But when you set them free, don't send them away empty-handed.

Provide for them liberally from your flock, threshing floor, and wine vat. As the LORD your God has blessed you, so give to them.

Don't ever forget that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, yet the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore, I'm giving you these commands today.

"Should that slave say to you, "I won't leave you,' because he loves you and your household, and it was good for him to be with you,

then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the door. Then he will be your slave forever. You are to do the same for your female slaves.

Don't view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years twice the time of a paid worker. Then the LORD will bless you in all that you do."

"Set apart for the LORD your God every firstborn male among your herd and flock. You must not put the firstborn of your ox to work or shear the firstborn of your flock.

If it has a blemish lameness, blindness, or any kind of defect you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

In your cities both the unclean and the clean together are to eat together, as the gazelle and the deer.

"Observe the month of Abib, keeping the Passover to the LORD your God, because the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib.

Then sacrifice sheep and cattle for the Passover to the LORD your God at the place where the LORD your God will choose to establish his name.

You must not eat any yeast with it. Instead, for seven days eat bread without yeast the bread of affliction because you left the land of Egypt in haste. Remember the day you went out of the land of Egypt for the rest of your lives.

Yeast is not to be seen in any of your territories for seven days. The meat is not to remain from the evening of the first day until morning.

"You must not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your cities that the LORD your God is about to give you.

But at the place where your God will choose to establish his name, you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening at dusk, at the time of day you left Egypt.

Boil and eat the Passover meal at the place that the LORD your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents.

Eat bread without yeast for six days. Then on the seventh day, hold an assembly to the LORD your God. Don't do any work."

"Count off seven weeks from when the sickle is first put to standing grain.

Then observe the Festival of Weeks in the presence of the LORD your God by giving your tribute and the freewill offering of your hands in proportion to the manner in which the LORD your God blessed you.

Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God with your son, daughter, male and female slaves, the descendants of Levi who is in your city, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow among you, at the place where the LORD your God will choose to establish his name.

For seven days you are to celebrate in the presence of the LORD your God at the place where the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in everything you do, and your joy will be complete.

but each one must appear with his own gift, proportional to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you."

"Appoint judges and civil servants according to your tribes in all your cities that the LORD your God is about to give you, so they may judge the people impartially.

You are to pursue justice and only justice so you may live and possess the land that the LORD your God is about to give you."

"You are not to set up a sacred pole beside the altar of the LORD your God that you will build.

Furthermore, you are not to erect for yourselves a sacred stone pillar, because the LORD your God detests these things.

"You may discover that a man or woman living in one of your cities that the LORD your God is about to give you has done evil in the eyes of the LORD your God by transgressing his covenant.

He may be following and serving other gods by bowing down to them that is, to the sun, the moon, or to any of the heavenly host (something I did not command).

When it is reported to you or you hear of it, then investigate it thoroughly. When the truth has been established that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

summon the man or the woman who did this evil thing to your city gates. Then stone the man or the woman to death.

Based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, they must surely die. But they are not to die based on the testimony of one person.

Let the witnesses be the first to begin executing them, then the rest of the people shall follow. By doing this you will purge evil from among you."

"If a case is too difficult for you to decide with respect to bloodshed, civil claims, assault and battery, or other matters of dispute within your courts, bring it to the place that the LORD your God will choose.

Present the case to the Levitical priest or the judge at that time. When you have inquired and they have announced the verdict,

carry out the verdict that was declared to you at the place that the LORD will choose. Carefully observe all of their instructions to you

in accordance with what the Law says, and in accordance with the verdict that will be handed to you. You must not deviate from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right or to the left.

If a man presumptuously disregards the priest who is serving the LORD your God there or the judge, that person must die so you will purge evil from Israel.

"When you have come to the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it, and have settled in it, then you will say, "I will appoint a king over me like all the nations around me.'

Only he must not amass horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to obtain more horses. For the LORD said you must never return that way again.

It is to remain with him the rest of his life so he may learn to fear the LORD his God and observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, in order to fulfill them.

He is not to exalt himself over his relatives, nor turn aside from the commandment neither to the right nor to the left so that he and his sons may reign long in Israel."

"A portion of what the people offer in sacrifice, whether cattle or sheep, is to be due the priests. They must set aside the shoulder, jowls, and stomach for the priest.

For the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants from among your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the LORD all their lives."

"Any descendant of Levi who wishes to do so may come from any city or part of Israel where he resides to the place that the LORD will choose.

he may eat the same share as they do regardless of what he receives from his ancestral estate."

"When you enter the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't learn the detestable practices of those nations there.

Whoever practices these things is detestable to the LORD, and the LORD your God will expel them before you because of these things.

You must be completely faithful to the LORD your God,

because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the LORD does not allow you to act this way."

"The LORD your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from among your relatives. You must listen to him,

because this is what you asked from the LORD your God at Horeb when you were assembled together: "Don't let us hear the voice of the LORD our God again, or even see this great fire otherwise, we will die.'

I will raise up a prophet like you from among their relatives, and I will place my words in his mouth so that he may expound everything that I have commanded to them.

But if someone will not listen to those words that the prophet speaks in my name, I will hold him accountable.

Even then, if the prophet speaks presumptuously in my name, which I didn't authorize him to speak, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.'

Now you may ask yourselves, "How will we be able to discern that the LORD has not spoken?'

"When the LORD your God destroys those nations whose lands he is about to give you, you must dispossess them and live in their cities and houses.

You must reserve three cities within the land that the LORD your God is about to give you to possess.

"Now this is the situation for any killer who flees there to live: suppose he strikes his friend unwittingly, not having hated him previously.

For instance, he may have accompanied his friend to go to a forest to cut trees. Then he swung his axe to cut some wood, but the ax head flew off the handle and hit his friend, so that he died. The killer may flee to one of these cities to live.

Therefore I am commanding you to reserve three cities."

and if you are careful to observe all these commands that I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God and to walk daily in his ways then add three more cities in addition to these three cities.

You must not shed innocent blood on your land that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance. Otherwise, you'll be guilty of murder."

"However, if a person hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, and attacks him so that he dies, and then he flees to one of those cities,

then the elders of his own city shall send for him, remove him from there, and deliver him to the related avenger for execution.

"When you inherit the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't move your neighbor's boundary marker from where it was placed long ago."

"The testimony of one person alone is not to suffice to convict anyone of any iniquity, sin, or guilt. But the matter will stand on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

do to him just as he intended to do to his relative. By doing this you will purge evil from your midst.

When others hear of this, they will be afraid and will not do such an evil deed again in your midst.

"When you go to war against your enemies and observe more horses, chariots, and soldiers than you have, don't be afraid of them, for the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt is with you.

As you draw near for battle, let the priest approach and speak to the army.

He will say to them, "Listen, Israel! You're about to go into battle today against your enemies. Don't be faint-hearted. Don't be afraid, don't panic, and don't be terrified to face them.

For the LORD your God will be with you, fighting on your behalf against your enemies in order to grant you victory.'

"Furthermore, let the officials ask the army, "Is there a man here who has built a new house but has not yet dedicated it? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it.

And is there a man here who has planted a vineyard and not yet benefited from it? Let him go home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man use it.

And is there a man here who is engaged to a woman and has not yet married her? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man marry her.'

"Let the officials also speak to the army, "Is there a man here who is afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may demoralize his fellow soldier.'

"When the officials have finished speaking to the army, they must appoint officers to lead the troops."

"When you approach a city to wage war against it, extend terms of peace.

If it agrees to peace and welcomes you, then all the people found in it will serve you as forced laborers.

But if they refuse to make peace with you and instead choose war, then attack it.

The women, children, all the livestock in the city, and all of the spoil and plunder will belong to you. Appropriate the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God will give you.

Do this to all the cities that are distant from you that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations."

"You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance.

so they won't teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the LORD your God."

"When you attack a city and have to fight against it for many days, don't destroy its trees by cutting them down with an ax. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that you would come and attack them?

However, you may cut down the trees whose fruit you know isn't edible, in order to build siege works against the city that waged war with you, until it falls."

"If a murder victim is found fallen in the open country of the land that the LORD your God is about to give you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

then let your elders and judges go out and measure the distance from the dead body to the neighboring cities.

Then the elders of the city nearest the body are to take a heifer that hasn't been put to work or hasn't pulled a yoke

and are to lead the heifer to a flowing stream in a valley that has never been tilled or planted. They are to break the heifer's neck there.

Then the priests of the descendants of Levi are to step forward, because the LORD your God chose them to serve and pronounce blessings in his name. Every case of dispute and assault is to be subject to their ruling.

All the elders of the city nearest the dead body are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,

and they are to make this declaration: "Our hands didn't shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to the crime.

Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, LORD, and don't charge the blood of an innocent man against them.' Then the blood that has been shed will be atoned for.

This is how you will remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right in the sight of the LORD."

"If you go to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive.

Bring her to your house, but shave her head and trim her nails.

Remove her prisoner's clothing and let her remain for a month in your house, mourning her parents. After that, you may become her husband and she is to become your wife.

If you aren't pleased with her and you send her away, you must not sell her for money or mistreat her, since you will have dishonored her."

"If a man has two wives where one is loved but the other is unloved, and both of them bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife,