Now in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses gave to the children of Israel all the orders which the Lord had given him for them;

After he had overcome Sihon, king of the Amorites, ruling in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, ruling in Ashtaroth, at Edrei:

And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said, In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction.

But for all this, you had no faith in the Lord your God,

Then we went back, journeying into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea, as the Lord had said to me: and we were a long time going round Mount Seir.

Thirty-eight years had gone by from the time when we came away from Kadesh-barnea till we went over the stream Zered; by that time all the generation of the men of war among us were dead, as the Lord had said.

So when death had overtaken all the men of war among the people,

(That land is said to have been a land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim had been living there in earlier times, but they were named Zamzummim by the Ammonites;

At that time we took all his towns, and gave them over to complete destruction, together with men, women, and children; we had no mercy on any:

Only the cattle we took for ourselves, with the goods from the towns we had taken.

But you did not go near the land of the children of Ammon, that is, all the side of the river Jabbok or the towns of the hill-country, wherever the Lord our God had said we were not to go.

All these towns had high walls round them with doors and locks; and in addition we took a great number of unwalled towns.

But give my orders to Joshua, comforting him and making him strong; for he is to go over Jordan at the head of this people, and he will give them this land which you will see for their heritage.

If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:

Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east;

To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death:

On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame after they had come out of Egypt:

If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever!

And you may not take a disgusting thing into your house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it is a cursed thing.

Who gave you manna for your food in the waste land, a food which your fathers had never seen; so that your pride might be broken and your hearts tested for your good in the end;

When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water.

And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go.

And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain.

And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.

From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord.

So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you.

Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land.

So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.

And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.

At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.

But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.

And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,

Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his oath to your fathers:

And this is to be the priests' right: those who make an offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach.

This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there, after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate;

For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe:

For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate.

But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns;

Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not take her.

If a man has two wives, one greatly loved and the other hated, and the two of them have had children by him; and if the first son is the child of the hated wife:

If any man takes a wife, and having had connection with her, has no delight in her,

And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name, saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin:

But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land.

Her first husband, who had sent her away, may not take her back after she has been wife to another; for that is disgusting to the Lord: and you are not to be a cause of sin in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; and you will ever have the highest place, if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God which I give you today, to keep and to do them;

The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain, and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is complete.

The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well.

He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail.

And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge.

You have had no bread, or wine, or strong drink: so that you might see that I am the Lord your God.

And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:

And they went after other gods and gave them worship, gods who were strange to them, and whom he had not given them:

Rooting them out of their land, in the heat of his wrath and passion, and driving them out into another land, as at this day.

And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers:

The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has said.

Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to give them; and I will be with you.

When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.

They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers.

They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.

How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?

Who said of his father, Who is he? and of his mother, I have not seen her; he kept himself separate from his brothers and had no knowledge of his children: for they have given ear to your word and kept your agreement.

Let your blessing, O Lord, be on his substance, may the work of his hands be pleasing to you: may those who take up arms against him and all who have hate for him, be wounded through the heart, never to be lifted up again.

The good things of the earth and all its wealth, the good pleasure of him who was seen in the burning tree: may they come on the head of Joseph, on the head of him who was prince among his brothers.

Of Gad he said, A blessing be on him who makes wide the limits of Gad: he takes his rest like a she-lion, taking for himself the arm and the crown of the head.

So death came to Moses, the servant of the Lord, there in the land of Moab, as the Lord had said.

And Moses at his death was a hundred and twenty years old: his eye had not become clouded, or his natural force become feeble.

And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had put his hands on him: and the children of Israel gave ear to him, and did as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord had knowledge of face to face;