They took some of the fruit from the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us back a report: ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’

“So I said to you: Don’t be terrified or afraid of them!

Your little children, whom you said would be plunder, your sons who don’t know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.

“But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them: Don’t go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from being defeated by your enemies.’

Don’t fight with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even an inch of it, because I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession.

When you get close to the Ammonites, don’t show any hostility to them or fight with them, for I will not give you any of the Ammonites’ land as a possession; I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’”

This was just as He had done for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites before them; they drove them out and have lived in their place until now.

We completely destroyed them, as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

“I commanded Joshua at that time: Your own eyes have seen everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God fights for you.

“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

He declared His covenant to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments, which He wrote on two stone tablets.

When you look to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the array of heaven—do not be led astray to bow down and worship them. The Lord your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven.

You must not bow down to them or worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.

Don’t be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, a great and awesome God, is among you.

You must burn up the carved images of their gods. Don’t covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

“Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His command—the ordinances and statutes—I am giving you today.

If you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will perish.

“The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go down immediately from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast image for themselves.’

“So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

Then I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights; I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and provoking Him to anger.

I took the sinful calf you had made, burned it up, and crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust. Then I threw it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

“I fell down in the presence of the Lord 40 days and 40 nights because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.

Then on the day of the assembly, the Lord wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. The Lord gave them to me,

and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. And they have remained there, as the Lord commanded me.”

Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.

He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome works your eyes have seen.

Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 people in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.

Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods.

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

Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

Don’t worship the Lord your God this way.

But don’t eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

you must strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Completely destroy everyone in it as well as its livestock with the sword.

Give to him, and don’t have a stingy heart when you give, and because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you do.

But if your slave says to you, ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and is well off with you,

and has gone to worship other gods by bowing down to the sun, moon, or all the stars in the sky—which I have forbidden—

you must bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing and stone them to death.

If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

“One witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

When the Lord your God hands it over to you, you must strike down all its males with the sword.

“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. You must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?

But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream.

If your brother does not live near you or you don’t know him, you are to bring the animal to your home to remain with you until your brother comes looking for it; then you can return it to him.

If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen down on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

If you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

“Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or one of the foreigners residing within a town in your land.

When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

If the guilty party deserves to be flogged, the judge will make him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate for his crime.

The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’

then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’

You are to respond by saying in the presence of the Lord your God:

My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there. There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation.

I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that You, Lord, have given me.

You will then place the container before the Lord your God and bow down to Him.

I have not eaten any of it while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done all You commanded me.

Look down from Your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You have given us as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And these tribes will stand on Mount Ebal to deliver the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.

The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you don’t understand,

They will besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

They began to worship other gods, bowing down to gods they had not known—gods that the Lord had not permitted them to worship.

But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and worship them,

Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.

I will certainly hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

Therefore write down this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the Israelites.

So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.

When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law,

How could one man pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the Lord had given them up?

He said:

The Lord came from Sinai
and appeared to them from Seir;
He shone on them from Mount Paran
and came with ten thousand holy ones,
with lightning from His right hand for them.

His firstborn bull has splendor,
and horns like those of a wild ox;
he gores all the peoples with them
to the ends of the earth.
Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
and such are the thousands of Manasseh.

He said about Gad:

The one who enlarges Gad’s territory
will be blessed.
He lies down like a lion
and tears off an arm or even a head.

He said about Dan:

Dan is a young lion,
leaping out of Bashan.

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land: Gilead as far as Dan,