I commanded your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

Do not show partiality when deciding a case; listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.

Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven. They will hear the report about you, tremble, and be in anguish because of you.’

Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’

The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.’

There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.

He let you hear His voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you His great fire on earth, and you heard His words from the fire.

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am proclaiming as you hear them today. Learn and follow them carefully.

He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.

But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer.

But you stand here with Me, and I will tell you every command—the statutes and ordinances—you are to teach them, so that they may follow them in the land I am giving them to possess.’

“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.’

“You are not to do as we are doing here today; everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own eyes.

All Israel will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer do anything evil like this among you.

“If you hear it said about one of your cities the Lord your God is giving you to live in,

But among the ones that chew the cud or have divided hooves, you are not to eat these:

the camel, the hare, and the hyrax,
though they chew the cud, they do not have hooves—
they are unclean for you;

and if you are told or hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable thing has happened in Israel,

Then all the people will hear about it, be afraid, and no longer behave arrogantly.

This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’

“Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.

Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man marry her.’

if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife,

you are to bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.

Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

“If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and comes to hate her,

and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn’t find any evidence of her virginity,’

the young woman’s father and mother will take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the city elders at the gate.

The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her.

He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying: “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders.

They will also fine him 100 silver shekels and give them to the young woman’s father, because that man gave an Israelite virgin a bad name. She will remain his wife; he cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and has sex with her,

But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die.

When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered,

the man who raped her must give the young woman’s father 50 silver shekels, and she must become his wife because he violated her. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

“If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something improper about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies,

the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty.

“When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

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

“If two men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she puts out her hand and grabs his genitals,

you are to cut off her hand. You must not show pity.

You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.

The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,

the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your gates.

Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not here today.

Then you will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

He said this about Judah:

Lord, hear Judah’s cry and bring him to his people.
He fights for his cause with his own hands,
but may You be a help against his foes.