Lord thy God commanded
6 thee to walk. So thou shalt remove evil from among you. And if thy brother, the son of thy father, or of thy mother, or thine own son, or daughter, or the wife in thy bosom, or a friend who is as thine own soul, speak privately to thee saying, Let us
7 go and serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known—any of the gods of the nations around you, of those near thee, or those far distant from thee, from one end
8 of the earth to the other; thou shalt not consent, nor hearken to him; neither shall thine eye pity him, nor shalt thou spare him,
9 nor conceal him. Thou shalt surely inform against him, and thy hands shall be upon him, among the foremost, to kill him,
10 and afterwards the hands of the whole people. And they shall stone him with stones, and he shall be put to death, because he sought to make thee apostatise from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt—out of the house of
11 bondage. So all Israel will hear, and be afraid, and no more
12 proceed to do any such wickedness as this among you. And if thou shalt hear it said, that in one of the cities, which the
13 Lord thy God giveth thee to dwell in, there are wicked men gone forth among you, who have seduced all the inhabitants of their land, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you
14 know not; thou shalt examine, and make inquiry, and search diligently: And behold, if the report is evidently true, and
15 such abomination hath been committed among you; thou shalt surely destroy all the inhabitants of that land, with the slaughter of the sword. With an Anathema thou shalt devote to de-
16 struction, it and all that are in it. And thou shalt collect all the spoils of it into the streets thereof, and burn with fire the city, and all the spoils thereof, with all the inhabitants, in the sight
17 of the Lord thy God. And it shall be uninhabited for ever. It shall never be rebuilt any more; nor shall any thing of what is devoted to destruction cleave to thy hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his wrath, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion on thee, and multiply thee, in the man-
18 ner he solemnly promised thy fathers, if thou wilt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments which I this day command you—to do what is comely and well pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.
XIV. You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not make a baldness between your eyes for the dead. Vol. i. ss
2 Because thou art a people dedicated to the Lord thy God,
and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
to himself, above all the nations on the face of the earth, you shall
.3 not eat any abomination. These are the beasts which you shall
4 eat, young beeves, and sheep, and goats, deer and roebucks, and
5 the pygarg, and oryx, and camelopardal—every beast which rt parteth the hoof, dividing it into two distinct hoofs, and which
7 cheweth the cud; these among the cattle you may eat. But of those which chew the cud, and of those which part not the hoof, dividing it into two distinct hoofs, these you shall not eat—the camel, and the hairy foot, and the choirogryllus. Because though they chew the cud they do not part the hoof, they are unclean
8 to you—the swine also, because, though it parteth the hoof and divideth it into distinct hoofs, yet it doth not chew the cud, it is unclean to you. You shall not eat their flesh, nor
9 touch their dead carcasses. And of all that are in the water, these you may eat. You may eat all that have fins and scales.
10 But all that have not fins and scales, you shall not eat; they are
11 unclean to you. Every clean fowl you may eat; now these are they which you shall not eat—the eagle and the ospray, and the cormorant, and the vulure, and the kite, and all of its species; the ostrich, and the owl, and the gull, and the heron, and the swan, and the ibis, and cataractes, and the hawk, and all of its species ; and the puet, and the night hawk, and the pelican, and the charadrius, and all of its species; and the por-
19 phurion, and the bat. All the creeping things which fly are un-
20 clean to you. You shall not eat any of them. Every flying
21 thing, which is clean, you may cat. Every thing which dieth of itself you shall not eat. It may be given to the stranger, who is in thy cities, and he may eat it, or thou mayst sell it to the stranger.
Because thou art a people dedicated to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not boil a lamb in the milk of its dam.
22 Thou shalt set apart the tenth of all the increase of thy
23 seed, the product of thy field year after year; and this thou shalt eat in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse, for his name to be there invoked. Thither you shall bring the tenths of thy corn, and of thy wine, and thine oil and the firstlings of thy kine, and of thy flocks, that thou mayst learn to
24 fear the Lord thy God always. But if the way be too long for thee, and thou canst not carry them up, because the place is far distant from thee, which the Lord thy God hath chosen for
25 his name to be there invoked; seeing the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, therefore thou shalt sell them for money; and thou shalt take the money in thy hand, and go to the place
26 which the Lord thy God hath chosen; and thou shalt give this money for whatever thy soul may desire—for cat tie, or for sheep, or for wine, or strong drink, or for any thing which thy soul may desire; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God,
27 and rejoice with thy household, and the Levite who is in thy
28 cities, because he hath no portion nor lot with you. And, at the end of three years, thou shalt carry out all the tenth of thy products in that year, and lay it up in thy cities, and the Levite shall come, because he hath no portion nor lot with thee, and the proselyte, and the orphan, and the widow, who is in thy cities, and they shall eat and be filled, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works which thou dost.
- Every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this
2 is the ordinance touching this release. Thou shalt remit every private debt which thy neighbour owetli thee, and shalt not demand it of thy brotlier; for the release for the Lord thy
3 God is proclaimed. Of a stranger thou mayst demand what may be due to thee from him; but to a brother thou shalt make a release of what he oweth thee, because among you
4 there is to be none in want; because the Lord thy God will, with blessing, bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God
5 giveth thee for an inheritance, that you may possess it, if you will but hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep, and perform, all these commandments which I this day com-
6 niand you. Because the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in the: manner he promised thee, therefore thou shalt lend to many nations and shalt not borrow ; and thou shalt rule qver many
7 nations, and they shall not rule over thee. If then there chance to be among you a needy person—one of thy brethren, in one of thy cities in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy
8 brother who is in want. Thou shalt open thy hands liberally to him, and lend him what he is in want of, according to his
9 necessity. Take heed to thyself that there be not a lurking thought in thy heart—a wicked suggestion, saying, The seventh year, the year of remission is near at hand. When thou shalt look with an evil eye at thy brother who is in want, and not give him, he will cry to the Lord against thee, and it will
10 be a great sin in thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and lend him freely, what he is in want of, according to his necessity. And thou shalt not be grieved at heart when thou givest to him; for on this account the Lord thy God will bless thee in
11 all thy works, and in all the labours of thy hands. Because thy land may never be without some indigent person in it, therefore I give thee a charge to do this thing, saying, Thou shalt open thy hands liberally to thy brother who is in want, and to
12 the needy in thy land. And if thy brother, a Hebrew man,, or a Hebrew woman, be sold to thee, he shall serve thee six years; and on the seventh thou shalt send him away from thee, free.
13 And when thou shalt send him away free from thee, thou shalt
14 not send him away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally with provision for the journey, from thy flock and from thy corn, and thy wine. According as the Lord thy God hath bless-
15 ed thee, thou shalt give him; and remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that thence the Lord thy God redeemed thee; therefore I command thee to do this
16 thing. And if he shall say to thee, I will not go away from thee, because he hath loved thee, and thy family, and is well
17 with thee; then thou shalt take an awl, and bore his ear against the door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And in the same
18 manner thou shalt treat thy maid servant. It shall not seem hard to thee that they are let go free from thee; for they have saved thee the wages of an hireling. He hath served thee six years.
19 When the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all thou doest, every firstling of thy herds, and thy flocks, even all the
20 males, thou shalt dedicate to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not work a firstling bull, nor shear the firstlings of thy flock. Thou shalt eat them before the Lord, year after year, in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse, thou and thy house-
21 hold. But if any hath a blemish in it—if it be lame, or blind, or any way blemished, thou shalt not sacrifice it to the Lord
22 thy God. In thy cities them mayst eat it—the unclean with thee as well as the clean may eat it, like the roebuck or deer.
23 But the blood you shall not eat. Thou shall pour out that oti the ground, like water.
XVI. Observe the month of New things, and keep the pass- over to the Lord thy God, because in the month of New things thou didst come out of the land of Egypt, by night.
2 And at the passover thou shalt sacrifice to the Lord thy God, sheep, and kine, in the place which the Lord thy God shall
3 chuse for his name to be there invoked. At it thou shalt not eat leaven. Seven days, at it,thou shalt eat unleavened bread— the bread of affliction, because you came in haste out of Egypt, that you may remember the day of your coming out of the
4 land of Egypt, all the days of your life. No leaven shall be seen in all thy borders for seven days, and none of the flesh of that which you shall sacrifice on the evening of the first day
5 shall be left till the morning. Thou shalt not be at liberty to keep the passover in any of the cities which the Lord thy God
6 giveth thee, but only in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse, for his name to be there invoked. Thou shalt kill the passover in the evening, at the setting of the sun, in the
7 season thou didst come out of Egypt. And when thou hast cooked, and roasted, and eaten it, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen, in the morning thou mayst return and
8 go home. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be the Exod—a festival to the Lord thy God. On it thou shalt not do any work, but what is necessary for life.
9 Seven weeks thou shalt number for thyself—from thy first beginning to put the sickle to the harvest thou shalt begin to
10 number the seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the festival of weeks, to the Lord thy God, according to the ability of thy hand—according to what the Lord thy God may have given
11 thee. And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow who is among you, in the place which the Lord
12 thy God shall chuse for his name to be there invoked. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore thou shalt keep, and perform, these commandments. ,
13 The feast of tabernacles thou shalt keep for thyself seven
14 days. When thou hast gathered in from thy threshing floor, and from thy press, thou shalt rejoice at this thy festival, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the oq>han, and
15 the widow, who is in thy cities. Seven days thou shalt celebrate this festival to the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen for himself. So when the Lord thy
16 God shall bless thee in all thy productions, and in all the works of thy hands, and thou shalt be made glad, every male shall, three times in the year, appear before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord shall chusc—at the festival of unleavened bread, and at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of tabernacles. Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God
17 empty handed. Every one of you shall bring according to the ability of his hand, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee.
18 Thou shalt appoint for thyself judges, and promulgators of the law, in the cities which the Lord thy God giveth thee, in every tribe. And they shall administer just judgment to the
19 people. They shall not wrest judgment, nor respect persons, nor shall they receive a gift. For gifts blind the eyes of the
20 wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. Thou shalt pursue righteously what is right, that you may live, and go in, and possess the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
21 Thou shalt not plant a grove for thyself, nor make for thyself a wood near the altar of thy God, nor set up for thyself a pillar : these are things which the Lord thy God hateth.
XVII. Thou shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God a young bull, or a sheep, in which there is a blemish—any defect; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
2 If there be found in any of thy cities which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a man, or a woman, who shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to transgress his covenant, and they have gone, and served other gods, and worshipped them,
3 either the sun, or the moon, or any of the whole host of heaven,
4 which he hath not commanded thee, and information be given
thee, and thou hast made strict inquiry, and behold the thing
5 hath been actually done, and such an abomination hath been committed in Israel, thou shalt bring out that man, or that woman, and you shall stone them with stones, till they die.
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses the guilty person shall be put to death; but shall not be put to death on the
7 testimony of one witness. Arid the hand of the witness shall be upon him, among the first, to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of the people. So thou shalt remove the wickedness from among you.
8 And if any cause which requireth judicial decision—an action of murder, an action of appeal, a case of leprosy, an action
9 of plaint and denial—any causes which require decision in any of your cities, be too difficult for thee, thou shalt arise, and go up to the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen, and there come to the priests, the Levites, or to the judge, who-
10 ever he may be in those days, and they shall inquire, and declare to thee the sentence of judgment, and thou shalt act according to what they declare to thee from the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen: and thou shalt be careful to do
11 according to what is expounded to thee for law. According to the law, and according to the sentence of judgment, which they tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not deviate from what
12 they tell thee, either to the right, or to the left. And if any man act presumptuously, so as not to hearken to the priest who hath stood to minister to the name of the Lord thy God; or to the judge who may be in those days; that man shall be put to
13 death. So thou shalt remove the evil person from among Israel, and all the people, when they hear, will be struck with awe, and no more act presumptuously.
14 And when thou art come to the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and hast taken possession of it, and dwelt therein, if thou shouldst say, I will set a chief over me, as the
15 other nations around me do; thou shalt surely set, as chief over thee, him whom the Lord thy God shall chuse. Thou shalt appoint one of thy brethren chief over thee. Thou shalt not be at liberty to set a stranger over thee, because he is not thy
16 brother. Because he is not to multiply cavalry for himself, he must not even cause his people to go back to Egypt; in order that he may not multiply his cavalry i the Lord indeed hath said,
17 You shall not henceforth return that way any more. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself; that his heart may not turn aside; nor shall he greatly multiply for himself silver and gold.
18 And when he is settled in his government, he shall write for himself this repetition of the law in a book, from that which is in
19 the custody of the priests, the Levites. And he shall keep it by him, and shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord thy God, and to keep all these com-
20 mandments, and execute all these judgments; that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren—that he may not turn aside from these commandments, to the right, or to the left, to the end that he and his sons may long enjoy his government among the children of Israel.
XVIII. The priests, the Levites, even the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion, nor lot, with Israel. The homage oflfer-
2 ings of the Lord are their lot. Them they shall eat; and they shall not have a lot of inheritance among their brethren. The Lord himself is their lot of inheritance, as he hath said to them.
3 Now this shall be the priest’s due from the people—from them who offer sacrifices, whether a young bull, or a sheep, thou shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the cheeks, and the
4 maw. Thou shalt also give him the dedications of thy com, and thy wine, and thine oil, and the dedications of the fleeces
5 of thy flock. Because the Lord hath chosen him, out of all thy tribes, to stand before the Lord God, to minister and to bless,
6 in his name; therefore with regard to him and his sons, among the children of Israel, if, out of any one of all these cities of the children of Israel where he dwelleth, a Levite cometh, with
7 all the desire of his soul, to the place which the Lord hath chosen, that he may minister to the name of the Lord his God, as
8 all his brethren the Levites do, who attend there before the Lord thy God, he shall eat the allotted portion, over and above what may come from the sale of his patrimony.
9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abomina-
1Q tions of those nations. Let there not be found among you anyone who purifieth his son, or his daughter, with fire; or who prac- tiseth divinations, or consulteth omens, or augury, or maketh 11 use of drugs to practise incantation, or a belly speaker, or an
12 astrologer, or a necromancer; for every one who practiseth such things is an abomination to the Lord thy God; for, because of these abpminations, the Lord will root them out from
13 before you. Thou shalt be complete in the sight of the Lord
14 thy God. For these nations which thou art about to possess will hearken to enchanters and diviners; but the Lord thy God
15 hath not permitted thee to do so. The Lord thy God will raise up for thee, from among thy brethren, a prophet like me; to
16 him you shall hearken. According to all that thou didst request of the Lord thy God at Choreb, in the day of the solemn assembly, when you said, Let us no more hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and let us no more behold this great fire, lest
17 we die, the Lord then said to me, They have spoken right in
18 all that they have said to thee: I will raise up for them, from among their brethren, a prophet like thee, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them as I command
19 him: and whosoever will not hearken to what that prophet shall speak in my name, I will execute vengeance on him.
20 But the prophet who shall wickedly presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall
21 be put to death. Now if thou shalt say in thy heart, How shall
22 I know the word which the Lord hath not spoken ? When the things which that prophet hath spoken in the name of the Lord shall not happen, nor come to pass, the Lord hath not spoken that word. The prophet hath spoken wickedly. You shall not spare him.
XIX. Now when the Lord thy God hath destroyed the nations, whose land thy God giveth thee, and you have taken pos-
2 session of it, and dwelt in their cities, and in their houses, thou shalt set apart for thyself three cities, in the midst of
3 that thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Make straight the way for thee, and divide into three districts, the bounds of thy land which the Lord thy God parcelleth out to thee: and in each district let there be a place of refuge for the
4 slayer. And this shall be the ordinance for every slayer wh<r may flee thither, and live. Whosoever shall smite his neigh-
5 hour unawares, and hated him not in times past, for instance,
Vol. i. T t
whosoever shall go with his neighbour into the forest to collect wood, and the hand of him who is cutting the wood with an ax being drawn back, the iron shall slip from the helve, and accidentally fall on his neighbour, and he die; such a one shall
6 flee with speed to one of the cities, and live. Lest the avenger of blood pursuing, because his heart is inflamed, should overtake him, if the way be too long, -and slay him, though he is
7 not guilty of death, because he hated him not in time past; for this cause I give thee this charge, saying, Thou shah set apart
8 three cities for thyself. And when the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy borders, as he hath sworn to thy fathers, and the Lord hath given thee all the land which he promised to give
9 thy fathers, if thou wilt hearken to do all the commands which I this day give thee in charge, to love the Lord thy God, to
10 walk in all his ways continually ; thou shalt add tliree cities more for thyself, besides these three, so that guiltless blood may not be shed in the land which the Lord thy God giveth
11 thee for a possession. But there must not be among you one guilty of blood. If therefore there be among you a man who hateth his neighbour, and who shall lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him so that he die, and flee to
12 one of these cities; the senate of his city shall send and take him thence, and deliver him into the hands of the avenger of
13 blood, and he shall be put to death. Thine eye shall not spare him. So shalt thou purge away guiltless blood from Israel, and
14 it shall be well with thee. Thou shalt not remove the boundaries of thy neighbour, which thy fathers have settled at the distribution of the inheritances, which were given thee to possess in the land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee by lot.
15 One witness shall not be sufficient to testify against a man for any iniquity, or any crime, or any sin, which he may commit. By the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three
16 witnesses, every thing shall be established. And if a false witness rise up against a man, and accuse him of any crime, the
17 two men between whom is the controversy, shall stand before the Lord, and before the priests, and before the judges, who
18 may lie in those days. And when the judges have made a strict examination, if the false witness hath testified falsehoods, and
19 risen up against his brother; you shall do to him as he wickedly thought to do to his brother. So thou shalt remove the evil from among you; and the rest, when they hear, will be afraid, and thenceforth proceed no more to commit such evil among
20 you. Thine eye shall not pity him; life for life; eye for eye; tooth for tooth; hand for hand; foot for foot.
- When thou shalt go out to battle against thine enemies, and see horsemen, and charioteers, and a people more numerous than thou art; be not afraid of them; for the Lord thy God is with thee—he who brought thee up out of the land of
2 Egypt. And when thou art near coming to battle, the priest
3 shall approach, and speak to the people, and say to them, Hear, O Israel! You are now going to battle against your enemies; let not your heart be discouraged; fear not, nor be dismayed,
4 nor turn aside from before them; for the Lord your God go- eth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, and to
5 save you. Then the scribes shall speak to the people, and say, If there be any man who hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it, let him go, and return to his house, lest he die in
6 the battle, and another man dedicate it. Or is there any man who hath planted a vineyard, and hath not been regaled with it; let him go, and return to his family, lest he die in the bat-
7 tie, and another man be regaled with it. Or is there any man who hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her home; let him go, and return to his family, lest he die in the battle, and
8 another man take her. And the scribes shall further speak to the people, and say, Is there any man fearful, and faint hearted; let him go, and return to his family, lest he make the heart of
9 his brother faint as his own. And when the scribes have done speaking to the people, they shall appoint the chiefs of the ar-
10 my to lead on the people. And when thou art come to a city, to fight against it, thou shalt call upon the inhabitants to come
11 out peaceably. And if they return thee a peaceful answer, and open to thee; all the people who are found therein shall be tri-
12 butary to thee, and be thy subjects. But if they hearken not to
13 thee, and make war against thee, thou shalt besiege it, until
14 the Lord thy God deliver it into thy hands. And when thou hast smitten all the males therein with the slaughter of the sword, thou shalt take for thyself, besides the women and the children, all the cattle, and all spoils that are in the city, and eat all the
15 prey of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. In this manner thou shalt treat all the cities which are at a great
16 distance from thee, which are not of the cities of those nations
17 whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession. Of these you shall save none alive that breatheth: but, with an Anathema, thou shalt devote to destruction the Chettite and the Amorite, and the Chananite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, and the Gergasite, as the Lord thy
18 God hath commanded thee; that they may not teach you all their abominations which they have performed to their gods;
19 and that you may not sin before the Lord your God: Now when thou shalt sit down before a city, many days, to war against it till it be taken, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by striking an ax against them. That especially, the fruit of which thou mayst eat, thou shalt not cut down. Doth any man wish to have a tree in the field for the purpose of a ram-
20 part for thee; let it be that only which thou knowest is not a fruit bearing tree. This thou mayst destroy and cut down, to build ramparts against the city which resisteth thee, until it be delivered up.
XXI. If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy
2 God giveth thee to possess—lying in the open field; and it is not known who smote him; thy senate, and thy judges, shall come and measure the distance to the cities around the slain;
3 and the senate of the city which is next to the slain, shall take a heifer from the herd, which hath never been worked, and
4 which hath never drawn in a yoke; and the senate of the city shall bring the heifer down to a rugged valley, which hath never been tilled, nor sowed, and they shall hamstring the heifer
5 in the valley. Then the priests, the Levites, shall come near: because the Lord God hath chosen them to wait upon him, and to bless in his name, therefore by their mouth every cause of plaint and denial, as well as all cases of leprosy, are to be de-
6 cicled; and the whole senate of the city which is nearest the person dead, shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer,
7 which was hamstringed in the valley, and shall answer, and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not
8 seen it. Be merciful to thy people whom thou, O Lord, hast redeemed, that there may not be blood shed without cause
9 among thy people Israel. So the blood shall be forgiven them, and thou shall remove from among you the blood which was shed without cause, if thou do what is good, and well pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.
10 And when thou goest out to war against thine enemies, and
11 the Lord thy God hath delivered them«nto thy hands, and thou hast taken their prey, and hast seen, among the captives, a wo-
12 man of a comely appearance, and hast loved her, and hast taken her to thyself for a wife, and brought her home to thy house,
13 thou shall shave her head, and pare her nails, and take from her the garments of her captivity, and she shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father, and her mother, a full month, and after thai ihou mayst go in unto her, and cohabit with her,
14 and she shall be thy wife. And in case thou dislike her, thou shall send her away free. She shall not be sold for money. Thou shall not deal falsely with her, because thou hast humbled her.
15 If any man hath two wives, and one of them be beloved, and the other hated; and both the beloved, and die hated, bear
16 him children, and the son of ihe haled be ihe first born, he shall not be at liberty, when he bequealheth his substance to his children, to give the right of primogeniture to the son of the beloved, and overlook the son of the hated, who is the first
17 born; but shall acknowledge the son of the hated as his first born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hatii, because he is the head of his children, and the rights of primogeniture belong to him.
18 If any man hath a stubborn, and rebellious son, who heark- enelh not to the voice of his father, nor to the voice of his mother; and they have corrected him, and he will not hearken to
19 them; his falher and his molher shall take him, and bring him
20 out to the senate of his city, and to the gate of the place; and diey shall say to the men of their city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he hearkenelh not to our voice. He is de-
21 voted to revelling and drunkenness. Thereupon the men of his city shall stone him with slones, and he shall be put to death. So thou shall remove the wicked from among you; and the rest, who hear, will be struck with awe.
22 If any man commit a sin incurring death; and he be put to death; and you hang him on a gibbet; his body shall not remain on the gibbet; but you shall bury it the same day. Because every one who is hanged on a gibbet is accursed of God; therefore you shall not defile the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession.
XXII. When thou seesf thy brother’s ox or sheep going astray, thou must not overlcok them. Thou shalt surely bring them
2 back to thy brother, and restore them to him. And if thy brother be not near thee, and thou dost not know him; thou shalt take them home to thy house; and they shall be with thee, until thy brother seek them; then thou shalt restore them to thy bro-
3 ther. In like manner thou shalt do with his ass, and in like manner with his raiment, and in like manner with every thing which thy brother hath lost. Whatever hath been lost by him,
4 if thou find it thou must not overlook it. When thou seest thy brother’s ass, or his ox, fallen in the way, thou must not overlook them; thou shalt help him to lift them up.
5 A woman shall not wear what appertaineth to man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for every one who doth such things is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
6 If there chance to be before thee in the way, either in a tree, or on the ground, a bird’s nest, with young or eggs; and the dam be sitting on the young, or on the eggs; thou shalt not
7 take the dam with the young. Thou shalt let the dam go; but thou mayst take the young for thyself; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayst prolong thy days.
8 When thou bulkiest a new house, thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou mayst not occasion death by thy house, by any one’s falling from it.
9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard, when the product of it is consecrated, with seed of another kind, that the seed which thou sowcst may not be consecrated, with the product of thy vineyard.
10 Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.
11 Thou shalt not wear, without scouring, a garment of wool and flax in the same piece.
12 Thou shalt make bunches of ribbons on the four tufts of the mantles with which thou clothest thyself.
13 If any man take a wife, and cohabit with her, and hate her,
14- and spread groundless reports concerning her, and give her an ill name, and say, I took this woman to wife, but when I came
15 to her, I did not find her tokens of virginity ; thereupon the father and mother of the damsel taking the tokens of their child’s virginity, shall carry them to the senate, to the gate.
16 And the father of the girl shall say to the senate, I gave this my daughter to that man for a wife; but he now hateth her, and hath spread groundless reports concerning her, saying, I
17 found not the tokens of virginity in thy daughter. Now these are the proofs of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall
18 spread the garment before the senate of the city. Whereupon the senate of the city shall take the man, and chastise him, and
19 fine him a hundred shekels, and give them to the father of the young woman, because he brought an ill name on a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife. He shall not be at liberty to
20 put her away all his days. But if his accusation be founded in truth, and proofs of virginity cannot be found for the young
21 woman, they shall carry out the young woman to the doors of her father’s house, and stone her with stones, till she die, be- cause she hath committed folly in Israel, by making her father’s house a place of prostitution. So thou shalt remove evil from among you.
22 If a man be found lying with a woman who is married, you shall put them both to death; both the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So shalt thou take away evil from Israel.
23 If a virgin be betrothed to a husband; and a man find her in a city, and lie with her, you shall bring them both out to the
24 gate of the city, and stone them with stones, till they die—the young woman, because she did not cry aloud in the city, and
25 the man because he humbled the wife of his neighbour. So thou shalt remove evil from among you. But if the man found the woman who was betrothed, in the field, and by force lay with her, you shall put him only to death who lay with her.
26 The young woman is not guilty of death. As when a man hath risen up against his neighbour, and killed him, even so is
27 this matter : for he found her in the field. The young woman who was betrothed, cried aloud, but there was none to help her.
28 If any man find a young woman, who is not betrothed.
29 and by force lie with her, and be found, the man who hath lain with her shall pay the father of the young woman fifty di- clrachms of silver, and “she shall be his wife: because he hath humbled her, he shall not be at liberty to put her away, all the days of his life.
30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s skirt.
XXIII. A man who is made a eunuch by bruising, or by cut-
2 ting, shall not come into the congregation of the Lord; nor shall the son of a harlot come into the congregation of the
3 Lord. An Amorite, and a Moabite, shall not come into the congregation of the Lord : even to the tenth generation, they
4 shall not come into the congregation of the Lord—nay; even for ever; because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way, when you were coming out of Egypt; and be-
5 cause they hired against thee, Balaam, son of Beor, of Mesopotamia, to curse thee ; but the Lord thy God would not hearken to Balaam. Nay, the Lord thy God turned the curses
6 into a blessing, because the Lord thy God loved thee. Thou shalt not propose terms of peace with them, nor what is condu-
7 cive to their welfare, all thy days, forever. Thou shalt not abominate an Idumean; for he is thy brother. Thou shalt not hold in abhorrence an Egyptian ; because tliou wast a so-
8 journer in his land. If either of these have sons, they may come into the congregation of the Lord, in the third generation.
9 When thou goest out to encamp against thine enemies,
10 thou shalt be on thy guard against every evil thing. If there be with thee a man who is unclean, by reason of any nightly pollution, he shall go out of the camp, or he shall not come
11 into the camp; but towards evening he shall wash his body with water, and when the sun is set, he may come into the
12 camp. Moreover thou shalt have a place without the camp,
13 and thou shalt go out thither. And thou shalt have in thy girdle a spaddle, and when thou hast eased thyself abroad, thou
14 shalt dig with it, and cover thy uncleanness. Because the Lord thy God walketh about in thy camp, to save thee, and subdue thine enemy before thee, therefore thy camp must be holy. There must be nothing unseemly seen with thee, that he may not turn away from thee.
15 Thou shalt not deliver up to his master, a servant who
16 hath fled to thee, from his master. He shall dwell among you wherever he pleaseth. Thou shalt not afflict him.
17 There shall not be a harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a whoremonger of the sons of Israel. There shall not be a prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall any of the Israelites be a votary of prostitution.
18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of an harlot, nor the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord, for any vow, for both are an abomination to the Lord thy God.
19 Thou shalt not take interest of thy brother, for money, nor for victuals, nor for any thing which thou mayst lend him.
20 To a stranger thou mayst lend on interest; but to thy brother thou shalt not lend on interest; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works, in the land to which thou art going to take possession of it.
21 If thou vowest a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it; for the Lord thy God will surely require it of
22 thee ; and it would be a sin in thee. If thou dost not chuse to
23 make a vow, it is no sin in thee. Thou must be careful of what have proceeded from thy lips; and offer, in the manner thou hast vowed to the Lord thy God, the gift which thou hast promised with thy mouth.
25 If thou comest into thy neighbour’s field of standing corn, thou mayst gather ears with thy hands; but thou shalt not put a sickle into thy neighbour’s field of standing grain. And if thou comest into thy neighbour’s vineyard, thou mayst eat grapes, till thy soul is satisfied, but thou shalt not put any into a vessel.
XXIV. If any one hath taken a wife, and cohabited with her, and it should happen that she hath not found favour in his
2 sight, because he hath found something unseemly in her, he may write her a bill of divorce, and put it into her hands, and
3 send her away from his house. And having gone away, she may become another man’s wife. But if her last husband hate her, and write her abill of divorce and put it in her hands and send her away
4 fromhis house; or if herlasthusband,whohathtakenhertowife, die; her former husband, who put her away, shall not be at liberty to return and take her again to wife; for it is an abo-
Vol. I. -. u u
mination to the Lord thy God; and you must not defile the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession.
5 If any man hath lately taken a wife, he shall not go out to batde, nor shall he be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year, that he may cheer his wife whom he hath taken.
6 Thou shalt not take in pledge an upper, nor a lower mil- stone, for this is taking a man’s life in pledge.
7 If any man be found stealing any of his brethren, the children of Israel, or, having got him in his power, selleth him, the thief shall be put to death. So shalt thou remove evil from among you.
8 Take heed to thyself, that in the touch of the leprosy thou be very careful to act according to all the law which the priests, the Levites, may point out to you. Be careful to do in the man-
9 ner I commanded you. Remember what the Lord thy God did to Mariam, on the way, as you were coming out of the land of Egypt.
10 If a debt of any kind be due to thee from thy neighbour,
11 thou shalt not go into his house to take his pledge. Thou shalt stand without, and the man who is’thy debtor shall bring the
12 pledge out to thee. And if the man be very poor, thou shalt
13 not go to sleep with his pledge. Thou shalt surely restore him his pledge at the going down of the sun, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless thee, and there shall be mercy for thee in the sight of the Lord thy God.
14 Thou shalt not withhold the wages of a poor and needy man, whether he be one of thy brethren, or of the strangers who are
15 in thy cities. Thou shalt pay him his wages on the very day: let not the sun set upon it. For he is poor, and dependeth on it; and he will ciy to the Lord against thee, and it will be a sin in thee.
16 Fathers shall not be put to’ death for children; nor the children for fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. ,
J 7 Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, or the orphan, or the widow. Thou shalt not take the garment of a
18 widow in pledge, but remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that thence the Lord thy God redeemed thee; therefore I command thee to do this thing.
19 When thou reapest thy harvest in the field, if thou hast forgot a sheaf in thy field, thou shall not turn back to take it up; it shall be for the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee, in all the works of thy
20 hands. And when thou gatherest thine olives, thou shall not turn back to gather what was left behind thee: it shall be for the stranger and the orphan and the widow; and thou shall re- member that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt; there-
21 fore I command thee to do this thing. And when thou gatherest in the vintage, thou shall nol glean after ihee. The gleanings
22 shall be for ihe stranger, and the orphan, and ihe widow; and thou shall remember lhal ihou wasl a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing.
XXV, When a controversy happeneth belween men, and they have come lo a trial, and the Irial is over, and the righteous is acquitted, and the criminal known; in case the criminal
2 deserve to be beaten, thou shall make him lie down, before the judges; and they shall cause him lo be beaten, in their pre-
3 sence, according to his wickedness. With ihe number of forty slripes ihey may cause him lo be beaten. They shall nol exceed lhal. If ihou shouldsl proceed lo inflicl more stripes lhan
– these, thy brother will become vile in ihy sighl.
4 Thou shall nol muzzle an ox Ireading oul corn.
5 When brolhers dwell logelher, and one of ihem die, and halh no issue, the wife of him who died shall not marry a man abroad, who is nol near of kin. The brolher of her husband shall go in unlo her, and lake her lo wife, and cohabil wilh her;
6 and the child which she shall bear shall go by the name of him who died, so thai his name shall not be blotted oul from among
7 Israel. And if any man decline to take his brother’s wife, ihe woman shall go lo ihe gale, lo ihe senate, and say, My husband’s brolher refuselh lo raise up his brolher’s name in Israel.
8 My husband’s brother hath refused. Thereupon ihe senate of his cily shall send for him, and say to him, Thou must stand
9 up, and say, I will not take her. Upon which his brother’s wife shall come, in the presence of the senate, and loose one shoe from his foot, and spit before his face, and addressing him, say, So shall be done to the man who will not build up his bro-
10 ther’s house in Israel. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him who had his shoe loosed.
11 When men fight together—a man with his brother, if the wife of one of them come to rescue her husband out of the hand of him who is beating him, and stretching forth her hand,
12 take hold of his privities, thou shalt cut off her hand. Thine eye shall not have compassion on her.
13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag different weights, a great and a small; nor shall there be in thy house, different measures,
14 a great and a small. Thou shalt have a just and true weight,
15 and thou shalt have a just and true measure; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a
16 possession; for every one who doth these things—every one who committeth injustice, is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
17 Remember what Amalek did to thee by the way, when
18 thou wast coming out of the land of Egypt—how he rose up against thee, in the way, and smote thy rear, those who were
19 fainty behind thee. Thou indeed wast hungry, and fainty, and he feared not God. Therefore when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies around thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession, thou shalt blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Thou must not forget.
XXVI. Now, when thou art come to the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession, and hast taken possession
2 of it, and dwelt therein; thou shalt take some of the first fruits of thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and put them in a basket, and go to the place which the Lord thy God hath
3 chosen for his name to be there invoked; and thou shalt go to the priest, who shall be in those days, and say to him, I acknowledge this day to the Lord my God, that I am come to the land which the Lord solemnly promised our fathers to give
4 us. Thereupon the priest shall take the basket out of thy hands, and set it down over against the altar of the Lord thy God,
5 and in the presence of the Lord shall answer, and say, My father left Syria, and went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, with a small number, and became there a great nation, and a
6 vast multitude. And when the Egyptians afflicted us, and humbled us, and imposed upon us hard labours, and we cried to
7 the Lord our God, the Lord heard our voice. When he saw our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression, the Lord
8 himself brought us out of Egypt with his great power, and with his strong hand, and outstretched arm, and with great vi-
9 sions, and with signs, and with wonders, and brought us to this place, and gave^us this land—a land flowing with milk and
10 honey. Now therefore, behold, I have brought this offering of the products of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me-;s- a land flowing with milk and honey. Then thou shalt leave it before the Lord thy God; and when thou hast worshipped bell fore the Lord thy God. thou shalt regale thyself with all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given tfiee, thou, and thy family, and the Levite, and the proselyte who is with thee.
12 And when thou hast finished tything the tenth of all thy produce in the third year, thou shalt give another tenth to the Levite, and the proselyte, and the orphan, and the widow, that –
13 they may eat in thy cities, and be regaled. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have removed the hallowed things clean out of my house, and have given them to the Levite,’ and the proselyte, and the orphan, and the widow, according to all
14 the commands which thou hast commanded me. I nave not transgressed thy command, nor forgot it. I have not, in my mourning, eaten any of them, nor offered any of them in homage to an unclean thing, nor given any of them to the dead. I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God. I have
15 done as thou hast commanded me. Look down from thy holy habitation—from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and this land which thou hast given them, as thou didst solemnly promise our fathers to give us a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to practise all these rules of rectitude and these judgments; you1 shall therefore keep, and perform them, with your whole heart, and
17 with your whole’ soul. Thou hast this day chosen God to be. thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his rules of recti-
18 tude, and his judgments, and to hearken to his voice. And the Lord liath this day chosen thee to be a peculiar people to him- self, as he hath said, that thou maystkpep his commandments,
and be, as he hath made thee, renowned above all the nations, 19 and a boast, and glorious, and that thou nun st be a people dedicated to the Lord, as he hath spoken.
XXVII. Again Moses, with the senate of Israel, gave a charge, saying, You shall keep all these commandments which I this day command you.
2 When you have crossed the Jordan, into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; thou shalt set up for thyself large stones, and plaister them with mortar, and thou shalt
3 write on those stones all the words of this law. Soon as you have crossed the Jordan—when you are come to the land which the Lord the God of thy fathers giveth thee—a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord the God of thy fa-
4 thers promised thee, you shall, immediately after your crossing the Jordan, set up these stones, which I this day command thee, at mount Garizin, and thou shalt plaister them with mor-
5 tar, and build there an altar to the Lord thy God—an altar of (6 stones. Thou shalt not lift up a tool upon it. Of unwrought
stones thou shalt build the altar to the Lord thy God, and of-
7 fer upon it whole burnt offerings to the Lord thy God. Then thou shalt ofter there a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and when thou
8 hast eaten, and art filled, and hast rejoiced before the Lord thy God; then thou shalt write upon the stones all this law, in the plainest manner.
9 Then Moses with the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying,
10 Be sjlent and hear, O Israel. Thou art this day made a people for the Lord thy God; therefore thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and perform all his commandments, and his rules of rectitude, which I this day com-
11 mand thee. Then Moses gave a charge to the people that day, saying, Having crossed the Jordan, these shall stand on mount
12 Garizin to bless the people—Symeon, Levi, Judas, Issachar,
13 Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand at the curse on mount Gaibal, Reuben, Gad, and Aser, Zubulon, Dan, and
14 Nephthaleim : and the Levites shall address all Israel, and say with a loud voice,
15 Cursed the man who shall make a graven, or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of artists; though he set it up in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
16 Cursed he who slighteth his father or his mother.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
17 Cursed he who removeth his neighbour’s land mark.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
18 Cursed he who leadeth the blind out of the way.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
19 Cursed he who perverteth the judgment of the stranger, or the orphan, or the widow.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
20 Cursed he who lieth with his father’s wife, because he hath uncovered his father’s skirt. , .
And all the people shall say, Amen.
21 Cursed he who lieth with any beast.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
22 Cursed he who lieth with his sister, by the same father, or mother.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
23 Cursed he who lieth with his daughter in law.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
24 Cursed he who lieth with the sister of his wife.
And all the people shall say, Amen. ‘
25 Cursed he who smiteth his neighbour secretly.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
26 Cursed he who taketh bribes to slay an innocent person. ‘ .
And all the people shall say, Amen.
27 Cursed be every man who will not persevere in all the words of this law, to do them.
And all the people shall say, Amen.
XXVIII. Now it shall come to pass, that if thou wilt hearken . diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and perform all these commandments which I this day give thee in charge, the Lord thy God will set thee high above all the nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come upon thee, and find thee.
2 If thou wilt hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy
3 God, Blessed shalt thou be in the city; and blessed shalt thou.
4 be in the field; blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the
5 products of thy land, and thy herds, and thy flocks. Blessed
. shall be thy granaries, and thy stores, /o Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed
7 when thou goest out. May the Lord thy God deliver up thine enemies, who rise up against thee, to be smitten before thee. They shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8 The Lord send upon thee the blessing in thy store houses, and on all the labours of thy hands, in the land which the Lord thy God givcth thee.
9 The Lord establish thee a holy people for himself, as he solemnly promised thy fathers. If thou wilt hearken to the
1Q .voice of the Lord thy God, and walk in all his ways, then shall all the nations of the earth see that thou art called by the name
11 of the Lord, and they will be afraid of thee ; and the Lord thy God will multiply thee, for good, in the offspring of thy body, and in the increase of thy cattle, and in the products of thy
. ‘ ground, in the land which he solemnly promised thy fathers to give thee.
12 The Lord open for thee his good treasury, the heaven, to give thy land the rain in due season. May he bless all the works of thy hands, so that thou mayst lend to many nations, and
13 not borrow of them; and that thou mayst rule over many nations, and they not rule over thee. May the Lord establish thee for a head and not for a tail, so that thou mayst be above, and not beneath.
‘ . . If thou wilt hearken to the voice of the Lord *hy God, to
keep all that I this day enjoin thee, thou wilt not turn aside from
. 14 all the commandments which I this day command thee, either to
the right, or to the left, to go after other gods, to serve them.
15 But in case thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep all his commandments which I this day give thee in charge, all these evils shall come upon thee and overtake thee—
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed thou in the 17″ field. Cursed shall be thy granaries, and thy stores. Cursed
18 shall be the offspring of thy body, and the products of thy land,
19 thy herds and thy flocks. Cursed shalt thou be when thoh
20 comest in, and cursed thou when thou goest out. The Lord
send upon thee want, and famine, and destruction on all the labour of thy hands, until he utterly root thee out, and until he destroy thee quickly, on the account of thy wicked devices.
21 Seeing thou hast forsaken me, may the Lord make the pestilence cleave to thee, until it utterly consume thee from the land
22 to which thou art going, to take possession of it. The Lord smite thee with anxiety, and fever, and chilness, and restlessness, and blasting, and mildew, that they may pursue thee un-
23 til they utterly destroy thee. And when the heaven over thy head shall be brass, and the earth under thy feet iron, may the
24 Lord thy God make the rain of thy land dust, so that dust from heaven may descend until it waste thee, and until it de-
25 stroy thee speedily. May the Lord deliver thee up to slaughter before thine enemies, so that thou mayst go out one way to
26 meet them, and flee seven ways from before them ; and be a dispersion among all the kingdoms of the earth; and your dead carcasses be food for the birds of the air, and the wild beasts of
27 the earth, and there be none to fray them away. The Lord smite thee with the Egyptian boil in thy seat, and with wild fire, and with itching, so that thou canst not be cured.
28 The Lord smite thee with madness, and blindness, and as-
29 tonishment of heart, so that thou mayst grope about at noon day, as a blind man gropeth in darkness; and let him not prosper thy ways, so thou shall then be injured, and spoiled conti-
30 nually, and there will be none to help thee. Thou wilt take a wife, and another man shall have her. Thou wilt build a house, but shalt not dwell therein. Thou wilt plant a vineyard, but
31 shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thy ox will be slaughtered before thy face, and thou shalt not eat thereof. Thy ass will be taken from thee, and shall not be restored; thy flocks will be given to thine enemies, and there shall be none to help
32 thee; thy sons, and thy daughters, will be given to another nation, and thine eyes will melt in looking at them; there will
33 be no strength in thy hand. A nation, which thou knowest not will eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours; and thou
34 shalt be injured, and oppressed continually, and driven to madness at the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see.
35 The Lord smite thee with a grievous boil on thy knees, and on thy legs, so that thou canst not be healed, from the sole
vox., i. xs
36 of thy feet to the crown of thy head. The Lord carry away thee, and thy rulers, whom thou mayst set over thee, to a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers knew, that thou
37 mayst there serve other gods—stocks and stones; and be there for a bye word, and a proverb, and a public example to all the
38 nations to which the Lord shall bring thee. There thou shall carry out much seed into the field, and shalt bring little home,
39 for the locust shall devour it; thou shalt plant a vineyard and dress it; but shalt not press out wine, nor regale thyself from
40 it; for worms shall eat it up. Thou shalt have plantations of olive trees, in all thy borders, but shalt not be anointed with
41 oil, for thine olive tree shall cast its fruit: thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but shalt not have them with thee; for they
42 shall go into captivity. All thy trees and the products of thy
43 land, shall be consumed with blasting. The stranger who is with thee shall rise higher and higher; but thou shalt fall low-
44 er and lower. He shall lend to thee; and thou shalt not lend
45 to him: He shall be head; and thou shalt be tail. All these curses shall actually come upon thee, and pursue thee, and overtake thee, until he root thee out, and utterly destroy thee because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments, and his rules of rectitude,
46 which he commanded thee, And they shall be signs for thee, and wonders for thine offspring forever.
47 Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with gladness, and with a good understanding, for the abundance of all
48 things; therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies, whom the Lord will send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things, and thou shalt wear a yoke
49 of iron on thy neck, until it utterly destroy thee. The Lord will bring against thee a nation from afar—from the extremi-
50 ty of the earth, with the impetuosity of an eagle—A nation whose voice thou shalt not understand—a nation of an unblushing countenance, which will not respect the person of an
51 elder, nor compassionate a youth. And it shall devour the increase of thy cattle, and the products of thy land, so as not to leave thee corn, wine, oil, herds or flocks, until it hath destroyed thee, and wasted thee in thy cities—until they have demolished
52 thy high, and strong walls, in which thou hast placed thy con-
53 fidence, throughout thy whole land. And when he shall afflict thee in thy cities which he hath given thee; in thy siege, and in the affliction, with which thine enemy shall afflict thee, thou shalt eat the offspring of thy body—the flesh of thy sons, and
54 thy daughters, whom he gave thee. The tender, and very delicate man who is with thee, will look with an evil eye on his brother, and on the wife in his bosom, and the remaining chil-
55 dren which may be left him, so as not to give one of them any of die flesh of his sons, which he may be eating, because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in that affliction of thine with
56 which thine enemies will afflict thee, in all thy cities. And the tender, and very delicate woman among you, whose foot never ventured to tread the ground because of her delicateness, and effeminacy will look with an evil eye on her husband in her bosom, and on her son, and her daughter, even the female infant she bore, or the male child which she may have brought
57 forth; for on the account of the want of all things, she will eat these secretly in thy siege, and in that affliction of thine with which thine enemy will afflict thee in thy cities.
58 If thou wilt not hearken to do all the words of this law, which are written in this book, to fear this glorious, this won-
59 derful name, The Lord thy God, the Lord will make thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, wonderful beyond conception—he will make them great, and marvellous, and thy diseases sore, and lasting, and will bring upon thee all the af-
60 fliction of Egypt—that grievous affliction which thou didst
61 dread on their account, and they shall cleave to thee. The Lord will also bring upon thee every sickness, and every plague, which is not written, and every one which is written in this
62 book of the law, until he root thee out. And you shall be left few in number, instead of being, as you were, like the stars of
63 heaven for multitude. Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, therefore it shall come to pass, that as the Lord delighted in you to do you good, and to multiply you ; so the Lord will rejoice over you, in rooting you out; and you shall be removed speedily from the land to which
64 thou art going to take possession of it. And the Lord thy God will scatter thee among all the nations, from one extremity of the earth to the other ; and thou shalt there serve other gods —stocks and stones, which neither thou, nor thy fathers have
65 known. But even among these nations he will not givethee rest, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. Indeed the Lord will give thec there a strange trembling heart, and failing
66 eyes, and a desponding soul, and thy life shall hang in sus- pence before thine eyes, and thou shalt be in terror, day and
67 night, and have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou wilt say; How will it be with me in the evening! And in the evening thou wilt say, How may it be with me in the morning! on account of the terror of thy heart with which thou shalt be affrighted, and on account of the sights of thine eyes which
68 thou shalt see. And the Lord will send thec back into Egypt, in ships, (by the way which I ordered thou shalt see it no more 🙂 and thou shalt there be exposed to sale to your enemies, for bond men and bond women, and there will be no purchaser.
XXIX. These were the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to state to the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, over and above the covenant which he had made with them at Choreb.
2 Then Moses called all the sons of Israel, and said to them, You have seen all the things which the Lord did in Egypt, before your eyes, to Pharao and his servants, and all his land—
3 those great trials which your eyes have seen, those signs, and
4 those great wonders. Now hath not the Lord God given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, even at this
5 day ? When he led you forty years in the wilderness, your clothes did not grow too old, nor were your shoes worn out
6 from your feet. You did not eat bread, nor drink wine, nor
7 strong drink,that you might know that the Lord lam is your God. And when you came to this place, and Seon,kingof Esebon, and
8 Og king of Basan, came out to meet us in battle, we smote them, and took their land, and I have given itto Reuben, and Gad, and
9 to the half of the tribe of Manasses: you shall therefore be care-
10 ful to perform all the words of this covenant. In order that you might fully comprehend all that you are to do, you have this day stood, all of you, before the Lord your God, the chiefs of your tribes, and your senate, and your judges, and your offi-
11 cers, every man of Israel, your wives, and your children, and the stranger who is in your camp, from the hewer of wood to
12 the drawer of water, to enter into a covenant with the Lord your
13 God, and into the curses which the Lord thy God this day stateth to thee, that he may establish thee a people for himself.
14 So he himself will be thy God, as he said to thee, and as he hath sworn to thy fathers, Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob.
15 Now I make this covenant, and this oath, not with you only, but both with those who are here this day, with you before the Lord your God, and with those who are not here with you
16 this day. Inasmuch as you know how we lived in the land of
17 Egypt, and have seen, as we passed through the nations, through which you passed, their abominations and their idols,
18 wood and stone, silver and gold, which arc among them ; is there any man among you, or any woman, or family, or tribe, whose understanding hath turned them from the Lord your God, to go and serve the gods of those nations? Is there any such root among you, springing up for gall and bitterness ?
19 Now in case any one shall hear the words of this curse, and bless himself in his heart, saying, Good luck betide me! I will walk in the error of my own heart, that the sinner may not in-
20 volve the guiltless in ruin with himself. God will not be propitious to him, but most assuredly the anger of the Lord, and his indignation, will then be kindled against that man; and all the curses of this covenant, which are written in this book,
21 shall cleave to him; and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. The Lord will indeed separate him, from all the children of Israel, according to all the curses of this cove-
22 nant, which are written in this book of the law. And when the generations to come—your children who shall rise up after you, and the stranger who may come from a far distant country, will say—when they shall see the plagues of that land, and the diseases thereof, which the Lord hath sent upon
23 it—brimstone and bitrnt salt—when through the whole land there shall be no sowing—no natural productions, no verdure on it, a destruction like that of Sodom and Gomorra, Adama and Seboim, which the Lord overthrew with v\Tath and indig-
24 nation—When all the nations shall say, Why hath the Lord dealt thus with this land? What hath occasioned this great
25 fierceness of indignation ? Then they will say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with their fathers, when he brought them out
26 of the land of Egypt, and went and served strange gods, which
27 they did not know, and which he had not arranged for them, therefore the Lord was provoked to wrath against this land, to bring upon it all the curses which are written in the book of
28 the law ; and the Lord rooted them out from their land, with’ wrath, and anger, and very great indignation, and cast them out into another land, as at this day.
29 The things which are secret are for the Lord our God; but the things which are manifest are for us and our children forever,
XXX. that we may perform all the words of this law; therefore when all these things have come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee; and thou shalt receive them into thy heart, among all the nations where the Lord
2 may have dispersed thee; and shalt turn to the Lord thy God, and hearken to his voice, according to all that I this day com-
3 mand thee, with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul; the Lord will heal thy sins, and have compassion on thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations among which the Lord
4 hath dispersed thee. Though thy dispersion may have been, from one end of the earth to the other, thence the Lord thy
5 God will gather thee, and thence the Lord thy God will take thee, and thence thy God will bring thee, into the land which
6 thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: And he will deal kindly with thee, and make thee more numerous than thy fathers: And the Lord will purify thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and
7 with thy whole soul, that thou mayst live. And the Lord thy God will lay all these curses upon thine enemies, and upon them
8 who hate thee, and have persecuted thee. When thou shalt return, and hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and per-
9 form these commandments of his, which I this day enjoin thee, the Lord thy God will bless thee in every work of thy hands, in the offspring of thy body, and in the increase of thy cattle, and in the products of thy land; for the Lord thy God will turn again to rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fa-
10 thers, if thou wilt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep his commandments, and his rules of rectitude, and these judgments of his which are written in this book of the law—if thou wilt turn to the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and
11 with thy whole soul. For this command which I this day give
12 thee in charge is not grievous, nor is it far from thee. It is not in heaven above, that thou shouldst say, Who will ascend for us into heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it ?
13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who will cross the sea for us, and bring it to us, and let us hear it, that
14 we may do it? The word is very near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, and in thy hand, to do it.
15 Behold I have this day set before thee Life and Death,
16 Good and Evil. If thou wilt hearken to the commandments of the Lord thy God which I this day enjoin thee, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his rules of rectitude, and his judgments, you shall live, and multiply, and the Lord thy God will bless thee in all the land to which thou
17 art going, there to take possession of it. But if thy heart turn aside, and thou wilt not hearken, but go astray, and worship
18 other gods, and serve them, I announce to thee this day, that you shall surely perish, and shall not prolong your lives in the land, to which you are about to cross the Jordan, to take pos-
19 session of it. I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that I have set Life and Death, the Blessing and the Curse
20 before you. Chuse thou life, that thou and thy seed may live, by loving the Lord thy God, and hearkening to his voice, and cleaving to him. For this is thy life, and the lengthening of thy days, to dwell in the land which the Lord solemnly promised thy fathers, Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob, that he would give them.
XXXI. When Moses had finished speaking all these words,
2 to all the children of Israel, he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old. I shall no more be able to go out, and come in before you: for the Lord hath said to me, Thou
3 shalt not cross the Jordan. The Lord thy God, who goeth before thee, will himself drive out those nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them; and Joshua is to go before thee,
4 as the Lord hath spoken. The Lord thy God will indeed do to them as he did to Seon, and Og, the two kings of the Amor- ites, who were on this side the Jordan, and to their land—in the same manner as the Lord rooted them out, and delivered
5 them up to you. And you shall do to them as I have com-
6 manded you. Act manfully, and be strong; fear not, nor be faint hearted, nor terrified at them; for the Lord thy God, who goeth before you, is with you—is among you. May he never leave thee, nor ‘forsake thee.
7 Then Moses called Joshua, and said to him before all Israel, Be courageous, and strong; for thou shalt go before this people, into the land which the Lord solemnly promised your fathers to give them; and thou shalt put them in possession of
8 it; and the Lord, who marcheth with thee, will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Fear not, nor be dismayed.
9 Now Moses had written the words of this law in a book ; so he gave it to the priests, the children of Levi, who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to the elders of the
10 children of Israel. And Moses gave them a charge on that day saying, At the end of every seven years, at the Solemnity of
11 the Release, during the festival of tabernacles, when all Israel assemble, to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord shall chuse; you shall read this law before all
12 Israel, in their hearing. Let the people be assembled, the men, and the women, and the children, and the proselyte who is in your cities, that they may hear, and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God; and let them hearken to do all the
13 words of this law. And let their children who have not known, hearken, and learn to fear the Lord thy God, all the days they live in the land to which you are going, to cross the Jordan, there to take possession of it.
1-1 Now when the Lord said to Moses, Behold the time of thy death approacheth, call Joshua, and stand at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and I will give him a charge; thereupon Moses went with Joshua to the tabernacle of the testimony, and they stood at the doors of the tabernade of the
15 testimony, and the Lord descended in a cloud, and stood at
16 the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and while the pillar of the cloud stood at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, the Lord said to Moses, Behold when thou sleepest with thy fathers, this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the strange gods of the land to which they are going.
And when they forsake me, and break my covenant which 171 have made with them, I shall be provoked to wrath against them that day, and I will leave them, and turn away my face from them, and they shall be devoured. And when many evils and afflictions shall befal them, then will one say in that day, Because the Lord my God is not with me, these evils
18 have befallen me. But I will turn away my face from them, on that day, because of all their wickedness which they have
19 committed, because they have turned to strange gods. Now therefore write the words of this Ode and teach it to the children of Israel, and put it into their mouth, that this Ode may
20 be an open witness for me among the children of Israel. For when I bring them into that good land, which I solemnly pro- mised their fathers to give them, a land flow ing with milk and honey, they will eat, and be satiated, and they will turn to strange gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my
21 covenant; but this Ode will rise up, and witness against them; for it shall never be forgotten out of their mouth, nor out of the mouth of their seed: for I know their wickedness, what they do even now before I have brought them into that good land which I solemnly promised their fadiers.
22 So Moses wrote the Ode that day and taught it to the chil-
23 dren of Israel. And the Lord gave a charge to Joshua, and said, Be courageous, and strong, for thou shall conduct the children of Israel into the land which the Lord solemnly promised them, and he will be with thee.
24 Now when Moses had made an end of writing all the words
25 of this law in a book, even to the close, he gave a charge to the Levites, who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, say-
26 ing, Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; and it shall be
27 there for a witness against thee : for I know thy contentious disposition, and thy stiffneck. For even now while I am yetalive with you, you have been rebellious against God; how then can
28 it be otherwise after my death? Assemble before me the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and your judges, and your under officers, that I may speak in their hearing all these words,
29 and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will commit iniquity, and turn aside
Vol. i. Y y
out of the way which I commanded you, and evils will befal you in the latter days, because you will do evil before the Lord, to provoke him to wrath by the works of your hands.
30 Then for a conclusion Moses spoke in the hearing of all the congregation the words of this Ode.
XXXII. Listen, O heaven, and I will speak,
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 Let my doctrine be expected like rain, And my words distil as the dew;
Like gentle rain on the tender herb, «
And like a heavy shower on the grass.
3 Since I have proclaimed the name of the Lord,
Ascribe ye majesty to our God.
4 He is God, his works are perfect;
All his ways are acts of judgment—
A faithful God; he doth no injustice;
Righteous and holy is the Lord.
5 They have sinned! blemished children are not his.
Crooked and perverse generation !
6 Do ye thus requite the Lord ?
Are the people so foolish and unwise ?
Did not this thy father purchase thee ?
Did he not make and fashion thce ?
7 Remember the days of old;
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask thy father; he can tell thee—
Thine elders; they can inform thee :
8 When the Most High divided nations—
When he dispersed the children of Adam,
He settled the boundaries of nations,
According to the number of God’s messengers;
9 And the Lord’s portion was his people Jacob—
Israel was his lot of inheritance.
10 He sustained them in the wilderness,
In the drought of heat, in a land without water.
He led them about, and instructed them—
He kept them as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle would defend his nest,
And, when anxious for his young,
Would spread out his wings, and receive them,
And bear them up on his shoulders ;
12 The Lord alone conducted them,
And there was not a strange god with them.
13 He brought them up to the strength of this land,
.He fed them with the products of the fields—
They sucked honey out of a rock,
And oil out of a flinty rock ;
14 With butter of kine, and with milk of sheep;
With the fattest of lambs and rams, young bulls and goats,
And with bread of the choicest wheat;
And they drank wine, the pure juice of the grape.
15 When Jacob had eaten and was filled,
Then he who was beloved began to kick ;
He grew fat, waxed thick, and became corpulent,
Then he forsook the God who made him ;
And apostatised from God his saviour.
16 They exasperated me with strange gods,
With their abominations they provoked me,
17 They sacrificed to demons, and not to God— To gods, which they had never known, Which had started up, new and fictitious,
Of which their fathers had no knowledge.
18 The God who begot thee, thou hast forsaken, And hast forgot the God who nourished thee :
19 And the Lord saw, and was provoked to jealousy—
He was provoked at the temper of his sons and daughters,
20 And said, I will turn away my face from them,
And shew what shall befal them in the latter days.
Because they are a perverse generation—
Children, who have no faith in them—
21 They have provoked me by what is not God—
Have exasperated me with their idols;
I therefore will provoke them by what is not a nation,
By a foolish nation I will vex them.
22 – Since a fire is kindled because of my wrath,
It shall burn down to the lowest Hades;
It shall consume the land, and the products thereof;
It shall set on fire the foundations of mountains :
23 I will assemble evils against them, And hurl my bolts at them.
24 While they are wasting by famine, and voracious birds ; The burning carbuncle also shall be incurable ;
I will send against them the teeth of wild beasts,
With the venom of serpents, trailing on the ground.
25 Abroad the sword shall bereave them of cliildren,
And in their chambers terror shall destroy.
The youth shall perish with the young virgin,
The sucking infant with the venerable sage.
26 I had determined to disperse them,
And cause the remembrance of them to cease among men;
27 Had it not been for the temper of enemies;
That the adversaries might not out live them—
That they might not fall upon them at once ;
Lest they should say, Our own high hand,
And not the Lord, hath done all this.
28 It is a nation devoid of counsel;
There is no knowledge among them.
29 They have not bent their minds to understand; Let them lay up these things for time to come.
30 How could one man chase a thousand, And two put myriads to flight,
Had not God cast them off—
Had not the Lord delivered them up ?
31 For their gods are not like our God;
And our enemies are without understanding.
32 As their vine is from the vine of Sodom
And their shoot from that of Gomorra;
Their cluster of grapes will be a cluster of gall—
A cluster of bitterness it shall be to them :
33 Their wine shall be the venom of dragons—
The incurable venom of asps.
34 Behold ! are not these things stored up with me ?
And sealed up among my treasures ?
35 In the day of vengeance I will requite,
When their foot shall be supplanted.
Because the day of destruction is nigh for them,
Therefore at hand are the things prepared for you.
36 Because the Lord will judge his people— When he shall be appeased lor his servants, (For he saw that they were enfeebled,
Made faint by hostile invasions and dejected)
37 Then the Lord said, where are their gods—
The gods in which they placed their confidence ‘?
38 The fat of whose sacrifices you ate
And drank the wine of their libations?
Let them arise and help you,
And let them be your protectors.
39 See! See! that I am the Self existent,
And that there is no God besides me;
I kill, and I can cause to live,
I can smite and I can heal,
And none can rescue out of my hand—
40 For I can lift up my hand to heaven,
And swear by my right hand, and say, as I live forever,
41 I will make my sword sharp as lightning,
And my hand will support judgment;
And I will execute vengeance on mine enemies,
And make retribution to them who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
And my sword shall devour flesh
With the blood of slain and captives.
43 From the head of enemy chiefs. Rejoice, O heavens, with him,
And let all the angels of God worship him:
Rejoice, O nations, with his people,
And let all the children of God rely on him:
For he avengeth the blood of his children,
And will judge, and execute vengeance on his enemies,
To them who hate him he will render retribution,
And the Lord will purify the land of his people.
44 N o w on that day when Moses had written this Ode and taught
45 it to the children of Israel; and he, and Joshua the son of Nave, had come, and spoken all the words of this law in the hearing of the people, Moses concluded his speech to all Israel with this
46 address to them, Attend with your heart to all these words which I this day testify to you, and which you are to give in charge to your children, that they may keep, and perform all
47 the words of this law; for this is not a vain thing for you; for it is your life; and, for the sake of this word, you shall prolong your days in the land to which you are going, to cross the Jordan to take possession.
48 Then the Lord spoke to Moses that day, saying, Go up the mountain Abarim, to that mount Nabo, which is in the land of Moab, fronting Jericho, and take a view of the land of
49 Chanaan, which I give to the children of Israel; and die on
50 the mount to which thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people, in the same manner as thy brother Aaron died on mount
51 Or, and was gathered to his people, because you disobeyed my word among the children of Israel, at the water of strife,
52 at Kades, in the wilderness of Sin. Because you did not hallow me among the children of Israel, thou shalt see the land at a distance, but shalt not go in thither.
XXXIII. Now this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God blessed the children of Israel, before his death; and he said,
2 The Lord came from Sina
And shined upon us out of Seir;
He hasted from mount Paran,,
With myriads from Kades;
His angels with him on his right.
3 He compassionated his people ; All the sanctified are under thy sway, But these are immediately under thee.
4 From His words Moses received the law Which he gave in charge to us,
An inheritance for the assemblies of Jacob.
5 Let Him therefore be chief among the beloved. When the chiefs of peoples assemble with the tribes of Israel,
6 Let Reuben live and not die,
And Symeon though he be few in number.
7 Now this was the blessing of Juda
Hear, O Lord, the voice of Juda!
And until thou comest to his people;
Let his hands contend for them,
And be thou his help from enemies.
8 And of Levi he said
Assign ye to Levi his manifestations,
And his truth to this man for the Holy One
Whom they tried at Temptation.
Whom they reviled at the water of Contradiction.
9 With regard to him who saith to his father and to his
mother
I have not beheld thee,
And hath not acknowledged his brethren,
And hath renounced his own children,
He it is who hath observed thine Oracles
And diligently kept thy covenant.
10 . Let them explain thy rules of rectitude for Jacob
And thy law for Israel:
Let them lay incense continually,
When thou art angry, on thine altar.
11 Bless, O Lord, his endeavours,
And accept the works of his hands.
Pierce the loins of enemies,
Who have risen up against him:
And let them who hate him never rise up.
12 And of Benjamin he said,
Beloved! He shall dwell securely under the Lord.
God overshadoweth him continually,
And hath taken up his rest between his shoulders.
13 And of Joseph he said,
His land is a special blessing of the Lord
On account of heavenly seasons and dew,
And on account of abysses of fountains from beneath,
14 And on account of the productions, in due season
Of the sun’s revolutions and the changes of the moon,
15 As his land of plenty is beautified With summits of ancient mountains And with summits of everlasting hills. .
16 So may the things acceptable
To him who appeared in the bush,
Gome upon the head of Joseph;
He indeed is glorified
In being the head over brothers.
17 His beauty is that of a firstling bull,
His horns are the horns of an Unicorn,
With these he will push the nations at once,
Even from the limits of the land.
These are the myriads of Ephraim;
And these the thousands of Manasses.
18 And of Zabulon he said,
Rejoice, O Zabulon, in thine outgoings;
And let Issachar rejoice in his abodes.
19 They shall utterly root out nations.
And there you shall invoke,
And there offer the sacrifice of righteousness.
For the riches of the sea shall feed thee,
And a commerce with the dwellers on the sea coast.
20 And of Gad he said
Blessed is he who enlargeth Gad.
Like a lion he lay down to rest,
Having broken an arm and a chief.
21 He took a view of his portion
Because land was there divided.
When chiefs assembled with the leaders of tribes;
The Lord executed Justice
And determined his cause with Israel.
22 And of Dan he said Dan is a lion’s whelp;
He will make excursions beyond Basan.
23 And of Ncphthaleim he said,
Nephthaleim hath abundance of good things;
May he be filled with blessings from the Lord!
He shall possess the west and the south.
24 And of Aser he said,
Aser is blessed with children,
He will be acceptable to his brethren.
He shall bathe his foot in oil,
25 His shoe shall be iron and brass.
As thy days so shall be thy strength.
26 There is none like the God of the Beloved; He who rideth on the heaven is thy helper,
And he is mighty to give support.
27 The governance of God will protect thee
When under the power of everlasting arms.
He will drive out the enemy before thee,
Saying, Be devoted to destruction!
28 And Israel shall dwell securely alone,
In the land of Jacob, fed with corn and wine:
And the heaven shall drop withMew for thee.
29 Blessed artthou, O Israel!
Who is like thee, O people saved by the Lord!
Thy helper will protect thee,
His sword shall be thy boast,
Thine enemies shall submit to thee,
And thou shalt ride upon their neck.
XXXIV. Then Moses went up from Araboth Moab to mount Nabo, to the top of Phasga, which is over against Jericho, and the Lord shewed him all the land of Galaad, even to Dan, and
2 all the land of Nephthaleim, and all the land of Ephraim, and Manasses, and all the land of Juda, even to the farther sea, and
3 the wilderness, and the country around Jericho, the city of palm
4 trees, even to Segor. And the Lord said to Moses, This is the land which I solemnly promised to Abraham, and Isaak, and Jacob, saying, To your seed I will give it. I have pointed it out to thine eyes, but thou shalt not go thither.
5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died, by the command
6 of the Lord, in the land of Moab; and he was buried at Gai near the house of Phogor. But none knoweth his sepulchre at this day.
7 Though Moses was an hundred and twenty years old, his
8 eyes were not dim, nor was his natural strength abated. And the children of Israel mourned for Moses, in Araboth Moab,
9 by the Jordan, over against Jericho, thirty days. And when the days of mourning for Moses were fulfilled, as Joshua son of Nave was filled with a spirit of wisdom, (for Moses had laid his hands upon him) the children of Israel hearkened to him, and
10 did as the Lord commanded Moses. But there no more arose
a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to
face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do
in the land of Egypt, on Pharao and his servants, and on all his
Vol. i. z z
land, the great miracles, and the strong hand, which Moses ex- liibited in the sight of all Israel.