But from the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you as an inheritance, you shall not let anything live that breathes.

so that they may not teach you to do like all their detestable things that they do for their gods and [thereby] you sin against Yahweh your God.

"If you besiege a town [for] many days to make war against it [in order to] seize it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, and [so] you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field humans that they should come in siege {against you}?

Only the trees that you know {are not fruit trees} you may destroy and you may cut down, and you may build siege works against that city that is making war with you {until it falls}."

"If someone slain is found in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it [and] [is] lying in the field, [and] it is not known who {killed him},

then your elders and your judges shall go out and shall measure [the distance] to the cities that [are] around the slain one.

{And then} the nearest city to the slain one, the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked with [in the field], that has not pulled a yoke,

and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a {wadi that flows with water all year} and [that] has not been plowed and has not been sown; [then] {there they shall break the neck of the heifer in the wadi}.

And all of the elders of that city nearest to the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer [with] the broken neck in the wadi.

"If a man has two wives, [and] the one [is] loved and the [other] one [is] disliked and the one loved and the one that is disliked have borne for him sons, if it happens [that] the firstborn son {belongs to the one that is disliked},

[nevertheless] {it will be the case that} on the day of bestowing his inheritance upon his sons, he will not be allowed to treat as [the] firstborn son the son of the beloved [wife] {in preference to} the son of the disliked [wife], [who is] the firstborn [son].

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn son of the disliked [wife] {by giving} him a double portion of {all that he has}, for he [is] the firstfruit of his vigor; to him [is] the legal claim of the birthright.

his dead body shall not hang on the tree, but certainly you shall bury him on that day, for cursed by God [is] one that is [being] hung; so you shall not defile your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance."

And thus [also] you shall do regarding his donkey, and thus you shall do concerning his garment, and so you shall do with respect to all [of] the lost property of your countryman that is lost from him and you find it; you are not allowed to withhold help.

you shall certainly let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourselves; [do this] {so that it may go well} for you and {you may live long in the land}.

"When you build a new house then you shall make a parapet wall for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house {if anyone should fall from it}.

"You shall not sow your vineyard [with] differing kinds [of seed], so that you shall not forfeit {the whole harvest}, [both] the seed that you sowed and the yield of the vineyard.

and {he accuses her falsely}, and {he defames her}, and he says 'This woman I took and I lay with her and {I discovered that she was not a virgin},'

Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him.

"If it happens [that] a young woman, a virgin, [is] engaged to a man, [and] a man finds her in the town and lies with her,

then you shall bring out {both of them} to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

The children [that] are born to them [in] the third generation may come {representing them} in the assembly of Yahweh.

"If [there] is among you a man that is not clean because of a seminal emission {during the night}, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come within the camp.

For Yahweh your God [is] walking about in the midst of your camp to deliver you and {to hand your enemies over to you before you}, and so let your camp be holy, so that he shall not see in it {anything indecent}, and he shall turn away {from going with you}.

He shall reside with you in your midst in the place that he chooses in one of {your towns wherever he pleases}; you shall not oppress him.

"{You shall not charge your brother interest on money}, interest on food, or interest on anything that one could lend on interest

You may lend on interest to the foreigner, but to your countryman you may not lend on interest, so that Yahweh your God may bless you {in all your undertakings} in {the land where you are going}, {in order to take possession of it}.

The utterance of your lips {you must perform diligently} [just] as you have vowed freely to Yahweh your God whatever [it was] that you promised with your mouth.

her first husband who sent her [away] is not allowed {to take her again} to become a wife to him after she has {been defiled}, for that [is] a detestable thing {before} Yahweh, and [so] you shall not mislead into sin the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance.

"When a man takes a new wife he shall not go out with the army, and {he shall not be obligated with anything}; he shall be free from obligation, {to stay at home} for one year, and he shall bring joy [to] his wife that he took.

"If a man is {caught} kidnapping somebody from [among] his countrymen, the {Israelites}, and he treats him as a slave or he sells him, then that kidnapper shall die, and [so] you shall purge the evil {from among you}.

Be watchful {with respect to} [an] outbreak of [any] infectious skin disease, by being very careful and by acting according to all that the priests and the Levites have instructed you, [just] as I have commanded them, {so you shall diligently observe}.

You shall certainly return the pledge to him {as the sun sets}, so that he may sleep in his cloak and may bless you, and it shall be [considered] righteousness {on your behalf} {before} Yahweh your God.

On his day you shall give his wage, and the sun shall not go {down}, because [he is] poor and {his life depends on it}; [do this] so that he does not cry out against you to Yahweh, {and you incur guilt}.

And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and [that] Yahweh your God redeemed you from there; therefore I [am] commanding you to do this commandment.

"When you reap your harvest in your field and you forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not return to get it, for it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, therefore I [am] commanding you to do this thing."

He may beat him [with] forty lashes, and he shall not do more [than these], so that he [will] not beat more in addition to these many blows, and your countryman would be degraded before your eyes.

And then the firstborn that she bears {shall represent his dead brother}, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.

[Rather] a full and honest weight shall be {for your use}; there shall be for you a full and honest {measure}, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you may be long.

that he met you on the journey and attacked you, all those lagging behind you and [when] you were weary and worn out, and he did not fear God.

{And when} Yahweh your God gives rest to you from all your enemies from around [about you] in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance to take possession of it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget!"

"{And then} when you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance, and you take possession of it and you settle in it,

then you shall take from the firstfruit of all the fruit of the ground that you harvest from your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, and you shall put [it] in a basket, and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose to make his name to dwell there.

And you shall go to the priest who is [in office] in those days, and you shall say, 'I declare {today} to Yahweh your God that I have come into the land that Yahweh swore to our ancestors to give to us.'

And now, look, I am bringing the firstfruit of the fruit of the ground that you gave to me, Yahweh,' and you shall place it {before} Yahweh your God, and you shall bow down {before} Yahweh your God.

And you shall celebrate with all of the bounty that Yahweh your God gave to you and to your family, you and the Levite and the alien who [is] in your midst.

"When you are finished {giving a tithe}, all of the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give to the Levite, to the alien, to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and they may be satisfied.

And you shall say {before} Yahweh your God, 'I have removed the sacred portion from the house and, moreover, I have given it to the Levite and to the alien and to the orphan and to the widow according to all your commandment that you commanded me; I have not transgressed any of your commandments, and I have not forgotten [any of them].

I have not eaten during my [time of] mourning, and I have not removed [anything] from it while [being] unclean, and I have not offered {any of it} to someone who [has] died. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done all that you commanded me [to do].

Look down from the dwelling place of your holiness, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the land that you have given to us, as you swore to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.'

And Yahweh [has] declared you {today} to be for him as a people, a treasured possession, as he {promised} to you, and [that you are] to observe all his commandments,

{and that he then will set you} high above all the nations that he has made for his praise and {for fame} and for honor and {for you to be a holy people} to Yahweh your God, as he {promised}."

Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, {saying}, "Keep all of the commandment that I [am] commanding you {today}.

And then on the day that you cross the Jordan to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, then you shall set up {for yourselves} large stones, and you shall paint them with lime,

and you shall write on them all the words of this law at your crossing, so that you may come into the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, {promised} to you.

And {when you cross the Jordan}, you shall set up these stones that I [am] commanding you [about] {today} on Mount Ebal, and you shall paint them with lime.

And listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and observe his commandments and his rules that I [am] commanding you {today}."

And Moses charged the people on that day, {saying},

'Cursed be the man that makes a divine image or a cast image, [which is] a detestable thing for Yahweh, the work of the hand of a skilled craftsman, and [then] sets [it] in a hiding place.' And {all the people shall respond}, 'Amen.'

"And it will happen [that] if you indeed listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, {to diligently observe} all his commandments that I [am] commanding you {today}, then Yahweh your God will set you above all the nations of the earth.

Yahweh will command {concerning you} the blessing [to be] in your barns and {in all your endeavors}; and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you.

And all of the peoples of the earth shall see that {by the name of Yahweh you are called}, and {they shall fear you}.

And {Yahweh will make you successful and prosperous}, in the fruit of your womb and on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give to you.

And Yahweh shall make you as head and not the tail, and you shall be only at the top [of the nations], and you shall not be at the bottom, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I [am] commanding you {today} {and diligently observe them}.

And you [shall] not turn aside from {any of} the words that I [am] commanding you {today} [to the] right or left by going after other gods to serve them.

"{And then} if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God {by diligently observing} all of his commandments and his statutes that I [am] commanding you {today}, then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you:

"Yahweh will send upon you the curse, the panic, and the threat {in everything that you undertake}, {until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly} {because of} the evil of your deeds in that you have forsaken me.

Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you {until it consumes you} from the land that you [are] going to, to take possession of it.

And your heavens that [are] over your heads shall be [like] bronze, and the earth that [is] under you [shall be like] iron.

"Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with {the skin rash that cannot be healed}.

A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed {for the rest of your lives}.

Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods [of] wood and stone.

The alien that [is] in your midst shall ascend over you, higher [and] higher, but you shall go down lower [and] lower.

"And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you {until you are destroyed}, because {you did not listen} to the voice of Yahweh your God, {by observing} his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

"{Because} [of the fact] that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,

And it shall besiege you in all your towns {until your high and fortified walls fall}, which you [are] trusting in {throughout your land}; and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you.

The most refined and the very sensitive man among you {shall be mean with his brother} and {against his beloved wife} and against the rest of his children that he has left over,

{by refraining from giving} to [even] one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because [there is] not anything [that is] left over for him {during the siege and distress} that your enemy inflicts upon you.

and [even] concerning her afterbirth {that goes out} from between her feet and [also] concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret {during the siege and during the distress} that your enemy inflicts upon her in your {towns}.

Also any illness and any plague that [is] not written in the scroll of this law, he shall bring them, Yahweh, upon you until you are destroyed.

{And then} as Yahweh delighted over you {to make you prosperous} to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you and to destroy you, and [so] you shall be plucked from the land that you [are] going there to take possession of it.

And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from [one] end of the earth up to the [other] end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor your ancestors, [gods of] wood and stone.

In the morning you shall say, '{If only it was evening}!' and in the evening you shall say '{If only it was morning}!' because of the dread of your heart that you shall feel, and because of the sight of your eyes that you shall see.

And Yahweh shall bring you back [to] Egypt in ships by the route that I {promised} to you [that] '{You shall not see it again}!' And you shall sell yourself there to your enemies as slaves and as female slaves, but there will not be a buyer."

These [are] the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the {Israelites} in the land of Moab {besides} the covenant that he made with them at Horeb.

And Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, "You saw all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt and to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land;

[that is], the great trials that your eyes saw, [and] those great signs and wonders.

You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine and strong drink, so that you may know that I [am] Yahweh your God.

And {you must diligently observe the words of this covenant}, so that you may succeed in all that you do.

{in order for you to enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God}, and into his oath that Yahweh your God [is] {making with you} {today},

in order to establish you {today} {to himself} as a people and [so that] he may be for you [as] God, [just] as he {promised} to you and {just as} he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the midst of the nations that you traveled through.

And you have seen their detestable things and their idols of wood and stone, silver, and gold that [were] among them,

so that {there is not} among you a man or a woman or a clan or a tribe {whose heart} turns {today} from [being] with Yahweh our God to go to serve the gods of these nations, so that there is not among you a root sprouting poison and wormwood.

Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, for [by then] the anger of Yahweh will smoke, and his passion against that man and all the curses written in this scroll will descend on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.

"And the next generation, [that is], your children who will rise [up] after you, and the foreigner who will come from a distant land, when they will see the plagues of that land and its diseases that Yahweh has inflicted upon it, will say,

So {the anger of Yahweh was kindled} against that land to bring upon it all the curses written in this scroll,

"And then when all of these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have set {before you} {and you call them to mind} among the nations there where Yahweh your God [has] scattered you,

and you return to Yahweh and you listen to his voice according to all that I am commanding you {today}, [both] you and your children, with all your heart and with all your inner self,