'May' in the Bible

Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would!

Select wise and practical men, those known among your tribes, whom I may appoint as your leaders."

You may purchase food to eat and water to drink from them.

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

You must fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you."

Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you.

Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.

but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you.

If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

Now these are the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed

and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you -- you, your children, and your grandchildren -- all your lives, to prolong your days.

Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number -- as the Lord, God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Do whatever is proper and good before the Lord so that it may go well with you and that you may enter and occupy the good land that he promised your ancestors,

and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.

The Lord commanded us to obey all these statutes and to revere him so that it may always go well for us and he may preserve us, as he has to this day.

You must keep carefully all these commandments I am giving you today so that you may live, increase in number, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.

a land where you may eat food in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.

Then he said to me, "Get up, set out leading the people so they may go and possess the land I promised to give to their ancestors."

Now pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed,

and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

then he promises, "I will send rain for your land in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.

so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land which the Lord promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself.

for you may do so only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribal areas -- there you may do everything I am commanding you.

On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you in all your villages. Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex.

Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor.

When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, "I want to eat meat just as I please," you may do so as you wish.

If the place he chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages just as you wish.

Like you eat the gazelle or ibex, so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them.

You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the Lord's sight.

Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

You may eat any animal that has hooves divided into two parts and that chews the cud.

However, you may not eat the following animals among those that chew the cud or those that have divided hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger. (Although they chew the cud, they do not have divided hooves and are therefore ritually impure to you).

Also the pig is ritually impure to you; though it has divided hooves, it does not chew the cud. You may not eat their meat or even touch their remains.

These you may eat from among water creatures: anything with fins and scales you may eat,

but whatever does not have fins and scales you may not eat; it is ritually impure to you.

All ritually clean birds you may eat.

These are the ones you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

and any winged thing on the ground are impure to you -- they may not be eaten.

You may eat any clean bird.

You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

In the presence of the Lord your God you must eat from the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the place he chooses to locate his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.

you may convert the tithe into money, secure the money, and travel to the place the Lord your God chooses for himself.

Then you may spend the money however you wish for cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and enjoy it.

Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with you), the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows of your villages may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work you do.

You may exact payment from a foreigner, but whatever your fellow Israelite owes you, you must remit.

If they have any kind of blemish -- lameness, blindness, or anything else -- you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God.

You may eat it in your villages, whether you are ritually impure or clean, just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex.

You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you,

You must cook and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents.

You must pursue justice alone so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.

The person who pays no attention to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict -- that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.

you must select without fail a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens you must appoint a king -- you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites.

It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

The Levitical priests -- indeed, the entire tribe of Levi -- will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance.

He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance.

Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself.

You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

A single witness may not testify against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you has built a new house and not dedicated it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else dedicate it.

Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it.

Or who among you has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her."

In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, "Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier's heart as fearful as his own."

However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city -- all its plunder -- you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you.

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it!

However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife.

You must be sure to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman's father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

A man may not marry his father's former wife and in this way dishonor his father.

A man with crushed or severed genitals may not enter the assembly of the Lord.

A person of illegitimate birth may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so.

An Ammonite or Moabite may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever do so,

Children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately.

When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.

Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him.

You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess.

When you enter the vineyard of your neighbor you may eat as many grapes as you please, but you must not take away any in a container.

When you go into the ripe grain fields of your neighbor you may pluck off the kernels with your hand, but you must not use a sickle on your neighbor's ripe grain.

If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house.

When she has left him she may go and become someone else's wife.

When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security.

If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering.

You must by all means return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just deed by the Lord your God.

Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do.

The judge may sentence him to forty blows, but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite with contempt.

then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. She will then respond, "Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother's family line!"

You must have an accurate and correct stone weight and an accurate and correct measuring container, so that your life may be extended in the land the Lord your God is about to give you.

When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages.

And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments.

Then you must inscribe on them all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to you.

"Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do.

so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today.

The Lord your God will also cleanse your heart and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

It is not in heaven, as though one must say, "Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?"