Then the Amorites who lived there came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir as far as Hormah.

They were also regarded as Rephaim, like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.

Lord God, You have begun to show Your greatness and power to Your servant, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can perform deeds and mighty acts like Yours?

And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created man on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of?

You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

Like the nations the Lord is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the Lord your God.

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.

“The Lord said to me at that time, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to Me on the mountain and make a wooden ark.

So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God told him.

“I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights like the first time. The Lord also listened to me on this occasion; He agreed not to annihilate you.

For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.

but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

Do not eat blood; pour it on the ground like water.

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

But you must not eat its blood; pour it on the ground like water.

“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’

he may serve in the name of Yahweh his God like all his fellow Levites who minister there in the presence of the Lord.

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

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

The officers will continue to address the army and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers’ hearts won’t melt like his own.’

Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

“Do not take a pair of millstones or an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that is like taking a life as security.

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,

All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord demolished in His fierce anger.

Let my teaching fall like rain
and my word settle like dew,
like gentle rain on new grass
and showers on tender plants.

He watches over His nest like an eagle
and hovers over His young;
He spreads His wings, catches him,
and lifts him up on His pinions.

But their “rock” is not like our Rock;
even our enemies concede.

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.

There is none like the God of Jeshurun,
who rides the heavens to your aid,
the clouds in His majesty.

How happy you are, Israel!
Who is like you,
a people saved by the Lord?
He is the shield that protects you,
the sword you boast in.
Your enemies will cringe before you,
and you will tread on their backs.

No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.