When you hold a hearing, don't be partial in judgment toward the least important or toward the great. Never fear men, because judgment belongs to God. If the matter is difficult for you, bring it to me for a hearing.'

Look! The LORD your God has given the land that lies before you. Go and possess it, just as the LORD God of your ancestors commanded you. Don't be afraid or discouraged.'

They hand-picked some of the fruit of the land, brought it down to us, and gave a report that said, "The land which the LORD is about to give us is good.'"

"Then I told you, "Don't be terrified or afraid of them.

Don't fight them, because I won't give you any part of their land, not even the size of a footprint. I have given Mount Seir to Esau as their property.

"Then the LORD told me, "Don't harass Moab or provoke them to war, because I won't give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their property.

When you come to the Ammonites, don't harass or provoke them to war, for I won't give any part of Ammonite land to you, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their property.

We captured all his towns at that time. We utterly destroyed every town the men, the women, and the children leaving no survivors.

From Aroer on the edge of Arnon Valley and from the town all the way to Gilead, there was no city that was too strong for us the LORD our God delivered them all to us.

Then the LORD told me, "Don't fear him, because I've delivered him, his army, and his territory into your control. Do to him just as you have done to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'

He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to observe the Ten Commandments that he wrote on two stone tablets.

Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the covenant of the LORD your God, who established that covenant with you. Don't make carved images of any likeness in violation of everything that you were commanded by the LORD your God.

"After you've borne children and grandchildren, have been there for a long time in the land, have become so corrupted that you make images of any form, and have done evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, you will provoke him to anger.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Teach them repeatedly to your children. Talk about them while sitting in your house or walking on the road, and as you lie down or get up.

"Don't test the LORD your God like you did in Massah.

This is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their ritual pillars, and burn their carved idols in fire,

You are to utterly destroy everyone whom the LORD your God will deliver to you. Don't have pity on them nor serve their gods. Otherwise, they will become a snare for you."

Don't tremble before them, because the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

Don't bring any detestable thing to your house, because you yourself will be utterly destroyed along with these detestable things. You must absolutely abhor and detest all of it, because it has been devoted to destruction."

"Remember and don't ever forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebelling against the LORD.

"Then the LORD told me, "Get going! Go down from here at once! Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned quickly from the way that I commanded them, and have cast an idol for their use.'

"So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands.

I fell down in the LORD's presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I did not eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in the sight of the LORD, thereby provoking him to anger.

I fell down in the LORD's presence for 40 days and nights, because the LORD said he was ready to destroy you.

So I prayed to the LORD and said, "Oh LORD my God, don't destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your power. You brought them out from Egypt in a powerful way.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't pay attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sinfulness of this people.

Then the LORD inscribed on the tablets what he wrote before, that is, the Ten Commandments that the LORD declared to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire during the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.

Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the chest that I had made. They are there now, just as the LORD commanded me."

Your ancestors went down to Egypt with 70 people, but the LORD your God has now made you as numerous as the stars in the sky."

Teach them to your children, talking about them while sitting in your house, walking on the road, or when you are about to lie down or get up.

or a curse if you don't obey the commands of the LORD your God, by turning from the way that I'm commanding you today and following other gods whom you have not known."

Tear down their altars, cut down their sacred poles, and burn them. Cut down the carved images of their gods to erase their memory from that place."

Now as to everything I'm commanding you, you must be careful to observe it. Don't add to or subtract from it."

then put the inhabitants of the town to death by the sword. Devote everything in it to divine destruction even its livestock by the sword.

Gather whatever you've taken as spoils at the public square of the town, then burn the town, along with whatever you've taken, as an offering to the LORD your God. It will remain a permanent mound of ruins, never to be rebuilt again.

"But you must not forget the descendant of Levi in your town because there is no tribal allotment for him as there is for you.

"If there should be a poor man among your relatives in one of the cities of the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your poor relative.

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

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.

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."

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."

"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,

"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.

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.'

"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."

"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.

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.

"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."

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.

his body must not remain overnight on the tree. You must bury him that same day, because cursed of God is the one who has been hanged on a tree. Don't defile your land that the LORD is about to give you as your inheritance."

"When you see the ox or sheep of your fellow countryman straying, don't go away and leave it. Instead, be sure to return it to him.

If your fellow countryman doesn't live near you or you don't know who he is, bring the animal to your house and let it remain with you until he claims it. Then return it to him.

When you see the donkey or the ox of your fellow countryman fallen on the road, don't ignore it. Instead be sure to help it get up."

"When you encounter a bird's nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on its chicks or eggs, don't take the mother along with its young.

"Don't plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, the entire crop will have to be forfeited, both the seed that you have sown and the produce from it.

"Don't plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

"Don't wear material made from wool and linen mixed together.

As for the young lady, don't do anything to her. The young lady did nothing worthy of death. This case is similar to when a man attacks his countryman and kills him.

Don't seek a peace treaty with them as long as you live.

Don't detest Edomites, since they are related to you. Don't detest Egyptians, either, because you were strangers in their land.

"Don't hand over a slave who escaped from his master when he runs to you.

Let him live among you wherever he chooses in any of your cities that he likes. Don't mistreat him."

Don't bring the earnings of a female prostitute nor the income of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God as payment for any vow. Both of these are detestable to the LORD your God."

"Don't charge interest to your relatives, whether for money, food, or for anything that has been loaned at interest.

You may charge interest to a foreigner, but don't charge interest to your relatives, so the LORD your God may bless you in everything you undertake in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

"When you make a vow to the LORD your God, don't delay paying it, because the LORD your God will certainly demand payment from you, and then you will be guilty of sin.

"When you enter your countrymen's vineyard, you may eat the grapes to your satisfaction, but don't take any in a basket.

When you enter your countrymen's grain fields, you may pluck the grain with your hand, but don't put a sickle to his standing grain."

her first husband who married her and divorced her earlier must not remarry her, because she was defiled, since this is detestable to the LORD. Don't defile the land that the LORD your God is about to give you as a possession.

"Don't take a pair of millstones, especially the upper millstone, as collateral for a loan, because this means taking a man's livelihood.

"When you loan something to your neighbor, don't enter his house to seize what he offered as collateral.

If he is a poor man, don't go to sleep with his collateral in your possession.

Don't take advantage of a hired person who is poor and needy, whether he's your fellow citizen or a foreigner who lives in your city.

"Don't deny justice to a foreigner or to an orphan, nor take a widow's garment as collateral for a loan.

"When you are reaping in the field, and you overlook a sheaf, don't return to get it. Let it remain for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless everything you undertake.

When you harvest the olives from your trees, don't go back to the branches a second time. What remains is for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.

When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don't go back a second time. What remains are for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.

If the guilty person deserves a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes fit for his crime.

"Don't muzzle an ox while it is threshing grain."

Then the elders of the city are to summon him and speak with him. If he insists on saying, "I don't want to marry her,'

then she is to approach her brother-in-law in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and say in response, "May this be done to the man who does not preserve the lineage of his brother.'

you are to cut off her hand. Don't show any pity."

"Don't have different weights in your bag one heavy and one light.

Don't have different measuring devices in your house one large and one small.

Therefore, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies who surround you in the land that he is about to give you to possess as an inheritance, you must completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven. Don't forget!"

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, who went down to Egypt and traveled there with very few family members, yet there he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. But the Egyptians oppressed us, afflicted us, and assigned us to hard labor.

Look down from your holy habitation in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land that you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors a land flowing with milk and honey.'"

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali are to stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curse.

"But if you don't obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I'm giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you:

The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated."

"A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously

"The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture,

it will be a nation whose language you don't understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young.

Be strong and courageous. Don't fear or tremble before them, because the LORD your God will be the one who keeps on walking with you he won't leave you or abandon you."

Then Moses wrote down this Law and gave it to the Levitical priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD and to all of Israel's leaders.

Their children who don't know will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to possess."