If [there] is a poor [person] among you from [among] one of your brothers in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not shut your hand toward {your brother who is poor}.

But you shall certainly open your hand for him, and {you shall willingly lend} [to] him enough to meet his need, {whatever it is}.

{Take care} so that there will not be {a thought of wickedness} in your heart, {saying}, 'The seventh year, the year of the remission of debt is near,' {and you view your needy neighbor with hostility}, and [so] you [do] not give to him, and he might cry [out] against you to Yahweh, and {you would incur guilt against yourself}.

By all means you must give to him, and {you must not be discontented} at your giving to him, because on account of this [very] thing, Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and {in all that you undertake}.

For the poor will not cease to be {among you} [in] the land; therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall willingly open your hand to your brother, to your needy and to your poor [that are] in your land.'

If your relative who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, and [he or she] has served you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send that person [out] {free}.

You shall generously supply him from [among] your flocks and from your threshing floor and from your press; [according to] that [with which] Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

And then [if] it will happen [that] he says to you, '{I do not want to go out} from you,' because he loves you and your family, because it is good for him [to be] with you;

then you shall take an awl, and you shall thrust [it] through his earlobe and into the door, and he shall be to you {a slave forever}; and you shall also do likewise for your slave woman.

It shall not be hard in your eyes {when you send him forth free}, because for six years he has served you [worth] twice the wage of a hired worker; and Yahweh your God will bless you {in whatever you will do}.

"Every firstling male that is born of your herd and of your flock you shall consecrate to Yahweh your God; you shall not do work with the firstling of your ox, and you shall not shear the firstling of your flock.

But if there is a physical defect in it, [such as] lameness or blindness, any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God.

"Observe the month of Abib, and you shall keep [the] Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out from Egypt [by] night.

And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh your God [from among] [your] flock and herd at the place that Yahweh will choose, to let his name dwell there.

You shall not eat {with it} anything leavened; seven days you shall eat {with it} unleavened bread of affliction, because in haste you went out from the land of Egypt, so that you will remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

And leaven shall not be seen with you in any of your territory for seven days, and none of the meat that you will slaughter on the evening on the first day shall remain overnight until morning.

You are not allowed to offer the Passover sacrifice in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God is giving to you,

but only at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to let his name dwell there; you shall offer the Passover sacrifice {in the evening at sunset}, [at the] designated time of your going out from Egypt.

And you shall cook, and you shall eat [it] at the place that Yahweh your God will choose; and you may turn in the morning and go to your tents.

Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day [there shall be] an assembly for Yahweh your God; you shall not do work.

"You shall count [off] seven weeks for you; {from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain} you shall begin to count seven weeks.

And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite that [is] in your {towns} and the alien and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst in the place that Yahweh your God will choose to let his name dwell there.

Seven days you shall celebrate [your] feast to Yahweh your God at the place Yahweh will choose, for Yahweh your God shall bless you in all of your produce and in all [of] the work of your hand, and you shall surely [be] rejoicing.

Each [person] {shall give as he is able}, [that is], according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you.

"You shall appoint judges and officials for you in all your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you throughout your tribes, and you shall render [for] the people {righteous judgments}.

{Justice, only justice} you shall pursue, so that you may live, and you shall take possession of the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you.

"You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or sheep {that has a physical defect} {of anything seriously wrong}, for that [is] a detestable thing to Yahweh your God.

If [there] is found in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you a man or a woman that does evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to transgress his covenant

and by going and serving other gods and [so] he bows down to them and to the sun or to the moon or to any [of] the host of heaven {which I have forbidden},

and it is reported to you or you hear [about it] and you enquire [about it] thoroughly and, indeed, [the] trustworthiness of the deed [has] been established, it {has occurred}, this detestable thing, in Israel,

then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates; that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones {to death}.

{On the evidence of} two or three witnesses {the person shall be put to death}. The person shall not be put to death by the mouth of one witness.

The hand of the witnesses shall be first against the person to kill the person, and afterward the hands [of] all the people, and [so] you shall purge the evil from your midst.

"{If a matter is too difficult for you}, [for example disputes] between blood and blood, between legal claim and legal claim and between assault and assault [and between] matters of discernment in your {towns}, then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose;

then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be [in office] in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you {the verdict}.

"And {you shall carry out exactly the decision} that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and {you shall diligently observe} according to all that they instruct you.

[And so] according to {the instruction of the law} that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or [to the] left.

And the man who treats with contempt [so as] not to listen to the priest [who] [is] standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

"When you have come to that land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you and you have taken possession of it and you have settled in it, and you say, 'I will set over me a king like all the nations that [are] around me,'

indeed, you may set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will choose, from the midst of your countrymen you must set a king over you; you are not allowed to appoint over you a man, a foreigner, who [is] not your countryman.

Except, he may {not make numerous} for himself horses, and he may not allow the people to [to go] to Egypt {in order to increase horses}, for Yahweh has said to you that {you may never return}.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere Yahweh your God by {diligently observing} all the word of this law and these rules,

[so as] not to exalt his heart above his countrymen and not to turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, so that {he may reign long over his kingdom}, he and his children in the midst of Israel."

And there shall not be for them an inheritance [of land] in the midst of his brothers; [rather] Yahweh is his inheritance, [just] as he {promised} to them.

The firstfruits of your grain, your wine, and your olive oil and the firstfruits of the fleece of your sheep you shall give to him.

For Yahweh your God has chosen him from [among] all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, he and his sons {forever}.

And if a Levite comes from one of your {towns} from {anywhere in Israel} where he is residing, {he may come whenever he desires}, to the place that Yahweh will choose,

"When you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you must not learn to do like the detestable practices of those nations.

For everyone doing these [things] [is] detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God [is] driving them out from {before you}.

For these nations that you [are] about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.

"Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, [and] to him you shall listen.

[This is] {according to all that you asked} from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, {saying}, '{I do not want again to hear} the voice of Yahweh my God, [and] I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!'

And Yahweh said to me, 'They are right [in] what they have said.

I will raise up a prophet for them {from among their countrymen} like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them {everything that I command him}.

{And then} the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

However, the prophet that behaves presumptuously by speaking a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet shall die.'

And if you say {to yourself}, 'How can we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken to him?'

[Whenever] what the prophet spoke in the name of Yahweh, the thing does not take place and [does] not come [about], that [is] the thing that Yahweh has not spoken to him. Presumptuously the prophet spoke it; you shall not fear that prophet."

"When Yahweh your God has {exterminated} the nations [concerning whom] Yahweh your God [is] giving to you their land, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their towns and in their houses,

you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it.

You shall prepare the roads for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that {it will be available for any manslayer to flee there}.

{For example}, when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron [head] slips from the handle [of the tool] and strikes his neighbor and he dies, [then] he may flee to one of these cities, and [so] he may live.

[He does this] lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because {he is hot with anger} and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance [to the city of refuge], and [so] {he kills him}, but {he did not deserve a death sentence}, because he [was] not hating him {before}.

Then if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory [just] as he swore to your ancestors and gives to you all the land that he {promised} to give to your ancestors,

[then] {if you diligently observe this entire commandment} that I [am] commanding you {today} by loving Yahweh your God and by going in his ways {at all times}, then you shall add three more cities for yourselves to these three.

[Do this] so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance and [thereby] bloodguilt would be on you.

But if someone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him {and murders him}, and [the murderer] flees to one of these cities,

then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and they shall give him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall be put to death.

"You shall not move the boundary [marker] of your neighbor that {former generations} set up on your property in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it.

{The testimony of a single witness may not be used to convict} [with respect to] any crime and for any wrongdoing in any offense that a person committed; on the {evidence} of two witnesses or on the {evidence} of three witnesses {a charge shall be sustained}.

If {a malicious witness} gets up {to accuse} anyone to testify against him falsely,

then the two men {to whom the legal dispute pertains} shall stand {before} Yahweh, {before} the priests and the judges who are [in office] in those days.

then you shall do to him as he meant to do to his brother, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

{And the rest} shall hear and shall fear, and {they shall not continue to do such a thing again} as this evil thing in your midst.

"If you go out to war against your enemies and you see a horse and a chariot, {an army} larger that you, you shall not be afraid because of them; for Yahweh your God [is] with you, the one who brought you from the land of Egypt.

{And then} when you approach the battle, then the priest shall come near and speak to the troops.

And he shall say to them, 'Hear, Israel, you are near {today} to the battle against your enemies; {do not lose heart}; you shall not be afraid, and you shall not panic, and you shall not be terrified {because of them},

for Yahweh your God [is] going with you to fight for you against your enemies to help you.'

And the officials shall speak to the troops, {saying}, 'Who [is] the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to this house, so that he does not die in battle and {another man} dedicates it.

And who [is] the man that has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed it? Let him go and let him return to his house, so that he does not die in battle and {another man} enjoys it.

And who [is] the man who got engaged to a woman and [has] not married her? Let him go and let him return to his house, so that he does not die in battle and {another man} marries her.'

And the officials shall continue to speak to the troops, and they shall say, '{What man} is afraid {and disheartened}? Let him go, and let him return to his house, and let him not cause the heart of his brothers to melt like his.'

And {when the officials have finished speaking} to the army troops, then they shall appoint commanders of divisions at the head of the troops.

"When you approach a city to fight against it, {you must offer it peace}.

{And then} if {they accept your terms of peace} and {they surrender to you}, {and then} all the people {inhabiting it} shall be forced labor for you, and they shall serve you.

But if they {do not accept your terms of peace} and they want to make war with you, then you shall lay siege against it.

Only the women and the little children and the domestic animals and all that shall be in the city, all of its spoil you may loot for yourselves, and you may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that Yahweh you God has given to you.

Thus you shall do to all the far cities from you, which [are] not from the cities of these nations located {nearby}.

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}?

"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}.

Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to bless in the name of Yahweh, and every legal dispute and every [case of] assault will be {subject to their ruling}.

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.

Forgive your people, Israel, whom you redeemed, Yahweh, and [do] not {allow} the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, and let them be forgiven [with regard to] blood.'

And [so] you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, because you must do the right thing in the eyes of Yahweh.

and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in appearance, and you become attached to her and you want to take her as wife,