DEUTERONOMY
THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.
DEUTERONOMY
1
CHAPTER I.
A repetition of what passed at Sinai and Cades-barne;
and of the people's murmuring, and their punishment.
1
These are the words, which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the
plain wilderness, over-against the Red Sea, between Pharan and Thophel, and
Laban and Haseroth, where there is very much gold:
2
Eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Cades-barne.
3
*In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month, Moses
spoke to the children of Israel, all that the Lord had commanded him to say to
them:
4
*After that he had slain Sehon, king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon:
and Og, king of Basan, who abode in Astaroth, and in Edrai,
5
Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab.
And Moses began to expound the law, and to say:
6
The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough in
this mountain:
7
Turn you, and come to the mountain of the Amorrhites, and to the other places
that are next to it, the plains, and the hills, and the vales, towards the
south, and by the sea shore, the land of the Chanaanites, and of Libanus, as
far as the great river Euphrates.
8
Behold, said he, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess it, concerning
which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would
give it to them, and to their seed after them.
9
And I said to you at that time:
10
*I alone am not able to bear you: for the Lord your God hath multiplied you,
and you are this day as the stars of heaven, for multitude.
11
(The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you
as he hath spoken.)
12
I alone am not able to bear your business, and the charge of you and your
differences.
13
Let me have from among you wise and understanding men, and such whose
conversation is approved among your tribes, that I may appoint them your
rulers.
14
Then you answered me: The thing is good which thou meanest to do.
15
And I took out of your tribes men wise and honourable, and appointed them
rulers, tribunes, and centurions, and officers over fifties, and over tens, who
might teach you all things.
16
And I commanded them, saying: Hear them, and judge that which is just: *whether
he be one of your country, or a stranger.
17
*There shall be no difference of persons, you shall hear the little as well as
the great: neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is the judgment
of God. And if any thing seem hard to
you, refer it to me, and I will hear it.
18
And I commanded you all things that you were to do.
19
And departing from Horeb, we passed through the terrible and vast wilderness,
which you saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorrhite, as the Lord our God
had commanded us. And when we were come
into Cades-barne,
20
I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorrhite, which the Lord
our God will give to us.
21
See the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee: go up and possess it, as the
Lord our God hath spoken to thy fathers: fear not, nor be any way discouraged.
22
*And you came all to me, and said: Let us send men who may view the land, and
bring us word what way we shall go up, and to what cities we shall go.
23
And because the saying pleased me, I sent of you twelve men, one of every
tribe:
24
Who, when they had set forward, and had gone up to the mountains, came as far
as the valley of the cluster: and having viewed the land,
25
Taking of the fruits thereof, to shew its fertility, they brought them to us,
and said: The land is good, which the Lord our God will give us.
26
And you would not go up, but being incredulous to the word of the Lord our God,
27
You murmured in your tents, and said: The Lord hateth us, and therefore he hath
brought us out of the land of Egypt, that he might deliver us into the hand of
the Amorrhite, and destroy us.
28
Whither shall we go up? the messengers have terrified our hearts, saying: The
multitude is very great, and taller than we: the cities are great, and walled
up to the sky, we have seen the sons of the Enacims there.
29
And I said to you: Fear not, neither be ye afraid of them:
30
The Lord God, who is your leader, himself will fight for you, as he did in
Egypt in the sight of all.
31
And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee,
as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until
you came to this place.
32
And yet for all this you did not believe the Lord your God,
33
*Who went before you in the way, and marked out the place wherein you should
pitch your tents, in the night shewing you the way by fire, and in the day by
the pillar of a cloud.
34
And when the Lord had heard the voice of your words, he was angry and swore,
and said:
35
*Not one of the men of this wicked generation shall see the good land, which I
promised with an oath to your fathers:
36
Except Caleb, the son of Jephone: for he shall see it, and to him I will give
the land, that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath
followed the Lord.
37
Neither is his indignation against the people to be wondered at, since the Lord
was angry with me also on your account, and said: Neither shalt thou go in
thither.
38
But Josue, the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall go in for thee: exhort and
encourage him, and he shall divide the land by lot to Israel.
39
Your children, of whom you said that they should be led away captives, and your
sons, who know not this day the difference of good and evil, they shall go in:
and to them I will give the land, and they shall possess it.
40
But return you and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
41
*And you answered me: We have sinned against the Lord: we will go up and fight,
as the Lord our God hath commanded. And
when you went ready armed unto the mountain,
42
The Lord said to me: Say to them: *Go not up, and fight not, for I am not with
you: lest you fall before your enemies.
43
I spoke, and you hearkened not: but resisting the commandment of the Lord, and
swelling with pride, you went up into the mountain.
44
And the Amorrhite that dwelt in the mountains, coming out, and meeting you,
chased you, as bees do: and made slaughter of you from Seir as far as Horma.
45
And when you returned and wept before the Lord, he heard you not, neither would
he yield to your voice.
46
So you abode in Cades-barne a long time.
____________________
*
3: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
4: Num. xxi. 24.
10: Ex. xviii. 18.
16: John vii. 24.
17: Lev. xix. 15.; Infra xvi. 19.; Prov. xxiv.
23.; Eccli. xlii. 1.; James ii. 1.
22: Num. xiii. 3. and xxxii. 8.
33: Exod. xiii. 21.; Num. xiv. 14.
35: Num. xiv. 23.; Ps. xciv. 11.
41: Num. xiv. 40.
42: Num. xiv. 42.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
2
CHAPTER II.
They are forbid to fight against the Edomites,
Moabites, and Ammonites. Their victory
over Sehon, king of Hesebon.
1
And departing from thence we, came into the wilderness, that leadeth to the Red
Sea, as the Lord had spoken to me: and we compassed Mount Seir a long time.
2
And the Lord said to me:
3
You have compassed this mountain long enough: go towards the north:
4
And command thou the people, saying: You shall pass by the borders of your
brethren the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and they will be afraid of
you.
5
Take ye then good heed that you stir not against them: For I will not give you
of their land so much as the step of one foot can tread upon, because I have
given Mount Seir to Esau, for a possession.
6
You shall buy meats of them for money, and shall eat: you shall draw water for
money, and shall drink.
7
The Lord thy God hath blessed thee in every work of thy hands: the Lord thy God
dwelling with thee, knoweth thy journey, how thou hast passed through this
great wilderness for forty years, and thou hast wanted nothing.
8
And when we had passed by our brethren, the children of Esau, that dwelt in
Seir, by the way of the plain from Elath, and from Asiongaber, we came to the
way that leadeth to the desert of Moab.
9
And the Lord said to me: *Fight not against the Moabites, neither go to battle
against them: for I will not give thee any of their land, because I have given
Ar to the children of Lot in possession.
10
The Emims first were the inhabitants thereof, a people great, and strong, and
so tall, that like the race of the Enacims,
11
They were esteemed as giants, and were like the sons of the Enacims. But the Moabites call them Emims.
12
The Horrhites also formerly dwelt in Seir: who being driven out and destroyed,
the children of Esau dwelt there, as Israel did in the land of his possession,
which the Lord gave him.
13
Then rising up to pass the torrent Zared, we came to it.
14
And the time that we journeyed from Cades-barne till we passed over the torrent
Zared, was thirty-eight years: until all the generation of the men that were
fit for war was consumed out of the camp, as the Lord had sworn:
15 For
his hand was against them, that they should perish from the midst of the
camp.
16
And after all the fighting men were dead,
17
The Lord spoke to me, saying:
18
Thou shalt pass this day the borders of Moab,* the city named Ar:
19
And when thou comest nigh the frontiers of the children of Ammon, take heed
thou fight not against them, nor once move to battle: for I will not give thee
of the land of the children of Ammon, because I have given it to the children
of Lot for a possession.
20
It was accounted a land of giants: and giants formerly dwelt in it, whom the
Ammonites call Zomzommims,
21
A people great, and many, and of tall stature, like the Enacims, whom the Lord
destroyed before their face: and he made them to dwell in their stead,
22
As he had done in favour of the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir,
destroying the Horrhites, and delivering their land to them, which they possess
unto this day.
23
The Hevites also, that dwelt in Haserim as far as Gaza, were expelled by the
Cappadocians: who came out of Cappadocia, and destroyed them, and dwelt in
their stead.
24
Arise ye, and pass the torrent Arnon: *behold I have delivered into thy hand
Sehon, king of Hesebon, the Amorrhite, and begin thou to possess his land, and
make war against him.
25
This day will I begin to send the dread and fear of thee upon the nations, that
dwell under the whole heaven: that when they hear thy name they may fear and
tremble, and be in pain like women in travail.
26
*So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Cademoth to Sehon, the king of
Hesebon, with peaceable words, saying:
27
We will pass through thy land, we will go along by the highway: we will not
turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the left.
28
Sell us meat for money, that we may eat: give us water for money, and so we
will drink. We only ask that thou wilt
let us pass through,
29
As the children of Esau have done, that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, that
abide in Ar: until we come to the Jordan, and pass to the land, which the Lord
our God will give us.
30
And Sehon, the king of Hesebon, would not let us pass: because the Lord thy God
had hardened his spirit and fixed his heart, that he might be delivered into
thy hands, as now thou seest.
31
And the Lord said to me: *Behold I have begun to deliver unto thee Sehon, and
his land; begin to possess it.
32
And Sehon came out to meet us with all his people to fight at Jasa.
33
And the Lord our God delivered him to us: and we slew him, with his sons, and
all his people.
34
And we took all his cities at that time, killing the inhabitants of them, men,
and women, and children. We left nothing
of them,
35
Except the cattle, which came to the share of them that took them: and the
spoils of the cities, which we took:
36
From Aroer, which is upon the bank of the torrent Arnon, a town that is situate
in a valley, as far as Galaad, there was not a village or city, that escaped
our hands: the Lord our God delivered all unto us:
37
Except the land of the children of Ammon, to which we approached not: and all
that border upon the torrent Jeboc, and the cities in the mountains, and all
the places, which the Lord our God forbade us.
____________________
*
9: Num. xxi. 13.
18: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
24: A.M. 2553.
26: Num. xxi. 21.
31: Amos ii. 9.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
3
CHAPTER III.
The victory over Og, king of Basan. Ruben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses,
receive their possession on the other side of the Jordan.
1
Then we turned *and went by the way of Basan: **and Og, the king of Basan, came
out to meet us with his people to fight in Edrai.
2
And the Lord said to me: Fear him not: because he is delivered into thy hand,
with all his people and his land: and thou shalt do to him as thou hast done to
Sehon, king of the Amorrhites, that dwelt in Hesebon.
3
*So the Lord our God delivered into our hands, Og also, the king of Basan, and
all his people: and we utterly destroyed them,
4
Wasting all his cities at one time; there was not a town that escaped us: sixty
cities, all the country of Argob, the kingdom of Og, in Basan.
5
All the cities were fenced with very high walls, and with gates and bars,
besides innumerable towns that had no walls.
6
And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to Sehon, the king of Hesebon,
destroying every city, men, and women, and children:
7
But the cattle and the spoils of the cities, we took for our prey.
8
And we took at that time the land out of the hand of the two kings of the
Amorrhites, that were beyond the Jordan: from the torrent Arnon unto the
mountain Hermon,
9
Which the Sidonians call Sarion, and the Amorrhites Sanir*:
10
All the cities, that are situate in the plain, and all the land of Galaad and
Basan, as far as Selcha, and Edrai, cities of the kingdom of Og, in Basan.
11
For only Og, king of Basan, remained of the race of the giants. His bed of iron is shewn, which is in Rabbath
of the children of Ammon, being nine cubits long, and four broad after the
measure of the cubit of a man's hand.
12
And we possessed the land at that time from Aroer, which is upon the bank of
the torrent Arnon, unto the half of Mount Galaad: *and I gave the cities
thereof to Ruben and Gad.
13
And I delivered the other part of Galaad, and all Basan, the kingdom of Og, to
the half tribe of Manasses, all the country of Argob: and all Basan is called
the land of giants.
14
Jair, the son of Manasses, possessed all the country of *Argob unto the borders
of Gessuri, and Machati. And he called
Basan by his own name, Havoth Jair, that is to say, the towns of Jair, until
this present day.
15
To Machir also I gave Galaad.
16
And to the tribes of Ruben and Gad, I gave of the land of Galaad, as far as the
torrent Arnon, half the torrent, and the confines even unto the torrent Jeboc,
which is the border of the children of Ammon:
17
And the plain of the wilderness, and the Jordan, and the borders of Cenereth,
unto the sea of the desert, which is the most salt sea, to the foot of Mount
Phasga, eastward.
18
And I commanded you at that time, saying: The Lord your God giveth you this
land for an inheritance; go ye well appointed before your brethren, the
children of Israel, all the strong men of you:
19
Leaving your wives, and children, and cattle.
For I know you have much cattle, and they must remain in the cities,
which I have delivered to you.
20
Until the Lord give rest to your brethren, as he hath given to you: and they
also possess the land, which he will give them beyond the Jordan: then shall
every man return to his possession, which I have given you.
21
*I commanded Josue also at that time, saying: Thy eyes have seen what the Lord
your God hath done to these two kings: so will he do to all the kingdoms, to
which thou shalt pass.
22
Fear them not: for the Lord your God will fight for you.
23
And I besought the Lord at that time, saying:
24
Lord God, thou hast begun to shew unto thy servant thy greatness, and most
mighty hand; for there is no other God, either in heaven, or earth, that is
able to do thy works, or to be compared to thy strength.
25
I will pass over, therefore, and will see this excellent land beyond the
Jordan, and this goodly mountain, and Libanus.
26
And the Lord was angry with me on your account, and heard me not, but said to
me: It is enough: speak no more to me of this matter.
27
Go up to the top of Phasga, and cast thy eyes round about to the west, and to
the north, and to the south, and to the east, and behold it, *for thou shalt
not pass this Jordan.
28
Command Josue, and encourage and strengthen him: for he shall go before this
people, and shall divide unto them the land which thou shalt see.
29
And we abode in the valley over-against the temple of Phogor.
____________________
*
1: A.M.
2553. --- ** Num. xxi. 34.
3: Num. xxi. 35.
9: Infra iv. 48.
12: Num. xxxii. 29.
14: Num. xxi. 34.
21: Num. xxvii. 18.
27: Infra xxxi. 2. and xxxiv. 4.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
4
CHAPTER IV.
Moses exhorteth the people to keep God's commandments:
particularly to fly idolatry. Appointeth
three cities of refuge, on that side of the Jordan.
1
And now, O Israel, hear the commandments and judgments, which I teach thee:
that doing them, thou mayst live, and entering in mayst possess the land, which
the Lord, the God of your fathers, will give you.
2
You shall not add to the word that I speak to you, neither shall you take away
from it: keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you.
3
*Your eyes have seen all that the Lord hath done against Beelphegor, how he
hath destroyed all his worshippers from among you.
4
But you that adhere to the Lord your God, are all alive until this present day.
5
You know that I have taught you statutes and justices, as the Lord my God hath
commanded me: so shall you do them in the land, which you shall possess:
6
And you shall observe, and fulfil them in work.
For this is your wisdom, and understanding in the sight of nations, that
hearing all these precepts, they may say: Behold a wise and understanding
people, a great nation.
7
Neither is there any other nation so great, that hath gods so nigh them, as our
God is present to all our petitions.
8
For what other nation is there so renowned, that hath ceremonies, and just
judgments, and all the law, which I will set forth this day before your eyes?
9
Keep thyself therefore, and thy soul carefully.
Forget not the words, that thy eyes have seen, and let them not go out
of thy heart all the days of thy life.
Thou shalt teach them to thy sons and to thy grandsons,
10
From the day in which thou didst stand before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when
the Lord spoke to me, saying: Call together the people unto me, that they may
hear my words, and may learn to fear me all the time that they live on the
earth, and may teach their children.
11
*And you came to the foot of the mount, which burned even unto heaven: and there
was darkness, and a cloud, and obscurity in it.
12
And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of his words, but you saw
not any form at all.
13
And he shewed you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, and the *ten words,
that he wrote in two tables of stone.
14
And he commanded me at that time that I should teach you the ceremonies and
judgments, which you shall do in the land that you shall possess.
15
Keep therefore your souls carefully.
*You saw not any similitude, in the day that the Lord God spoke to you
in Horeb, from the midst of the fire:
16
Lest perhaps being deceived you might make you a graven similitude, or image of
male or female,
17
The similitude of any beasts, that are upon the earth, or of birds, that fly
under heaven,
18
Or of creeping things, that move on the earth, or of fishes, that abide in the
waters under the earth:
19
Lest perhaps lifting up thy eyes to heaven, thou see the sun and the moon, and
all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error, thou adore and serve
them, which the Lord thy God created for the service of all the nations, that
are under heaven.
20
But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace of Egypt,
to make you his people of inheritance, as it is this present day.
21
*And the Lord was angry with me for your words, and he swore that I should not
pass over the Jordan, nor enter into the excellent land, which he will give
you.
22
Behold I die in this land, I shall not pass over the Jordan: you shall pass,
and possess the goodly land.
23
Beware lest thou ever forget the covenant of the Lord thy God, which he hath
made with thee: and make to thyself a graven likeness of those things, which
the Lord hath forbid to be made:
24
*Because the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25
If you shall begot sons and grandsons, and abide in the land, and being
deceived make to yourselves any similitude, committing evil before the Lord
your God, to provoke him to wrath:
26
I call this day heaven and earth to witness, that you shall quickly perish out
of the land, which, when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall
possess. You shall not dwell therein
long, but the Lord will destroy you,
27
And scatter you among all nations, and you shall remain a few among the
nations, to which the Lord shall lead you.
28
And there you shall serve gods, that were framed with men's hands; wood and
stone, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29
And when thou shalt seek there the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him: yet so,
if thou seek him with all thy heart, and all the affliction of thy soul.
30
After all the things aforesaid shall find thee, in the latter time thou shalt
return to the Lord thy God, and shalt hear his voice:
31
Because the Lord thy God, is a merciful God: he will not leave thee, nor
altogether destroy thee, nor forget the covenant, by which he swore to thy
fathers.
32
Ask of the days of old, that have been before thy time from the day that God
created man upon the earth, from one end of heaven to the other end thereof, if
ever there was done the like thing, or it hath been known at any time,
33
That a people should hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire,
as thou hast heard, and lived:
34
If God ever did so as to go, and take to himself a nation out of the
midst of nations, by temptations, signs, and wonders, by fight, and a strong
hand, and stretched-out arm, and horrible visions, according to all the things
that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before thy eyes:
35
That thou mightest know that the Lord he is God, and there is no other besides
him.
36
From heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might teach thee. And upon earth he shewed thee his exceeding
great fire, and thou didst hear his words out of the midst of the fire,
37
Because he loved thy fathers, and chose their seed after them. *And he brought thee out of Egypt, going
before thee with his great power,
38
To destroy at thy coming very great nations, and stronger than thou art,
and to bring thee in, and give thee their land for a possession, as thou seest
at this present day.
39
Know therefore this day, and think in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in
heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and there is no other.
40
Keep his precepts and commandments, which I command thee: that it may be well
with thee, and thy children after thee, and thou mayst remain a long time upon
the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee.
41
*Then Moses set aside three cities beyond the Jordan, at the east side,
42
That any one might flee to them who should kill his neighbour unwillingly, and
was not his enemy a day or two before, and that he might escape to some one of
these cities:
43
*Bosor in the wilderness, which is situate in the plains of the tribe of Ruben:
and Ramoth, in Galaad, which is in the tribe of Gad: and Golan, in Basan, which
is in the tribe of Manasses.
44
This is the law, that Moses set before the children of Israel.
45
And these are the testimonies, and ceremonies, and judgments, which he spoke to
the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt,
46
Beyond the Jordan, in the valley over-against the temple of Phogor, in the land
of Sehon, king of the Amorrhites, that dwelt in Hesebon, whom Moses slew. And the children of Israel coming out of
Egypt,
47
Possessed his land, and the land of Og, king of Basan, of the two kings of the
Amorrhites, who were beyond the Jordan, towards the rising of the sun:
48
From Aroer, which is situate upon the bank of the torrent Arnon, unto Mount
Sion, which is also called Hermon,
49
All the plain beyond the Jordan, at the east side, unto the sea of the
wilderness, and unto the foot of Mount Phasga.
____________________
*
3: Num. xxv. 4.; Jos. xxii. 17.
11: Exod. xix. 18.
13: Exod. xx. xxi. xxii. and xxiii. cap.
15: Exod. xxiv. 10.
21: Supra i. 37.
24: Heb. xii. 29.
37: Exod. xiii. 21.
41: Num. xxxv. 14.
43: Jos. xx. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
5
CHAPTER V.
The ten commandments are repeated and explained.
1
And Moses *called all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the ceremonies
and judgments, which I speak in your ears this day: learn them, and fulfil them
in work.
2
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
3
He made not the covenant with our fathers, but with us, who are now present and
living.
4
He spoke to us face to face in the mount out of the midst of fire.
5 I
was the mediator, and stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you
his words; for you feared the fire, and went not up into the mountain, and he
said:
6
*I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage
7
*Thou shalt not have strange gods in my sight.
8
*Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any things
that are in heaven above, or that are in the earth beneath, or that
abide in the waters under the earth.
9
*Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them. For I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and
fourth generation to them that hate me,
10
And shewing mercy unto many thousands to them that love me, and keep my
commandments.
11
*Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for he shall not be
unpunished that taketh his name upon a vain thing.
12
Observe the day of the sabbath, to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath
commanded thee.
13
Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.
14
*The seventh is the day of the sabbath, that is, the rest of the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt not do any work therein,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant,
nor thy ox, nor thy ass, nor any of thy beasts, nor the stranger that is within
thy gates: that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest even as thyself.
15
Remember that thou also didst serve in Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee
out from thence with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm. Therefore hath he commanded thee that thou
shouldst observe the sabbath-day.
16
*Honour thy father and mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that
thou mayst live a long time, and it may be well with thee in the land, which
the Lord thy God will give thee.
17
Thou shalt not kill.
18
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
19
And thou shalt not steal.
20
Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
21
*Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife: nor his house, nor his
field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor
any thing that is his.
22
These words the Lord spoke to all the multitude of you in the mountain, out of
the midst of the fire and the cloud, and the darkness, with a loud voice,
adding nothing more: and he wrote them in two tables of stone, which he
delivered unto me.
23
But you, after you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and saw
the mountain burn, came to me, all the princes of the tribes and the elders,
and you said:
24
Behold the Lord our God hath shewn us his majesty and his greatness; we have
heard his voice out of the midst of the fire, and have proved this day, that
God speaking with man, man hath lived.
25
Why shall we die therefore, and why shall this exceeding great fire consume us? For if we hear the voice of the Lord our God
any more, we shall die.
26
What is all flesh, that it should hear the voice of the living God, who
speaketh out of the midst of the fire, as we have heard, and be able to live.
27
Approach thou rather: and hear all things that the Lord our God shall say to
thee, and thou shalt speak to us, and we will hear and will do them.
28
And when the Lord had heard this, he said to me: I have heard the voice of the
words of this people, which they spoke to thee: they have spoken all things
well.
29
Who shall give them to have such a mind, to fear me, and to keep all my
commandments at all times, that it may be well with them and with their
children for ever?
30
Go and say to them: Return into your tents.
31
But stand thou here with me, and I will speak to thee all my commandments, and
ceremonies and judgments: which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in
the land which I will give them for a possession.
32
Keep, therefore, and do the things which the Lord God hath commanded you: you
shall not go aside neither to the right hand nor to the left:
33
But you shall walk in the way that the Lord your God hath commanded, that you
may live, and it may be well with you, and your days may be long in the
land of your possession.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
6: Exod. xx. 1.; Lev. xxvi. 1.; Ps. lxxx. 11.
7: Exod. xx. 3.; Ps. lxxx. 10.
8: Exod. xx. 4.; Lev. xxvi. 1.; Ps. xcvi. 7.
9: Exod. xxxiv. 14.
11: Exod. xx. 7.; Lev. xix. 12.; Mat. v. 33.
14: Gen. ii. 2.; Exod. xx. 10.; Heb. iv. 4.
16: Ex. xx. 12.; Eccli. iii. 9.; Mat. xv. 4.;
Mark vii. 10.; Ephes. vi. 2.
21: Matt. v. 28.; Rom. vii. 7.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
6
CHAPTER VI.
An exhortation to the love of God, and obedience to
his law.
1
These* are the precepts, and ceremonies, and judgments, which the Lord your God
commanded that I should teach you, and that you should do them in the land,
into which you pass over to possess it:
2
That thou mayst fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and
precepts, which I command thee, and thy sons, and thy grandsons, all the days
of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged.
3
Hear, O Israel, and observe to do the things which the Lord hath commanded
thee, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst be greatly multiplied, as
the Lord the God of thy fathers hath promised thee a land flowing with milk and
honey.
4
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
5
*Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole
soul, and with thy whole strength.
6
And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart.
7
And thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them,
sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising.
8
And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall
move between thy eyes.
9
And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house.
10
And when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, for which he
swore to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and shall have given thee
great and goodly cities, which thou didst not build,
11
Houses full of riches, which thou didst not set up, cisterns which thou didst
not dig, vineyards and oliveyards, which thou didst not plant,
12
And thou shalt have eaten, and be full:
13
Take heed diligently, lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
*Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only, and thou
shalt swear by his name.
14
You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations, that are round
about you:
15
Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God in the midst of thee: lest at any
time the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and take thee away
from the face of the earth.
16
*Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, as thou temptedst him in the place of
temptation.
17
Keep the precepts of the Lord thy God, and the testimonies and ceremonies,
which he hath commanded thee:
18
And do that which is pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be
well with thee: and going in thou mayst possess the goodly land, concerning
which the Lord swore to thy fathers,
19
That he would destroy all thy enemies before thee, as he hath spoken.
20
And when thy son shall ask thee to-morrow, saying: What mean these testimonies,
and ceremonies, and judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded us?
21
Thou shalt say to him: We were bondmen of Pharao in Egypt, and the Lord brought
us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
22
And he wrought signs and wonders, great and very grievous in Egypt, against
Pharao, and all his house, in our sight,
23
And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in and give us the
land, concerning which he swore to our fathers
24
And the Lord commanded that we should do all these ordinances, and should fear
the Lord our God, that it might be well with us all the days of our life, as it
is at this day.
25
And he will be merciful to us, if we keep and do all his precepts before the
Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
5: Infra xi. 13.; Mat. xxii. 37.; Mark xii. 30.;
Luke x. 27.
13: Infra x. 20.; Mat. iv. 10.; Luke iv. 8.
16: Mat. iv. 7.; Luke iv. 12.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
7
CHAPTER VII.
No league nor fellowship to be made with the
Chanaanites: God promiseth his people his blessing and assistance, if they keep
his commandments.
1
When *the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art
going in to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, **the
Hethite, and the Gergezite, and the Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, and the
Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous
than thou art, and stronger than thou:
2
And the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly
destroy them. *Thou shalt make no league
with them, nor shew mercy to them:
3
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them.
Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for
thy son:
4
For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve
strange gods, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly
destroy thee.
5
But thus rather shall you deal with them: *Destroy their altars, and break
their statues, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven things:
6
*Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. **The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be
his peculiar people, of all peoples that are upon the earth.
7
Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and
hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people:
8
But because the Lord hath loved you, and hath kept his oath, which he swore to
your fathers: and hath brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you
from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao the king of Egypt.
9
And thou shalt know, that the Lord thy God, he is a strong and faithful God,
keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his
commandments, unto a thousand generations:
10
And repaying forthwith them that hate him, so as to destroy them, without
further delay, immediately rendering to them what they deserve.
11
Keep therefore the precepts and ceremonies, and judgments, which I command thee
this day to do.
12
If after thou hast heard these judgments, thou keep and do them, the Lord thy
God will also keep his covenant to thee, and the mercy which he swore to thy
fathers:
13
And he will love thee and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb,
and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy vintage, thy oil, and thy herds, and
the flocks of thy sheep upon the land, for which he swore to thy fathers
that he would give it thee.
14
Blessed shalt thou be among all people.
*No one shall be barren among you of either sex, neither of men nor
cattle.
15
The Lord will take away from thee all sickness: and the grievous infirmities of
Egypt, which thou knowest, he will not bring upon thee, but upon thy enemies.
16
Thou shalt consume all the people, which the Lord thy God will deliver to
thee. Thy eye shall not spare them,
neither shalt thou serve their gods, lest they be thy ruin.
17
If thou say in thy heart: These nations are more than I, how shall I be able to
destroy them?
18
Fear not, but remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharao, and to all the
Egyptians,
19
The exceeding great plagues, which thy eyes saw, and the signs and wonders, and
the strong hand, and the stretched-out arm, with which the Lord thy God brought
thee out: so will he do to all the people, whom thou fearest.
20
*Moreover the Lord thy God will send also hornets among them, until he destroy
and consume all that have escaped thee, and could hide themselves.
21
Thou shalt not fear them, because the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a
God mighty and terrible:
22
He will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by
degrees. Thou wilt not be able to
destroy them altogether, lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase
upon thee.
23
But the Lord thy God shall deliver them in thy sight: and shall slay them until
they be utterly destroyed.
24
And he shall deliver their kings into thy hands, and thou shalt destroy their
names from under heaven: no man shall be able to resist thee, until thou
destroy them.
25
*Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver
and gold, of which they are made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing
thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
26
Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become
an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest
it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is
an anathema.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553. --- ** Ex. xxiii. 23. and xxxiii.
2.
2: Ex. xxiii. 32. and xxxiv. 15. 16.
5: Ex. xxiii. 24.; Infra xii. 3. and xvi. 21.
6: Infra xiv. 2. --- ** Infra xxvi. 18.
14: Ex. xxiii. 26.
20: Exod. xxiii. 28.; Jos. xxiv. 12.
25: 2 Mac. xii. 40.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
8
CHAPTER VIII.
The people is put in mind of God's dealings with them,
to the end that they may love him and serve him.
1
All the commandments, that I command thee this day, *take great care to
observe: that you may live, and be multiplied, and going in may possess the land,
for which the Lord swore to your fathers.
2
And thou shalt remember all the way, through which the Lord thy God hath
brought thee for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee, and to prove
thee, and that the things that were in thy heart might be made known, whether
thou wouldst keep his commandments or not.
3
He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which
neither thou nor thy fathers knew: to shew that *not in bread alone doth man
live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.
4
Thy raiment, with which thou wast covered, hath not decayed for age, and thy
foot is not worn, lo this is the fortieth year.
5
That thou mayst consider in thy heart, that as a man traineth up his son, so
the Lord thy God hath trained thee up,
6
That thou shouldst keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his
ways, and fear him.
7
For the Lord thy God will bring thee into a good land, of brooks, and of
waters, and of fountains: in the plains of which and the hills deep rivers
break out:
8 A
land of wheat, and barley, and vineyards, wherein fig-trees and pomegranates,
and oliveyards grow: a land of oil and honey.
9
Where without any want thou shalt eat thy bread, and enjoy abundance of all
things: where the stones are iron, and out of its hills are dug mines of brass:
10
That when thou hast eaten, and art full, thou mayst bless the Lord thy God, for
the excellent land, which he hath given thee.
11
Take heed, and beware, lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God, and neglect
his commandments, and judgments, and ceremonies, which I command thee this day:
12
Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly houses, and dwelt
in them,
13
And shalt have herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold, and of silver,
and of all things,
14
Thy heart be lifted up, and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:
15
And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, *wherein there was the
serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas, and no waters
at all: **who brought forth streams out of the hardest rock,
16
*And fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not. And after he had afflicted and proved thee,
at the last he had mercy on thee,
17
Lest thou shouldst say in thy heart: My own might, and the strength of my own
hand, have achieved all these things for me.
18
But remember the Lord thy God, that he hath given thee strength, that he might
fulfil his covenant, concerning which he swore to thy fathers, as this present
day sheweth.
19
But if thou forget the Lord thy God, and follow strange gods, and serve and
adore them: behold now I foretell thee, that thou shalt utterly perish.
20
As the nations, which the Lord destroyed at thy entrance, so shall you also
perish, if you be disobedient to the voice of the Lord your God.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
3: Mat. iv. 4.; Luke iv. 4.
15: Num. xx. 9. and xxi. 6. --- ** Exod. xvii. 6.
16: Exod. xvi. 14.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
9
CHAPTER IX.
Lest they should impute their victories to their own
merits, they are put in mind of their manifold rebellions and other sins, for
which they should have been destroyed but God spared them for his promise made
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1 Hear, O Israel: Thou shalt go over the Jordan
*this day; to possess nations very great, and stronger than thyself, cities
great, and walled up to the sky,
2 A people great and tall, the sons of the
Enacims, whom thou hast seen, and heard of, against whom no man is able to
stand.
3 Thou shalt know therefore this day that the
Lord thy God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming
fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face
quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.
4 Say not in thy heart, when the Lord thy God
shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my justice hath the Lord brought me
in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their
wickedness.
5 For it is not for thy justices, and the
uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but
because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that
the Lord might accomplish his word, which he promised by oath to thy fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth
thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices; for thou art a
very stiff-necked people.
7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst
the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness.
From the day that thou camest out of Egypt unto this place, thou hast
always strove against the Lord.
8 *For in Horeb also thou didst provoke him,
and he was angry, and would have destroyed thee,
9 *When I went up into the mount, to receive
the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you:
and I continued in the mount forty days and nights, neither eating bread, nor
drinking water.
10 *And the Lord gave me two tables of stone
written with the finger of God, and containing all the words that he spoke to
you in the mount from the midst of the fire, when the people were assembled
together.
11 And when forty days were passed, and as many
nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant;
12 And said to me: *Arise, and go down from
hence quickly: for thy people, which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have
quickly forsaken the way, that thou hast shewed them, and have made to
themselves a molten idol.
13 And again the Lord said to me: I see that
this people is stiff-necked:
14 Let me alone that I may destroy them, and
abolish their name from under heaven, and set thee over a nation that is
greater and stronger than this.
15 And when I came down from the burning mount,
and held the two tables of the covenant with both hands,
16 And saw that you had sinned against the Lord
your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken
his way, which he had shewed you:
17 I cast the tables out of my hands, and broke
them in your sight.
18 And I fell down before the Lord, as before,
forty days and nights neither eating bread nor drinking water, for all your
sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath:
19 For I feared his indignation and anger,
wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you. And the Lord heard me this time also.
20 And he was exceeding angry against Aaron
also, and would have destroyed him, and I prayed in like manner for him.
21 And your sin that you had committed, that is,
the calf, I took, and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces, until
it was as small as dust, I threw it into the torrent which cometh down from the
mountain.
22 *At the burning also, and at the place of
temptation, and at the graves of lust you provoked the Lord:
23 And when he sent you from Cades-barne,
saying: Go up, and possess the land that I have given you, and you slighted the
commandment of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, neither would you
hearken to his voice:
24 But were always rebellious from the day that
I began to know you.
25 And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty
days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you
as he had threatened:
26 And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not
thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness,
whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and
sin:
28 Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out
of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the
land, that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out,
that he might kill them in the wilderness,
29 Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom
thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched-out arm.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
8: Exod. xvii. 6. and xix. 3.
9: Exod. xiv. 18.
10: Exod. xxxi. 18. and xxxii. 15.
12: Exod. xxxii. 7.
22: Num. xi. 1. and xvi. 2. and xxi. 5.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
10
CHAPTER X.
God giveth the second tables of the law: a further
exhortation to fear and serve the Lord.
1
At *that time the Lord said to me: Hew thee two tables of stone, like the
former, and come up to me into the mount: and thou shalt make an ark of wood,
2
And I will write on the tables the words that were in them which thou brokest
before, and thou shalt put them in the ark.
3
And I made an ark of setim-wood. And
when I had hewn two tables of stone like the former, I went up into the mount,
having them in my hands.
4
And he wrote in the tables, according as he had written before, the ten words,
which the Lord spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the fire, when the
people were assembled: and he gave them to me.
5
And returning from the mount, I came down, and put the tables into the ark,
that I had made, and they are there till this present, as the Lord commanded
me.
6
*And the children of Israel removed their camp from Beroth, of the children of
Jacan into Mosera, where **Aaron died, and was buried, and Eleazar, his son,
succeeded him in the priestly office.
7
From thence they came to Gadgad, from which place they departed, and camped in
Jetebatha, in a land of waters and torrents.
8
At that time he separated the tribe of Levi, to carry the ark of the covenant
of the Lord, and to stand before him in the ministry, and to bless in his name
until this present day.
9
Wherefore Levi hath no part, nor possession with his brethren: because the Lord
himself is his possession, as the Lord thy God promised him.
10
And I stood in the mount, as before, forty days and nights: and the Lord heard
me this time also, and would not destroy thee.
11
And he said to me: Go, and walk before the people, that they may enter, and
possess the land, which I swore to their fathers that I would give them.
12
And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear
the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and serve the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul:
13
And keep the commandments of the Lord, and his ceremonies, which I command thee
this day, that it may be well with thee?
14
Behold heaven is the Lord's thy God, and the heaven of heaven, the earth, and
all things that are therein:
15
And yet the Lord hath been closely joined to thy fathers, and loved them, and
chose their seed after them, that is to say, you, out of all nations, as this
day it is proved.
16
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and stiffen your neck no more:
17
Because the Lord your God he is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, a great
God, and mighty and terrible, *who accepteth no person, nor taketh bribes.
18
He doth judgment to the fatherless and the widow, loveth the stranger, and
giveth him food and raiment.
19
And do you therefore love strangers, because you also were strangers in the
land of Egypt.
20
*Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him only: to him thou shalt
adhere, and shalt swear by his name.
21
He is thy praise, and thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible
things, which thy eyes have seen.
22
In seventy souls thy fathers went down into Egypt: and behold now the Lord thy
God hath multiplied thee as the stars of heaven.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.; Exod. xxxiv. 1.
6: Num. xxxiii. 31. --- ** Num. xx. 28. and 29.
17: 2 Par. xix. 7.; Job xxxiv. 19.; Wisd. vi. 8.;
Eccli. xxxv. 15.; Acts x. 34.; Rom. ii. 11.; Gal. ii. 6.
20: Supra vi. 13.; Mat. iv. 10.; Luke iv. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
11
CHAPTER XI.
The love and service of God are still inculcated, with
a blessing to them that serve him, and threats of punishment if they forsake
his law.
1
Therefore *love the Lord thy God and observe his precepts and ceremonies, his
judgments and commandments, at all times.
2
Know this day the things that your children know not, who saw not the
chastisements of the Lord your God, his great doings and strong hand, and
stretched-out arm,
3
The signs and works which he did in the midst of Egypt to king Pharao, and to
all his land,
4
And to all the host of the Egyptians, and to their horses and chariots: how the
waters of the Red Sea covered them, when they pursued you, and how the Lord
destroyed them until this present day:
5
And what he hath done to you in the wilderness, till you came to this place:
6
*And to Dathan and Abiron, the sons of Eliab, who was the son of Ruben: **whom
the earth, opening her mouth, swallowed up, with their households and tents,
and all their substance, which they had in the midst of Israel.
7
Your eyes have seen all the greet works of the Lord that he hath done,
8
That you may keep all his commandments, which I command you this day, and may
go in, and possess the land, to which you are entering,
9
And may live in it a long time: which the Lord promised by oath to your
fathers, and to their seed, a land which floweth with milk and honey.
10
For the land, which thou goest to possess, is not like the land of Egypt, from
whence thou camest out, where, when the seed is sown, waters are brought in to
water it after the manner of gardens:
11
But it is a land of hills and plains, expecting rain from heaven.
12
And the Lord thy God doth always visit it, and his eyes are on it from the
beginning of the year unto the end thereof.
13
*If then you obey my commandments, which I command you this day, that you love
the Lord your God, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul:
14
He will give to your land the early rain and the latter rain, that you may
gather in your corn, and your wine, and your oil,
15
And your hay out of the fields to feed your cattle, and that you may eat and be
filled.
16
Beware lest perhaps your heart be deceived, and you depart from the Lord, and
serve strange gods, and adore them:
17
And the Lord being angry shut up heaven, that the rain come not down, nor the
earth yield her fruit, and you perish quickly from the excellent land, which
the Lord will give you.
18
*Lay up these my words in your hearts and minds, and hang them for a sign on
your hands, and place them between your eyes.
19
Teach your children that they meditate on them, when thou sittest in thy house,
and when thou walkest on the way, and when thou liest down and risest up.
20
Thou shalt write them upon the posts and the doors of thy house:
21
That thy days may be multiplied, and the days of thy children in the land,
which the Lord swore to thy fathers, that he would give them as long as the
heaven hangeth over the earth.
22
For if you keep the commandments which I command you, and do them, to love the
Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, cleaving unto him,
23
The Lord will destroy all these nations before your face, and you shall possess
them, which are greater and stronger than you.
24
*Every place, that your foot shall tread upon, shall be yours. From the desert, and from Libanus, from the
great river Euphrates unto the western sea shall be your borders.
25
None shall stand against you: the Lord your God shall lay the dread and fear of
you upon all the land, that you shall tread upon, as he hath spoken to you.
26
Behold I set forth in your sight this day a blessing and a curse:
27
A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command
you this day:
28
A curse, if you obey not the commandments of the Lord your God, but revolt from
the way, which now I shew you, and walk after strange gods, which you know not.
29
And when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, whither thou
goest to dwell, thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Garizim, the curse upon
Mount Hebal:
30
Which are beyond the Jordan, behind the way that goeth to the setting of the
sun, in the land of the Chanaanite, who dwelleth in the plain country
over-against Galgala, which is near the valley that reacheth and entereth far.
31
For you shall pass over the Jordan, to possess the land, which the Lord your
God will give you, that you may have it, and possess it.
32
See therefore that you fulfil the ceremonies and judgments, which I shall set
this day before you.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
6: Num. xvi. 1. --- ** Num. xvi. 32.
13: Supra x. 12.
18: Supra vi. 6.
24: Jos. i. 3.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
12
CHAPTER XII.
All idolatry must be extirpated: sacrifices, tithes,
and first-fruits, must be offered in only one place: all eating of blood is
prohibited.
1
These* are the precepts and judgments, that you must do in the land, which the
Lord the God of thy fathers will give thee, to possess it all the days that
thou shalt walk upon the earth.
2
Destroy all the places, in which the nations that you shall possess, worshipped
their gods upon high mountains, and hills, and under every shady tree:
3
*Overthrow their altars, and break down their statues, burn their groves with
fire, and break their idols in pieces: destroy their names out of those places.
4
You shall not do so to the Lord your God:
5
But you shall come to the place, which the Lord your God shall choose out of all
your tribes, to put his name there, and to dwell in it:
6
And you shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and
first-fruits of your hands, and your vows and gifts, the first-born of your
herds and your sheep.
7
And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall
rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your houses
wherein the Lord your God hath blessed you.
8
You shall not do there the things we do here this day, every man that which seemeth
good to himself.
9
For until this present time you are not come to rest, and to the possession,
which the Lord your God will give you.
10
You shall pass over the Jordan, and shall dwell in the land, which the Lord
your God will give you, that you may have rest from all enemies round about:
and may dwell without any fear,
11
In the place, which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name may be
therein. Thither shall you bring all the
things that I command you, holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the
first-fruits of your hands: and whatsoever is the choicest in the gifts, which
you shall vow to the Lord.
12
There shall you feast before the Lord your God, you, and your sons, and your
daughters, your men-servants, and maid-servants, and the Levite that dwelleth
in your cities. For he hath no other
part and possession among you.
13
Beware lest thou offer thy holocausts in every place that thou shalt see:
14
But in the place, which the Lord shall choose, in one of thy tribes, shalt thou
offer sacrifices, and shalt do all that I command thee.
15
But if thou desirest to eat, and the eating of flesh delight thee, kill, and
eat according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee, in
thy cities: whether it be unclean, that is to say, having blemish or defect: or
clean, that is to say, sound and without blemish, such as may be offered, as
the roe, and the hart, shalt thou eat it:
16
Only the blood thou shalt not eat, but thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as
water.
17
Thou mayst not eat in thy towns the tithes of thy corn, and thy wine, and thy
oil, the first-born of thy herds and thy cattle, nor any thing that thou
vowest, and that thou wilt offer voluntarily, and the first-fruits of thy
hands:
18
But thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God in the place, which the Lord
thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant,
and maid-servant, and the Levite that dwelleth in thy cities: and thou shalt
rejoice and be refreshed before the Lord thy God in all things, whereunto thou
shalt put thy hand.
19
Take heed thou forsake not the Levite all the time that thou livest in the
land.
20
*When the Lord thy God shall have enlarged thy borders, as he hath spoken to
thee, and thou wilt eat the flesh that thy soul desireth:
21
And if the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name should be
there, be far off, thou shalt kill of thy herds, and of thy flocks, as I have
commanded thee, and shalt eat in thy towns, as it pleaseth thee.
22
Even as the roe and the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them: both the clean
and unclean shall eat of them alike.
23
Only beware of this, that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is for the
soul: and therefore thou must not eat the soul with the flesh:
24
But thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water,
25
That it may be well with thee and thy children after thee, when thou shalt do
that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
26
But the things which thou hast sanctified, and vowed to the Lord, thou shalt
take, and shalt come to the place which the Lord shall choose:
27
And shalt offer thy oblations, the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the
Lord thy God: the blood of thy victims thou shalt pour on the altar: and the
flesh thou thyself shalt eat.
28
Observe and hear all the things that I command thee, that it may be well with
thee and thy children after thee for ever, when thou shalt do what is good and
pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.
29
*When the Lord thy God shall have destroyed before thy face the nations, which
thou shalt go in to possess, and when thou shalt possess them, and dwell
in their land,
30
Beware lest thou imitate them, after they are destroyed at thy coming in, and
lest thou seek after their ceremonies, saying: As these nations have worshipped
their gods, so will I also worship.
31
Thou shalt not do in like manner to the Lord thy God. For they have done to their gods, all the
abominations which the Lord abhorreth, offering their sons and daughters, and
burning them with fire.
32
What I command thee, that only do thou to the Lord: neither add any thing, nor
diminish.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
3: Supra vii. 25.; 2 Mac. xii. 40.
20: Gen. xxviii. 14.; Exod. xxxiv. 24.; Infra
xix. 8.
29: Infra xix. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
13
CHAPTER XIII.
False prophets must be slain, and idolatrous cities
destroyed.
1
If *there rise in the midst of thee a prophet, or one that saith he hath dreamed
a dream, and he foretell a sign and a wonder,
2
And that come to pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go, and follow
strange gods, which thou knowest not, and let us serve them:
3
Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God
trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and
with all your soul, or not.
4
Follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and hear his
voice: him you shall serve, and to him you shall cleave.
5
And that prophet or forger of dreams shall be slain: because he spoke to draw
you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and
redeemed you from the house of bondage: to make thee go out of the way, which
the Lord thy God commanded thee: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the
midst of thee.
6
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or daughter, or thy wife
that is in thy bosom, or thy friend, whom thou lovest as thy own soul, would
persuade thee secretly, saying: Let us go, and serve strange gods, which thou
knowest not, nor thy fathers,
7
Of all the nations round about, that are near or afar off, from one end of the
earth to the other,
8
Consent not to him, hear him not, neither let thy eye spare him to pity and
conceal him,
9
But thou shalt presently put him to death.
*Let thy hand be first upon him, and afterwards the hands of all the
people.
10
With stones shall he be stoned to death: because he would have withdrawn thee
from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage:
11
That all Israel hearing may fear, and may do no more any thing like this.
12
If in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God shall give thee to dwell in,
thou hear some say:
13
Children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee, and have withdrawn the
inhabitants of their city, and have said: Let us go, and serve strange gods
which you know not:
14
Inquire carefully and diligently, the truth of the thing, by looking well into
it, and if thou find that which is said to be certain, and that this
abomination hath been really committed,
15
Thou shalt forthwith kill the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the
sword, and shalt destroy it, and all things that are in it, even the cattle:
16
And all the household goods that are there, thou shalt gather together in the
midst of the streets thereof, and shalt burn them with the city itself, so as
to consume all for the Lord thy God, and that it be a heap for ever: it shall
be built no more.
17
And there shall nothing of that anathema stick to thy hand: that the Lord may
turn from the wrath of his fury, and may have mercy on thee, and multiply thee
as he swore to thy fathers,
18
When thou shalt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, keeping all his precepts,
which I command thee this day, that thou mayst do what is pleasing in the sight
of the Lord thy God.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
9: Infra xvii. 7.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
14
CHAPTER XIV.
In mourning for the dead, they are not to follow the
ways of the Gentiles: the distinction of clean and unclean meats: ordinances
concerning tithes, and first-fruits.
1
Be *ye children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make
any baldness for the dead;
2
*Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God: and he chose thee to be
his peculiar people of all nations that are upon the earth.
3
*Eat not the things that are unclean.
4
These are the beasts that you shall eat, the ox, and the sheep, and the goat,
5
The hart, and the roe, the buffle, the chamois, the pygarg, the wild goat, the
camelopardalus.
6
Every beast that divideth the hoof in two parts, and cheweth the cud, you shall
eat.
7
But of them that chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, you shall not eat, such
as the camel, the hare, and the cherogril: because they chew the cud, but
divide not the hoof, they shall be unclean to you.
8
The swine also, because it divideth the hoof, but cheweth not the cud, shall be
unclean; their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not
touch.
9
These shall you eat of all that abide in the waters: All that have fins and
scales, you shall eat.
10
Such as are without fins and scales, you shall not eat, because they are
unclean.
11
All birds that are clean you shall eat.
12
The unclean eat not: to wit, the eagle, and the grype, and the osprey,
13
The ringtail, and the vulture, and the kite according to their kind:
14
And all of the raven's kind:
15
And the ostrich, and the owl, and the larus, and the hawk according to its
kind:
16
The heron, and the swan, and the stork,
17
And the cormorant, the porphyrion, and the night-crow,
18
The bittern, and the charadrion, every one in their kind: the hoop also and the
bat.
19
Every thing that creepeth and hath little wings shall be unclean, and shall not
be eaten.
20
All that is clean, you shall eat.
21
But whatsoever is dead of itself, eat not thereof. Give it to the stranger, that is within thy gates
to eat, or sell it to him: because thou art the holy people of the Lord *thy
God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the
milk of his dam.
22
Every year thou shalt set aside the tithes of all thy fruits that the earth
bringeth forth,
23
And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose,
that his name may be called upon therein, the tithe of thy corn, and thy wine,
and thy oil, and the first-born of thy herds and thy sheep: that thou mayst
learn to fear the Lord thy God at all times.
24
But when the way, and the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, are far
off, and he hath blessed thee, and thou canst not carry all these things
thither,
25
Thou shalt sell them all, and turn them into money, and shalt carry it in thy
hand, and shalt go to the place which the Lord shall choose:
26
And thou shalt buy with the same money whatsoever pleaseth thee, either of the
herds, or of sheep, wine also and strong drink, and all that thy soul desireth:
and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, and shalt feast, thou and thy
house:
27
And the Levite that is within thy gates: beware thou forsake him not, because
he hath no other part in thy possession.
28
The third year thou shalt separate another tithe of all things that grow to
thee at that time: and shalt lay it up within thy gates.
29
And the Levite that hath no other part nor possession with thee, and the
stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall
come and shall eat and be filled: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all
the works of thy hands that thou shalt do.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
2: Supra vii. 6.; Infra xxvi. 18.
3: Levit. xi. 4.
21: Exod. xxiii. 19. and xxxiv. 26.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
15
CHAPTER XV.
The law of the seventh year of remission. The firstlings of cattle are to be sanctified
to the Lord.
1
In *the seventh year thou shalt make a remission,
2
Which shall be celebrated in this order.
He to whom any thing is owing from his friend, or neighbour, or brother,
cannot demand it again, because it is the year of remission of the Lord.
3
Of the foreigner or stranger thou mayst exact it: of thy countryman and
neighbour thou shalt not have power to demand it again.
4
And there shall be no poor nor beggar among you: that the Lord thy God may
bless thee in the land which he will give thee in possession.
5
Yet so if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep all things that he
hath ordained, and which I command thee this day, he will bless thee, as he
hath promised.
6
Thou shalt lend to many nations, and thou shalt borrow of no man. Thou shalt have dominion over very many
nations, and no one shall have dominion over thee.
7
If one of thy brethren, that dwelleth within the gates of thy city, in the land
which the Lord thy God will give thee, come to poverty: thou shalt not harden
thy heart, nor close thy hand,
8
But shalt open it to the poor man; *thou shalt lend him, that which thou
perceivest he hath need of.
9
Beware lest perhaps a wicked thought steal in upon thee, and thou say in thy
heart: *The seventh year of remission draweth nigh; and thou turn away thy eyes
from thy poor brother, denying to lend him that which he asketh: lest he cry
against thee to the Lord, and it become a sin unto thee.
10 But
thou shalt give to him: neither shalt thou do any thing craftily in relieving
his necessities: that the Lord thy God may bless thee at all times, and in all
things to which thou shalt put thy hand.
11
*There will not be wanting poor in the land of thy habitation: therefore I
command thee to open thy hand to thy needy and poor brother, that liveth in the
land.
12
*When thy brother, a Hebrew man, or Hebrew woman, is sold to thee, and hath
served thee six years, in the seventh year, thou shalt let him go free:
13
And when thou sendest him out free, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
14
But shalt give him for his way out of thy flocks, and out of thy barn-floor,
and thy wine-press, wherewith the Lord thy God shall bless thee.
15
Remember that thou also wast a bond-servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord
thy God made thee free, and therefore I now command thee this.
16
But if he say: I will not depart: because he loveth thee, and thy house, and
findeth that he is well with thee:
17
Thou shalt take an awl, and bore through his ear in the door of thy house, and
he shall serve thee for ever: thou shalt do in like manner to thy woman-servant
also.
18
Turn not away thy eyes from them, when thou makest them free: because he hath
served thee six years according to the wages of a hireling: that the Lord thy
God may bless thee in all the works that thou dost.
19
Of the firstlings, that come of thy herds, and thy sheep, thou shalt sanctify
to the Lord thy God whatsoever is of the male sex. Thou shalt not work with the firstling of a
bullock, and thou shalt not shear the firstlings of thy sheep.
20
In the sight of the Lord thy God shalt thou eat them every year, in the place
that the Lord shall choose, thou and thy house.
21
*But if it have a blemish, or be lame, or blind, or in any part disfigured or
feeble, it shall not be sacrificed to the Lord thy God.
22
But thou shalt eat it within the gates of thy city: the clean and the unclean
shall eat them alike as the roe, and as the hart.
23
Only thou shalt take heed not to eat their blood, but pour it out on the earth
as water.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
8: Mat. v. 42.; Luke vi. 34.
9: Exod. xxxiii. 10.; Lev. xxv. 2.
11: Mat. xxvi. 11.
12: Exod. xxi. 2.; Jer. xxxiv. 14.
21: Levit. xxii. 20. and 21.; Eccli. xxxv. 14.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
16
CHAPTER XVI.
The three principal solemnities to be observed: just
judges to be appointed in every city: all occasions of idolatry to be avoided.
1
Observe *the month of new corn, which is the first of the spring, that thou
mayst celebrate the Phase to the Lord thy God: because in this month the Lord
thy God brought thee out of Egypt by night.
2
And thou shalt sacrifice the Phase to the Lord thy God, of sheep, and of oxen,
in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell
there.
3
Thou shalt not eat with it leavened bread: seven days shalt thou eat without
leaven, the bread of affliction, because thou camest out of Egypt in fear: that
thou mayst remember the day of thy coming out of Egypt, all the days of thy
life.
4
No leaven shall be seen in all thy coasts for seven days, neither shall any of
the flesh of that which was sacrificed the first day, in the evening, remain
until morning.
5
Thou mayst not immolate the Phase in any one of thy cities, which the Lord thy
God will give thee:
6
But in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell
there: thou shalt immolate the Phase in the evening, at the going down of the
sun, at which time thou camest out of Egypt.
7
And thou shalt dress, and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall
choose, and in the morning rising up thou shalt go into thy dwellings.
8
Six days shalt thou eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day, because it is
the assembly of the Lord thy God, thou shalt do no work.
9
Thou shalt number unto thee seven weeks from that day, wherein thou didst put
the sickle to the corn:
10
And thou shalt celebrate the festival of weeks to the Lord thy God, a voluntary
oblation of thy hand, which thou shalt offer according to the blessing of the
Lord thy God:
11
And thou shalt feast before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy
daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is
within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who
abide with you: in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name
may dwell there:
12
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt: and thou shalt keep
and do the things that are commanded.
13
Thou shalt celebrate the solemnity also of tabernacles, when thou hast gathered
in thy fruit of the barn-floor and of the wine-press.
14
And thou shalt make merry in thy festival time, thou, thy son, and thy
daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, the Levite also, and the
stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.
15
Seven days shalt thou celebrate feasts to the Lord thy God, in the place which
the Lord shall choose: and the Lord thy God will bless thee in all thy fruits,
and in every work of thy hands, and thou shalt be in joy.
16
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God, in
the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast
of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
*No one shall appear with his hands empty before the Lord:
17
But every one shall offer according to what he hath, according to the blessing
of the Lord his God, which he shall give him.
18
Thou shalt appoint judges and magistrates in all thy gates, which the Lord thy
God shall give thee, in all thy tribes: that they may judge the people with
just judgment,
19
And not go aside to either part. *Thou
shalt not accept person, nor gifts: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and
change the words of the just.
20
Thou shalt follow justly after that which is just: that thou mayst live and
possess the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.
21
Thou shalt plant no grove, nor any tree, near the altar of the Lord thy God:
22
Neither shalt thou make, nor set up to thyself a statue: which things the Lord
thy God hateth.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
16: Exod. xxiii. 15. and xxxiv. 20.; Eccli. xxxv.
6.
19: Exod. xxiii. 8.; Levit. xix. 15.; Supra i.
17.; Eccli. xx. 31.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
17
CHAPTER XVII.
Victims must be without blemish. Idolaters are to be slain. Controversies are to be decided by the high
priest and council, whose sentence must be obeyed, under pain of death. The duty of a king, who is to receive the law
of God at the priest's hands.
1
Thou *shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God a sheep, or an ox, wherein there
is blemish, or any fault: for that is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
2
When there shall be found among you, within any of thy gates, which the Lord
thy God shall give thee, man or woman that do evil in the sight of the Lord thy
God, and transgress his covenant,
3
So as to go and serve strange gods, and adore them, the sun and the moon, and
all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded:
4
And this is told thee, and hearing it thou hast enquired diligently, and found
it to be true, and that the abomination is committed in Israel:
5
Thou shalt bring forth the man or the woman, who have committed that most
wicked thing, to the gates of thy city, and they shall be stoned.
6
*By the mouth of two, or three witnesses, shall he die that is to be
slain. Let no man be put to death, when
only one beareth witness against him.
7
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to kill him, *and afterwards
the hands of the rest of the people; that thou mayst take away the evil out of
the midst of thee.
8
If thou perceive that there be among you a hard and doubtful matter in
judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, and
thou see that the words of the judges within thy gates do vary: arise and go up
to the place, which the Lord thy God shall choose:
9
*And thou shalt come to the priests of the Levitical race, and to the judge,
that shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, and they shall shew
thee the truth of the judgment.
10
And thou shalt do whatsoever they shall say, that preside in the place, which
the Lord shall choose, and what they shall teach thee,
11
According to his law: and thou shalt follow their sentence; neither shalt thou
decline to the right hand nor to the left hand.
12
But he that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest,
who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge,
that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel:
13
And all the people hearing it shall fear, that no one afterwards swell with
pride.
14
When thou art come into the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, and
possessest it, and shalt say: I will set a king over me, as all nations have
that are round about:
15
Thou shalt set him, whom the Lord thy God shall choose out of the number of thy
brethren. Thou mayst not make a man of
another nation king, that is not thy brother.
16
And when he is made king, he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor
lead back the people into Egypt, being lifted up with the number of his
horsemen, especially since the Lord hath commanded you to return no more the
same way.
17
He shall not have many wives, that may allure his mind, nor immense sums of
silver and gold.
18
But after he is raised to the throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to
himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of the priests
of the Levitical tribe,
19
And he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that
he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep his words and ceremonies, that
are commanded in the law,
20
And that his heart be not lifted up with pride over his brethren, nor decline
to the right or to the left, that he and his sons may reign a long time over
Israel.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
6: Infra xix. 15.; Mat. xviii. 6.; 2 Cor. xiii.
1.
7: Supra xiii. 9.
9: 2 Par. xix. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
18
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Lord in the inheritance of the priests and
Levites. Heathenish abominations are to
be avoided. The great prophet,
Christ, is promised. F alse prophets must be slain.
1
The *priests and Levites, and all that are of the same tribe, shall have no
part nor inheritance with the rest of Israel, because they shall eat the
sacrifices of the Lord, and his oblations.
2
And they shall receive nothing else of the possession of their brethren: for
the Lord himself is their inheritance, as he hath said to them.
3
This shall be the priest's due from the people, and from them that offer
victims: whether they sacrifice an ox, or a sheep, they shall give to the
priest the shoulder and the breast:
4
*The first-fruits also of corn, of wine, and of oil, and a part of the
wool from the shearing of their sheep.
5
For the Lord thy God hath chosen him of all thy tribes, to stand, and to
minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.
6
If a Levite go out of any one of the cities throughout all Israel, in which he
dwelleth, and have a longing mind to come to the place which the Lord shall
choose,
7
He shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the
Levites do, that shall stand at that time before the Lord.
8
He shall receive the same portion of food that the rest do: besides that which
is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers.
9
When thou art come into the land, which the Lord thy God shall give thee,
beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations.
10
*Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or
daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers,
or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,
11
Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune-tellers,*
or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
12
For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will
destroy them at thy coming.
13
Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God.
14
These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and
diviners: but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God.
15
*The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation, and of
thy brethren, like unto me: him thou shalt hear,
16
As thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in *Horeb, when the assembly was gathered
together, and saidst: Let me not hear any more the voice of the Lord my God,
neither let me see any more this exceeding great fire, lest I die.
17
And the Lord said to me: They have spoken all things well.
18
*I will raise them up a prophet out of the midst of their brethren, like to
thee: and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I shall
command him.
19
And he that will not hear his words, which he shall speak in my name, I will be
the revenger.
20
But the prophet, who being corrupted with pride, shall speak in my name, things
that I did not command him to say, or in the name of strange gods, shall be
slain.
21
And if in silent thought thou answer: How shall I know the word, that the Lord
hath not spoken?
22
Thou shalt have this sign: Whatsoever that same prophet foretelleth in the name
of the Lord, and it cometh not to pass: that thing the Lord hath not spoken,
but the prophet hath forged it by the pride of his mind: and therefore thou
shalt not fear him.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.; Num. xviii. 20. and 23.; Supra x.
9.; 1 Cor. ix. 13.
4: Num. xviii. 21.
10: Levit. xx. 27.
11: 1 Kings xxviii. 7.
15: John i. 45.; Acts iii. 22.
16: Exod. xx. 21.
18: John i. 45.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
19
CHAPTER XIX.
The cities of refuge.
Wilful murder, and false witnesses must be punished.
1
When *the Lord thy God hath destroyed the nations, whose land he will deliver
to thee, and thou shalt possess it, and shalt dwell in the cities and houses
thereof:
2
*Thou shalt separate to thee three cities in the midst of the land, which the
Lord will give thee in possession,
3
Paving diligently the way: and thou shalt divide the whole province of thy land
equally into three parts: that he who is forced to flee for manslaughter, may
have near at hand whither to escape.
4
This shall be the law of the slayer that fleeth, whose life is to be saved: He
that killeth his neighbour ignorantly, and who is proved to have had no hatred
against him yesterday and the day before:
5
But to have gone with him to the wood to hew wood, and in cutting down the tree
the axe slipped out of his hand, and the iron slipping from the handle, struck
his friend and killed him: he shall flee to one of the cities aforesaid, and
live:
6
Lest perhaps the next kinsman of him whose blood was shed, pushed on by his
grief, should pursue and apprehend him, if the way be too long, and take away
the life of him who is not guilty of death, because he is proved to have had no
hatred before against him that was slain.
7
Therefore I command thee, that thou separate three cities at equal distance one
from another.
8
*And when the Lord thy God shall have enlarged thy borders, as he swore to thy
fathers, and shall give thee all the land that he promised them,
9
(Yet so, if thou keep his commandments, and do the things which I command thee
this day, that thou love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways at all times)
thou shalt add to the other three cities, and shalt double the number of the
three cities aforesaid:
10
That innocent blood may not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord thy
God will give thee to possess, lest thou be guilty of blood.
11
*But if any man hating his neighbour, lie in wait for his life, and rise and
strike him, and he die, and he flee to one of the cities aforesaid,
12
The ancients of his city shall send, and take him out of the place of refuge,
and shall deliver him into the hand of the kinsman of him, whose blood was
shed, and he shall die.
13
Thou shalt not pity him, and thou shalt take away the guilt of innocent
blood out of Israel, that it may be well with thee.
14
Thou shalt not take, nor remove thy neighbour's landmarks, which thy predecessors
have set in thy possession, which the Lord thy God will give thee in the land
that thou shalt receive to possess.
15
*One witness shall not rise up against any man, whatsoever the sin, or
wickedness be: but in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall
stand.
16
If a lying witness stand against a man, accusing him of transgression,
17
Both of them, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord in
the sight of the priests and the judges that shall be in those days.
18
*And when, after most diligent inquisition, they shall find that the false
witness hath told a lie against his brother:
19
They shall render to him as he meant to do to his brother, and thou shalt take
away the evil out of the midst of thee:
20
That others hearing may fear, and may not dare to do such things.
21
Thou shalt not pity him, *but shalt require life for life, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
2: Num. xxxv. 11.; Jos. xx. 2.
8: Gen. xxviii. 14.; Ex. xxxiv. 24.; Supra xii.
20
11: Num. xxxv. 20.
15: Supra xvii. 6.; Mat. xviii. 16.; 2 Cor. xiii.
1.
18: Dan. xiii. 62.
21: Ex. xxi. 23. and 24.; Levit. xxiv. 20.; Mat.
v. 38.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
20
CHAPTER XX.
Laws relating to war.
1
If thou go out to war against thy enemies, *and see horsemen and chariots, and
the numbers of the enemy's army greater than thine, thou shalt not fear them:
because the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee out of the land of
Egypt.
2
And when the battle is now at hand, the priest shall stand before the army, and
shall speak to the people in this manner:
3
Hear, O Israel, you join battle this day against your enemies, let not your
heart be dismayed, be not afraid, do not give back, fear ye them not:
4
Because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, and will fight for you
against your enemies, to deliver you from danger.
5
And the captains shall proclaim through every band, in the hearing of the army:
*What man is there, that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let
him go, and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man
dedicate it.
6
What man is there, that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not as yet made it to
be common, whereof all men may eat? let him go, and return to his house, lest
he die in the battle, and another man execute his office.
7
What man is there, that hath espoused a wife, and not taken her? let him go,
and return to his house, lest he die in the war, and another man take her.
8
After these things are declared, they shall add the rest, and shall speak to
the people: *What man is there, that is fearful, and faint-hearted? let him go,
and return to his house, lest he make the hearts of his brethren to fear, as he
himself is possessed with fear.
9
And when the captains of the army shall hold their peace, and have made an end
of speaking, every man shall prepare their bands to fight.
10
If at any time thou come to fight against a city, thou shalt first offer it
peace.
11
If they receive it, and open the gates to thee, all the people that are therein
shall be saved, and shall serve thee, paying tribute.
12
But if they will not make peace, and shall begin war against thee, thou shalt
besiege it,
13
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver it into thy bands, thou shalt slay all
that are therein of the male sex, with the edge of the sword,
14
Excepting women and children, cattle and other things, that are in the
city. And thou shalt divide all the prey
to the army, and thou shalt eat the spoils of thy enemies, which the Lord thy
God shall give thee.
15
So shalt thou do to all cities that are at a great distance from thee, and are
not of these cities which thou shalt receive in possession.
16
But of those cities that shall be given thee, thou shalt suffer none at all to
live:
17
But shalt kill them with the edge of the sword, to wit, the Hethite, and the
Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite,
as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee:
18
Lest they teach you to do all the abominations which they have done to their
gods: and you should sin against the Lord your God.
19
When thou hast besieged a city a long time, and hath compassed it with
bulwarks, to take it, thou shalt not cut down the trees that may be eaten of,
neither shalt thou spoil the country round about with axes: for it is a tree,
and not a man, neither can it increase the number of them that fight against
thee.
20
But if there be any trees that are not fruitful, but wild, and fit for other
uses, cut them down, and make engines, until thou take the city, which fighteth
against thee.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
5: 1 Mac. iii. 56.
8: Judges vii. 3.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
21
CHAPTER XXI.
The expiation of a secret murder. The marrying of a captive. The eldest son must not be deprived of his
birth-right for hatred of his mother. A
stubborn son is to be stoned to death.
When one is hanged on a gibbet, he must be taken down the same day, and
buried.
1
When *there shall be found in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee,
the corpse of a man slain, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder,
2
Thy ancients and judges shall go out, and shall measure from the place where
the body lieth, the distance of every city round about:
3
And the ancients of that city, which they shall perceive to be nearer than the
rest, shall take a heifer of the herd, that hath not drawn in the yoke, nor
ploughed the ground,
4
And they shall bring her into a rough and stony valley, that never was
ploughed, nor sown: and there they shall strike off the head of the heifer:
5
And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come, whom the Lord thy God hath
chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and that by their word
every matter should be decided, and whatsoever is clean or unclean
should be judged.
6
And the ancients of that city shall come to the person slain, and shall wash
their hands over the heifer that was killed in the valley,
7
And shall say: Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see
it.
8
Be merciful to thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, O Lord, and lay not
innocent blood to their charge in the midst of thy people Israel. And the guilt of blood shall be taken from
them:
9
And thou shalt be free from the innocent's blood that was shed, when thou shalt
have done what the Lord hath commanded thee.
10
If thou go out to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God deliver them
into thy hand, and thou lead them away captives,
11
And seest in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and lovest her, and
wilt have her to wife,
12
Thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her
nails,
13
And shall put off the raiment, wherein she was taken: and shall remain in thy
house, and mourn for her father and mother one month: and after that thou shalt
go in unto her, and shalt sleep with her, and she shall be thy wife.
14
Rut if afterwards she please thee not, thou shalt let her go free, but thou
mayst not sell her for money, nor oppress her by might: because thou hast
humbled her.
15
If a man have two wives, one beloved, and the other hated, and they have had
children by him, and the son of the hated be the first-born,
16
And he meaneth to divide his substance among his sons: he may not make the son
of the beloved the first-born, and prefer him before the son of the hated;
17
*But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first-born, and shall
give him a double portion of all he hath: for this is the first of his
children, and to him are due the first birth-rights.
18
If a man have a stubborn and unruly son, who will not hear the commandments of
his father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth obedience:
19
They shall take him, and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate
of judgment,
20
And shall say to them: This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth
hearing our admonitions, he giveth himself to revelling, and to debauchery, and
banquetings:
21
The people of the city shall stone him: and he shall die, that you may take
away the evil out of the midst of you, and all Israel hearing it may be afraid.
22
When a man hath committed a crime for which he is to be punished with death,
and being condemned to die, is hanged on a gibbet:
23
His body shall not remain upon the tree, but shall be buried the same day: *for
he is accursed of God that hangeth on a tree: and thou shalt not defile thy
land, which the Lord thy God shall give thee in possession.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
17: 1 Par. v. 1.
23: Gal. iii. 13.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
22
CHAPTER XXII.
Humanity towards neighbours. Neither sex may use the apparel of the
other. Cruelty to be avoided, even to
birds. Battlements about the roof of a
house. Things of divers kinds not to be
mixed. The punishment of him the
slandereth his wife, as also of adultery and rape.
1
Thou *shalt not pass by if thou seest thy brother's ox, or his sheep go astray:
but thou shalt bring them back to thy brother.
2
And if thy brother be not nigh, or thou know him not: thou shalt bring them to
thy house, and they shall be with thee until thy brother seek them, and receive
them.
3
Thou shalt do in like manner with his ass, and with his raiment, and with every
thing that is thy brother's, which is lost: if thou find it, neglect it not as
pertaining to another.
4
If thou see thy brother's ass or his ox to be fallen down in the way, thou
shalt not slight it, but shalt lift it up with him.
5 A
woman shall not be clothed with man's apparel, neither shall a man use woman's
apparel: for he that doth these things is abominable before God.
6
If thou find, as thou walkest by the way, a bird's nest in a tree, or on the
ground, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs: thou shalt not
take her with her young:
7
But shalt let her go, keeping the young which thou hast caught: that it may be
well with thee, and thou mayst live a long time.
8
When thou buildest a new house, thou shalt make a battlement to the roof round
about: lest blood be shed in thy house, and thou be guilty, if any one slip and
fall down headlong.
9
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest both the seed which
thou hast sown, and the fruit of the vineyard, be sanctified together.
10
Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.
11
Thou shalt not wear a garment, that is woven of woollen and linen together.
12
*Thou shalt make strings in the hem at the four corners of thy cloak, wherewith
thou shalt be covered.
13
If a man marry a wife, and afterwards hate her,
14
And seek occasions to put her away, laying to her charge a very ill name, and
say: I took this woman to wife, and going in to her, I found her not a virgin:
15
Her father and mother shall take her, and shall bring with them the tokens of
her virginity to the ancients of the city that are in the gate:
16
And the father shall say: I gave my daughter unto this man to wife: and because
he hateth her,
17
He layeth to her charge a very ill name, so as to say: I found not thy daughter
a virgin: and behold these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the
ancients of the city:
18
And the ancients of that city shall take that man, and beat him,
19
Condemning him besides in a hundred sides of silver, which he shall give to the
damsel's father, because he hath defamed by a very ill name a virgin of Israel:
and he shall have her to wife, and may not put her away all the days of his
life.
20
But if what he charged her with be true, and virginity be not found in the
damsel:
21
They shall cast her out of the doors of her father's house, and the men of the
city shall stone her to death, and she shall die: because she hath done a
wicked thing in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: and thou shalt
take away the evil out of the midst of thee.
22
*If a man lie with another man's wife, they shall both die, that is to say, the
adulterer and the adulteress: and thou shalt take away the evil out of Israel.
23
If a man have espoused a damsel that is a virgin, and some one find her in the
city, and lie with her,
24
Thou shalt bring them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be
stoned: the damsel, because she cried not out, being in the city: the man,
because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife.
And thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee.
25
But if a man find a damsel that is betrothed, in the field, and taking hold of
her, lie with her, he alone shall die:
26 The
damsel shall suffer nothing, neither is she guilty of death: for as a robber
riseth against his brother, and taketh away his life, so also did the damsel
suffer:
27
She was alone in the field: she cried, and there was no man to help her.
28
If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who is not espoused, and taking her,
lie with her, and the matter come to judgment,
29
*He that lay with her, shall give to the father of the maid fifty sicles of
silver, and shall have her to wife, because he hath humbled her: he may not put
her away all the days of his life.
30
No man shall take his father's wife, nor remove his covering.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.; Exod. xxiv. 4.
12: Num. xv. 38.
22: Levit. xx. 10.
29: Exod. xxii. 16.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
23
CHAPTER XXIII.
Who may and who may not enter into the church:
uncleanness to be avoided: other precepts concerning fugitives, fornication,
usury, vows, and eating other mens' grapes and corn.
1
An *eunuch, whose testicles are broken or cut away, or yard cut off, shall not
enter into the church of the Lord.
2 A
mamzer, that is to say, one born of a prostitute, shall not enter into the
church of the Lord, until the tenth generation.
3
*The Ammonite, and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation, shall not
enter into the church of the Lord, for ever:
4
Because they would not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came
out of Egypt: *and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor,
from Mesopotamia in Syria, to curse thee:
5
And the Lord thy God would not hear Balaam, and he turned his cursing into thy
blessing, because he loved thee.
6
Thou shalt not make peace with them, neither shalt thou seek their prosperity
all the days of thy life for ever.
7
Thou shalt not abhor the Edomite, because he is thy brother: nor the Egyptian,
because thou wast a stranger in his land.
8
They that are born of them, in the third generation shall enter into the church
of the Lord.
9
When thou goest out to war against thy enemies, thou shalt keep thyself from
every evil thing.
10
If there be among you any man, that is defiled in a dream by night, he shall go
forth out of the camp,
11
And shall not return, before he be washed with water in the evening: and after
sun-set he shall return into the camp.
12
Thou shalt have a place without the camp, to which thou mayst go for the
necessities of nature,
13
Carrying a paddle at thy girdle. And
when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about, and with the earth that is
dug up thou shalt cover
14
That which thou art eased of: (for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy
camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies to thee:) and let thy camp be
holy, and let no uncleanness appear therein, lest he go away from thee.
15
Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to thee.
16
He shall dwell with thee in the place that shall please him, and shall rest in
one of thy cities: give him no trouble.
17
There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among
the sons of Israel.
18
Thou shalt not offer the hire of a strumpet, nor the price of a dog, in the
house of the Lord thy God, whatsoever it be that thou hast vowed: because both
these are an abomination to the Lord thy God.
19
Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other
thing:
20
But to the stranger. To thy brother thou
shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury; that the Lord thy God may
bless thee in all thy works in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
21
When thou hast made a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it:
because the Lord thy God will require it.
And if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin.
22
If thou wilt not promise, thou shalt be without sin.
23
But that which is once gone out of thy lips, thou shalt observe, and shalt do
as thou hast promised to the Lord thy God, and hast spoken with thy own will,
and with thy own mouth.
24
Going into thy neighbour's vineyard, thou mayst eat as many grapes as thou
pleasest: but must carry none out with thee.
25
If thou go into thy friend's corn, thou mayst break the ears, and rub them in
thy hand: but not reap them with a sickle.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
3: 2 Esdr. xiii. 1.
4: Num. xxii. 5.; Jos. xxiv. 9.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
24
CHAPTER XXIV.
Divorce permitted to avoid greater evil: the newly
married must not go to war: of men-stealers, of leprosy, of pledges, of
labourer's hire, of justice, and of charity to the poor.
1
If *a man take a wife, and have her, and she find not favour in his eyes for
some uncleanness: he shall write a bill of divorce, **and shall give it in her
hand, and send her out of his house.
2
And when she is departed, and marrieth another husband,
3
And he also hateth her, and hath given her a bill of divorce, and hath sent her
out of his house or is dead:
4
The former husband cannot take her again to wife: because she is defiled, and
is become abominable before the Lord: lest thou cause thy land to sin, which
the Lord thy God shall give thee to possess.
5
When a man hath lately taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall
any public business be enjoined him, but he shall be free at home without
fault, that for one year he may rejoice with his wife.
6
Thou shalt not take the nether, nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he hath
pledged his life to thee.
7
If any man be found soliciting his brother of the children of Israel, and
selling him shall take a price, he shall be put to death, and thou shalt take
away the evil from the midst of thee.
8
Observe diligently that thou incur not the stroke of the leprosy, but thou
shalt do whatsoever the priests of the Levitical race shall teach thee,
according to what I have commanded them, and fulfil thou it carefully.
9
*Remember what the Lord your God did to Mary, in the way when you came out of
Egypt.
10
When thou shalt demand of thy neighbour any thing that he oweth thee, thou
shalt not go into his house to take away a pledge:
11
*But thou shalt stand without, and he shall bring out to thee what he hath.
12
But if he be poor, the pledge shall not lodge with thee that night,
13
But thou shalt restore it to him presently before the going down of the sun:
that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee, and thou mayst have
justice before the Lord thy God.
14
*Thou shalt not refuse the hire of the needy, and the poor, whether he be thy
brother, or a stranger, that dwelleth with thee in the land, and is within thy
gates:
15
But thou shalt pay him the price of his labour the same day, before the going
down of the sun, because he is poor, and with it maintaineth his life: lest he
cry against thee to the Lord, and it be reputed to thee for a sin.
16
*The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for
the fathers, but every one shall die for his own sin.
17
Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless,
neither shalt thou take away the widow's raiment for a pledge.
18
Remember that thou wast a slave in Egypt, and the Lord thy God delivered thee
from thence. Therefore I command thee to
do this thing.
19
When thou hast reaped the corn in thy field, and hast forgot and left a sheaf,
thou shalt not return to take it away: but thou shalt suffer the stranger, and
the fatherless, and the widow to take it away: that the Lord thy God may bless
thee in all the works of thy hands.
20
If thou have gathered the fruit of thy olive-trees, thou shalt not return to
gather whatsoever remaineth on the trees: but shalt leave it for the stranger,
for the fatherless, and for the widow.
21
If thou make the vintage of thy vineyard, thou shalt not gather the clusters
that remain, but they shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
22
Remember that thou also wast a bondman in Egypt, and therefore I command thee
to do this thing.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553. --- ** Mat. v. 32. and xix. 7.;
Mark x. 4.
9: Num. xii. 10.
11: Exod. xxii. 16.
14: Lev. xix. 13.; Tob. iv. 15.
16: 4 Kings xiv. 6.; 2 Par. xxv. 4.; Ezec. xviii.
20.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
25
CHAPTER XXV.
Stripes must not exceed forty. The ox is not to be muzzled. Of raising seed to the brother. Of the immodest woman. Of unjust weight. Of destroying the Amalecites.
1
If *there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they
shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him
whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.
2
And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they shall lay him
down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin shall the
measure also of the stripes be:
3
Yet so, *that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart
shamefully torn before thy eyes.
4
*Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.
5
*When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without children, the wife
of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and
raise up seed for his brother:
6
And the first son he shall have of her, he shall call by his name, that his
name be not abolished out of Israel.
7
But if he will not take his brother's wife, who by law belongeth to him, the
woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the ancients, and say:
*My husband's brother refuseth to raise up his brother's name in Israel: and
will not take me to wife.
8
And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:
9
The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take off his shoe
from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it be done to the man,
that will not build up his brother's house:
10
And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of the unshod.
11
If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and
the other's wife, willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the
stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets:
12
Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her
regard.
13
Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:
14
Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.
15
Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall be equal and
true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land which the Lord thy God
shall give thee.
16
For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all
injustice.
17
*Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:
18
How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat down, being weary,
when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he feared not God.
19
Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall have subdued
all the nations round about in the land which he hath promised thee: thou shalt
blot out his name from under heaven. See
thou forget it not.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
3: 2 Cor. xi. 24.
4: 1 Cor. ix. 9.; 1 Tim. v. 18.
5: Mat. xxii. 24.; Mark xii. 19.; Luke xx. 28.
7: Ruth iv. 5.
17: Exod. xvii. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
26
CHAPTER XXVI.
The form of words with which the first-fruits and
tithes are to be offered. God's
covenant.
1
And when thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee to
possess, and hast conquered it, and dwellest in it:
2
Thou shalt take the first of all thy fruits, and put them in a basket, and
shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may be
invocated there:
3
And thou shalt go to the priest that shall be in those days, and say to him: I
profess this day before the Lord thy God, that I am come into the land, for
which he swore to our fathers, that he would give it us.
4
And the priest taking the basket at thy hand, shall set it before the altar of
the Lord thy God:
5
And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: The Syrian pursued
my father, who went down into Egypt, and sojourned there in a very small
number, and grew into a nation great and strong, and of an infinite multitude.
6
And the Egyptians afflicted us, and persecuted us, laying on us most grievous
burdens:
7
And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: who heard us, and looked down upon
our affliction, and labour, and distress:
8
And brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and a stretched-out arm, with
great terror, with signs and wonders:
9
And brought us into this place, and gave us this land, flowing with milk and
honey.
10
And therefore now I offer the first-fruits of the land, which the Lord hath
given me. And thou shalt leave them in
the sight of the Lord thy God, adoring the Lord thy God.
11
And thou shalt feast in all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given
thee, and thy house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is with thee.
12
When thou hast made an end of tithing all thy fruits, in the third year of
tithes, thou shalt give it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to
the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be
filled:
13
And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: *I have
taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the
Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, as thou
hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments nor forgotten thy
precepts.
14
I have not eaten of them is my mourning, nor separated them for any
uncleanness, nor spent any thing of them in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God,
and have done all things as thou hast commanded me.
15
*Look from thy sanctuary, and thy high habitation of heaven, and bless thy
people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to
our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16
This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these commandments and
judgments: and to keep and fulfil them, with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul.
17
Thou hast chosen the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and
keep his ceremonies, and precepts, and judgments, and obey his command.
18
*And the Lord hath chosen thee this day, to be his peculiar people, as he hath
spoken to thee, and to keep all his commandments:
19
And to make thee higher than all nations which he hath created, to his own
praise, and name, and glory: that thou mayst be a holy people of the Lord thy
God, as he hath spoken.
____________________
*
13: Supra xiv. 29.
15: Isai. lxiii. 15.; Baruch ii. 16.
18: Supra vii. 6.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
27
CHAPTER XXVII.
The commandments must be written on stones: and an
altar erected, and sacrifices offered.
The observers of the commandments are to be blessed, and the
transgressors cursed.
1
And Moses, *with the ancients of Israel, commanded the people, saying: Keep
every commandment that I command you this day.
2
And when you are passed over the Jordan into the land which the Lord thy God
will give thee, thou shalt set up great stones, and shalt plaster them over
with plaster,
3
That thou mayst write on them all the words of this law, when thou art passed
over the Jordan: that thou mayst enter into the land which the Lord thy God
will give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, as he swore to thy fathers.
4
Therefore when you are passed over the Jordan, set up the stones which I command
you this day, in Mount Hebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster:
5
And thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, *of stones which iron
hath not touched,
6
And of stones not fashioned nor polished: and thou shalt offer upon it holocausts
to the Lord thy God.
7
And shalt immolate peace-victims, and eat there, and feast before the Lord thy
God.
8
And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law plainly and
clearly.
9
And Moses, and the priests of the race of Levi, said to all Israel: Attend, and
hear, O Israel: This day thou art made the people of the Lord thy God:
10
Thou shalt hear his voice, and do the commandments and justices which I command
thee.
11
And Moses commanded the people in that day, saying:
12
These shall stand upon Mount Garizim to bless the people, when you are passed
the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Juda, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
13
And over-against them shall stand on Mount Hebal to curse: Ruben, Gad, and
Aser, and Zabulon, Dan, and Nephthali.
14
*And the Levites shall pronounce, and say to all the men of Israel, with a loud
voice:
15
Cursed be the man that maketh a graven and molten thing, the abomination of the
Lord, the work of the hands of artificers, and shall put it in a secret place:
and all the people shall answer, and say: Amen.
16
Cursed be he that honoureth not his father and mother: and all the people shall
say: Amen.
17
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmarks: and all the people shall
say: Amen.
18
Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of his way: and all the people
shall say: Amen.
19
Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, of the fatherless,
and the widow: and all the people shall say: Amen.
20
Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife, and uncovereth his bed: and all
the people shall say: Amen.
21
Cursed be he that lieth with any beast: and all the people shall say: Amen.
22
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or of his
mother: and all the people shall say: Amen.
23
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law: and all the people shall say:
Amen.
24
Cursed be he that secretly killeth his neighbour: and all the people shall say:
Amen.
25
Cursed be he that taketh gifts, to slay an innocent person: and all the people
shall say: Amen.
26
Cursed be he that abideth not in the words of this law, and fulfilleth them not
in work: and all the people shall say: Amen.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
5: Exod. xx. 25.; Jos. viii. 31.
14: Dan. ix. 11.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
28
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Many blessings are promised to the observers of God's
commandments: and curses threatened to transgressors.
1
Now *if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his
commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee
higher than all the nations that are on the earth.
2
And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: yet so if thou
hear his precepts.
3
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.
4
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the
fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.
5
Blessed shall be thy barns, and blessed thy stores.
6
Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.
7
The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down
before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall
they flee before thee.
8
The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the
works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive.
9
The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he swore to
thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10
And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is
invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.
11
The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and
the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to
thy fathers that he would give thee.
12
The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in
due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and
shalt not borrow of any one.
13
And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be
always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the
Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, and keep and do them,
14
And turn not away from them, neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor
follow strange gods, nor worship them.
15
*But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep, and to do
all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these
curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
16
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.
17
Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.
18
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds
of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19
Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.
20
The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the
works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy
most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.
21
May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the
land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
22
May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold,
with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting, and
pursue thee till thou perish.
23
Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground, thou treadest on,
of iron.
24
The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from
heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.
25
The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies; one way mayst thou go out
against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the
kingdoms of the earth:
26
And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the
earth, and be there none to drive them away.
27
The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by
which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst
not be healed.
28
The Lord strike thee with madness, and blindness, and fury of mind,
29
And mayst thou grope at mid-day as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and
not make straight thy ways. And mayst
thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou
have no one to deliver thee.
30
Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell
therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard,
and not gather the vintage thereof.
31
May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and
not restored to thee. May thy sheep be
given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.
32
May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on,
and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may there be no strength
in thy hand.
33
May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy
labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times,
34
And be astonished at the terror of those things, which thy eyes shall see.
35
May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs,
and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of thy head.
36
The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over
thee, into a nation, which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt
serve strange gods, wood, and stone.
37
And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a bye-word to all people, among whom
the Lord shall bring thee in.
38
*Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the
locusts shall consume all.
39
Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor
gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.
40
Thou shalt have olive-trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with
the oil: for the olives shall fall off, and perish.
41
Thou shalt begot sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they
shall be led into captivity.
42
The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.
43
The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and
shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.
44
He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be
the tail.
45
And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee,
till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and
didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies, which he commanded thee.
46
And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.
47
Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart,
for the abundance of all things:
48
Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and
thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke
upon thy neck, till he consume thee.
49
The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends
of the earth, like an eagle that flieth swiftly: whose tongue thou canst not
understand:
50
A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity
on the infant,
51
And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou
be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of
oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee,
52
And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high walls be brought
down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land.
Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land, which the Lord
thy God will give thee:
53
*And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons, and of
thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and
extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.
54
The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother,
and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,
55
So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat:
because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies
shall distress thee within all thy gates.
56
The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down
her foot for over-much niceness, and tenderness, will envy her husband who
lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,
57
And the filth of the after-births, that come forth from between her thighs, and
the children that are born the same hour.
For they shall eat them secretly, for the want of all things, in the
siege and distress wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.
58
If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that are written
in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy
God:
59
The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great
and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.
60
And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast
afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.
61
Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are
not written in the volume of this law, till he consume thee:
62
And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for
multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God.
63
And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before, doing good to you, and multiplying
you: so he shall rejoice, destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you
shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.
64
The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the
earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both
thou art ignorant of, and thy fathers, wood and stone.
65
Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest
for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord
will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with
pensiveness:
66
And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt
thou trust thy life.
67
In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at evening: Who
will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt
be terrified, and for those things, which thou shalt see with thy eyes.
68
The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he
said to thee, that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy
enemies for bond-men and bond-women, and no man shall buy you.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
15: Lev. xxvi. 14.; Lament. ii. 17.; Baruch i.
20.; Malac. ii. 2.
38: Micheas vi. 15.; Aggeus i. 6.
53: Lament. iv. 10.; Baruch ii. 2. and 3.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
29
CHAPTER XXIX.
The covenant is solemnly confirmed between God and his
people. Threats against those that shall
break it.
1
These *are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make
with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab: beside that covenant which he
made with them in Horeb.
2
And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: *You have seen all the things
that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his
servants, and to his whole land.
3
The great temptations, which thy eyes have seen, those mighty signs, and
wonders.
4
And the Lord hath not given you a heart to understand, and eyes to see, and
ears that may hear, unto this present day.
5
*He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn
out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age.
6
You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you
might know that I am the Lord your God.
7
And you came to this place: *and Sehon, king of Hesebon, and Og, king of Basan,
came out against us to fight. And we
slew them,
8
And took their land and delivered it for a possession to *Ruben and Gad, and
the half tribe of Manasses.
9
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and fulfil them: that you may
understand all that you do.
10
You all stand this day before the Lord your God, your princes, and tribes, and
ancients, and doctors, all the people of Israel,
11
Your children and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with thee in the
camp, besides the hewers of wood, and them that bring water:
12
That thou mayst pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in the oath which
this day the Lord thy God maketh with thee.
13
That he may raise thee up a people to himself, and he may be thy God, as he
hath spoken to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14
Neither with you only do I make this covenant, and confirm these oaths,
15
But with all that are present and that are absent.
16
For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we have passed through
the midst of nations; and passing through them,
17
You have seen their abominations and filth, that is to say, their idols, wood
and stone, silver and gold, which they worshipped.
18
Lest perhaps there should be among you a man or a woman, a family or a tribe,
whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the
gods of those nations: and there should be among you a root bringing forth gall
and bitterness.
19
And when he shall hear the words of this oath, he should bless himself in his
heart, saying: I shall have peace, and will walk on in the naughtiness of my
heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty,
20
And the Lord should not forgive him: but his wrath and jealousy against that
man should be exceedingly enkindled at that time, and all the curses that are
written in this volume should light upon him: and the Lord should blot out his
name from under heaven,
21
And utterly destroy him out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the
curses that are contained in the book of this law and covenant:
22
And the following generation shall say, and the children that shall be born
hereafter, and the strangers that shall come from afar, seeing the plagues of
that land, and the evils wherewith the Lord hath afflicted it,
23
Burning it with brimstone, and the heat of salt, so that it cannot be sown any
more, nor any green thing grow therein, *after the example of the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim, which the Lord destroyed in his wrath
and indignation:
24
And all the nations shall say: *Why hath the Lord done thus to this land? what
meaneth this exceeding great heat of his wrath?
25
And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, which he
made with their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt:
26
And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they knew not, and for
whom they had not been assigned:
27
Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it
all the curses that are written in this volume:
28
And he hath cast them out of their land, in anger and in wrath, and in very
great indignation, and hath thrown them into a strange land, as it is seen this
day.
29
Secret things to the Lord our God: things that are manifest, to us and
to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
2: Exod. xix. 4.
5: Supra viii. 2.
7: Supra iii. 1.
8: Supra iii. 15.; Num. xxxii.; Jos. xiii. 8.
and xxii. 4.
23: Gen. xix. 24.
24: 3 Kings ix. 8.; Jer. xxii. 8.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
30
CHAPTER XXX.
Great mercies are promised to the penitent: God's
commandment is feasible. Life and death
are set before them.
1
Now *when all these things shall be come upon thee, the blessing or the curse,
which I have set forth before thee: and thou shalt be touched with repentance
of thy heart among all the nations, into which the Lord thy God shall have
scattered thee,
2
And shalt return to him, and obey his commandments, as I command thee this day,
thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul:
3
The Lord thy God will bring back again thy captivity, and will have mercy on
thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations, into which he scattered
thee before.
4
If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God will fetch
thee back from thence,
5
*And will take thee to himself, and bring thee into the land which thy fathers
possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and blessing thee, he will make thee more
numerous than were thy fathers.
6
The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed: that
then mayst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that
thou mayst live.
7
And he will turn all these curses upon thy enemies, and upon them that hate and
persecute thee.
8
But thou shalt return, and hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and shalt do all
the commandments which I command thee this day:
9
And the Lord thy God will make thee abound in all the works of thy hands, in
the fruit of thy womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, in the fruitfulness of
thy land, and in the plenty of all things.
For the Lord will return to rejoice over thee in all good things, as he
rejoiced in thy fathers:
10
Yet so, if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep his precepts and
ceremonies, which are written in this law: and return to the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul.
11
This commandment, that I command thee this day, is not above thee, nor far off
from thee:
12
Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to heaven,
to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfil it in work?
13
Nor is it beyond the sea: that thou mayst excuse thyself, and say: *Which of us
can cross the sea, and bring it unto us that we may hear, and do that which is
commanded?
14
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou
mayst do it.
15
Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good; and on the other
hand, death and evil:
16
That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his
commandments and ceremonies, and judgments; and thou mayst live, and he may
multiply thee, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
17
But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived
with error, thou adore strange gods, and serve them:
18
I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short
time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to
possess it.
19
I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life
and death, blessing and cursing. Choose
therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20
And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to
him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days), that thou mayst dwell in
the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
that he would give it them.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
5: 2 Mac. i. 29.
13: Rom. x. 6.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
31
CHAPTER XXXI.
Moses encourageth the people, and Josue, who is
appointed to succeed him. He delivereth
the law to the priests. God foretelleth,
that the people will often forsake him, and that he will punish them. He commandeth Moses to write a canticle, as a
constant remembrancer of the law.
1
And *Moses went, and spoke all these words to all Israel,
2
And he said to them: I am this day a hundred and twenty years old, I can no
longer go out and come in, especially as the Lord also hath said to me: *Thou
shalt not pass over this Jordan.
3
The Lord thy God then will pass over before thee: he will destroy all these
nations in thy sight, and thou shalt possess them: and this Josue shall go over
before thee, as the Lord hath spoken.
4
And the Lord shall do to them *as he did to Sehon and Og, the kings of the
Amorrhites, and to their land, and shall destroy them.
5
Therefore when the Lord shall have delivered these also to you, *you shall do
in like manner to them as I have commanded you.
6
Do manfully, and be of good heart: fear not, nor be ye dismayed at their sight:
for the Lord thy God he himself is thy leader, and will not leave thee, nor
forsake thee.
7
And Moses called Josue, and said to him before all Israel: *Take courage, and
be valiant: for thou shalt bring this people into the land which the Lord swore
he would give to their fathers, and thou shalt divide it by lot.
8
And the Lord who is your leader, he himself will be with thee: he will not
leave thee, nor forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
9
And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi,
who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the ancients of
Israel.
10
And he commanded them, saying: After seven years, in the year of remission, in
the feast of tabernacles,
11
When all Israel come together, to appear in the sight of the Lord thy God, in
the place which the Lord shall choose, thou shalt read the words of this law
before all Israel, in their hearing,
12
And the people being all assembled together, both men and women, children and
strangers, that are within thy gates: that hearing they may learn, and fear the
Lord your God, and keep, and fulfil all the words of this law:
13
That their children also, who now are ignorant, may hear, and fear the Lord
their God, all the days that they live in the land whither you are going over
the Jordan to possess it.
14
And the Lord said to Moses: Behold the days of thy death are nigh: call Josue,
and stand ye in the tabernacle of the testimony, that I may give him a
charge. So Moses and Josue went, and
stood in the tabernacle of the testimony:
15
And the Lord appeared there in the pillar of a cloud, which stood in the entry
of the tabernacle.
16
And the Lord said to Moses: Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this
people rising up, will go a whoring after strange gods in the land to which it
goeth in to dwell: there will they forsake me, and will make void the covenant,
which I have made with them:
17
And my wrath shall be kindled against them in that day: and I will forsake
them, and will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured: all evils
and afflictions shall find them, so that they shall say in that day: in truth
it is because God is not with me, that these evils have found me.
18
But I will hide, and cover my face in that day, for all the evils which they
have done, because they have followed strange gods.
19
Now therefore write you this canticle, and teach the children of Israel: that
they may know it by heart, and sing it by mouth, and this song may be unto me
for a testimony among the children of Israel.
20
For I will bring them into the land, for which I swore to their fathers, that
floweth with milk and honey. And when
they have eaten, and are full, and fat, they will turn away after strange gods,
and will serve them: and will despise me, and make void my covenant.
21
And after many evils and afflictions shall have come upon them, this canticle
shall answer them for a testimony, which no oblivion shall take away out of the
mouth of their seed. For I know their
thoughts, and what they are about to do this day, before that I bring them into
the land which I have promised them.
22
Moses therefore wrote the canticle, and taught it the children of Israel.
23
And the Lord commanded Josue, the son of Nun, and said: Take courage, and be
valiant: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I have
promised, and I will be with thee.
24
Therefore after Moses had wrote the words of this law in a volume, and finished
it:
25
He commanded the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
saying:
26
Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God: that it may be there for a testimony against thee.
27
For I know thy obstinacy, and thy most stiff neck. While I am yet living, and going in with you,
you have always been rebellious against the Lord: how much more when I shall be
dead?
28
Gather unto me all the ancients of your tribes, and your doctors, and I will
speak these words in their hearing, and will call heaven and earth to witness
against them.
29
For I know that, after my death, you will do wickedly, and will quickly turn
aside from the way that I have commanded you: and evils shall come upon you in
the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke
him by the works of your hands.
30
Moses therefore spoke, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, the
words of this canticle, and finished it even to the end.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553.
2: Supra iii. 27.; Num. xxvii. 13.
4: Num. xxi. 24.
5: Supra vii. 2.
7: Jos. i. 6.; 3 Kings ii. 2.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
32
CHAPTER XXXII.
A canticle for the remembrance of the law. Moses is commanded to go up into a mountain,
from whence he shall see the promised land, but not enter into it.
1
Hear, *O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of
my mouth.
2
Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a
shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.
3
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
4
The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful,
and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
5
They have sinned against him, and are none of his children, in their filth:
they are a wicked and perverse generation.
6
Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless
people? Is not he thy father, that hath
possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
7
*Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he
will declare to thee: thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8
When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he
appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of
Israel.
9
But the Lord's portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
10
He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of waste wilderness:
he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11
As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings,
and hath taken him, and carried him on his shoulders.
12
The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
13
He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he
might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone.
14
Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep, with the fat of lambs, and of the
rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink
the purest blood of the grape.
15
The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook
God who made him, and departed from God his Saviour.
16
They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger with their abominations.
17
They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were
newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.
18
Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that
created thee.
19
The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters
provoked him.
20
And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last
end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children.
21
They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with
their vanities: *and I will provoke them with that, which is no people, and
will vex them with a foolish nation.
22
A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and
shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the
mountains.
23
I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
24
They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most
bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of
creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
25
Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man
and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.
26
I said: Where are they? I will make the
memory of them to cease from among men.
27
But for the wrath of the enemies, I have deferred it: lest perhaps their
enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath
done all these things.
28
They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
29
*O that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their
last end.
30
How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not because their God had sold them,
and the Lord had shut them up?
31
For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
32
Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their
grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter.
33
Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
34
Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
35
*Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may
slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.
36
The Lord will judge his people,* and will have mercy on his servants: he shall
see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have
also failed, and they that remained are consumed.
37
And he shall say: *Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
38
Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings:
let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress.
39
See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: *I will kill, and
I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, **and there is none that
can deliver out of my hand.
40
I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
41
If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I
will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me.
42
I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the
blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.
43
*Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants:
and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land
of his people.
44
So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle, in the ears of the
people, and Josue, the son of Nun.
45 And
he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
46
And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words which I testify to you
this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to
fulfil all that is written in this law:
47
For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them:
and that doing them, you may continue a long time in the land whither you are
going over the Jordan to possess it.
48
And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
49
Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages) unto Mount Nebo,
which is in the land of Moab, over-against Jericho: and see the land of
Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die
thou in the mountain.
50
When thou art gone up into it, thou shalt be gathered to thy people, *as Aaron
thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:
51
*Because you trespassed against me, in the midst of the children of Israel, at
the waters of contradiction, in Cades, of the desert of Sin: and you did not
sanctify me among the children of Israel.
52
Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of
Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553, A.C. 1451.
7: Job viii. 8.
21: Jer. xv. 14.; Rom. x. 19.
29: Jer. ix. 12.
35: Eccli. xxviii. 1.; Rom. xii. 19.; Heb. x. 30.
36: 2 Mac. vii. 6.
37: Jer. ii. 28.
39: 1 Kings ii. 6.; Tobias xiii. 2.; Wisd. xvi.
13. --- ** Job x. 7.; Wisd. xvi. 15.
43: 2 Mac. vii. 6.
50: Num. xx. 26. and xxvii. 13.
52: Num. xx. 12. and xxvii. 14.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
33
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Moses, before his death, blesseth the tribes of
Israel.
1
This is the blessing wherewith the man of God, Moses, blessed the children of
Israel, before his death.
2
And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and from Seir he rose up to us: he hath
appeared from Mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law.
3
He hath loved the people, *all the saints are in his hand: and they that
approach to his feet, shall receive of his doctrine.
4
Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the multitude of Jacob.
5
He shall be king with the most right, the princes of the people being assembled
with the tribes of Israel.
6 Let
Ruben live, and not die, and be he small in number.
7
This is the blessing of Juda. Hear, O
Lord, the voice of Juda, and bring him in unto his people: his hands shall
fight for him, and he shall be his helper against his enemies.
8
To Levi also he said: Thy perfection and thy doctrine be to thy holy
man, whom thou hast proved in the temptation, and judged at the waters of
contradiction:
9
*Who hath said to his father, and to his mother: I do not know you; and to his
brethren: I know you not: and their own children they have not known. These have kept thy word, and observed thy
covenant,
10
Thy judgments, O Jacob, and thy law, O Israel: they shall put incense in thy
wrath, and holocaust upon thy altar.
11
Bless, O Lord, his strength, and receive the works of his hands. Strike the backs of his enemies, and let not
them that hate him rise.
12
And to Benjamin he said: The best beloved of the Lord shall dwell confidently
in him: as in a bride-chamber shall he abide all the day long, and between his
shoulders shall he rest.
13
To Joseph also he said: Of the blessing of the Lord be his land, of the fruits
of heaven, and of the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath.
14
Of the fruits brought forth by the sun and by the moon:
15
Of the tops of the ancient mountains, of the fruits of the everlasting hills:
16
And of the fruits of the earth, and of the fulness thereof. The blessing of him *that appeared in the
bush, come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite, among
his brethren.
17
His beauty as of the firstling of a bullock, his horns as the horns of a
rhinoceros: with them shall he push the nations even to the ends of the
earth. These are the multitudes of
Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasses.
18 And
to Zabulon he said: Rejoice, O Zabulon, in thy going out: and Issachar, in thy
tabernacles.
19
They shall call the people to the mountain: there shall they sacrifice the
victims of justice. Who shall suck as
milk the abundance of the sea, and the hidden treasures of the sands.
20
And to Gad he said: Blessed be Gad in his breadth: he hath rested as a
lion, and hath seized upon the arm and the top of the head.
21
And he saw his pre-eminence, that in his portion the teacher was laid up: who
was with the princes of the people, and did the justices of the Lord, and his
judgment with Israel.
22
To Dan also he said: Dan is a young lion, he shall flow plentifully from Basan.
23
And to Nephthali he said: Nephthali shall enjoy abundance, and shall be full of
the blessings of the Lord: he shall possess the sea and the south.
24
To Aser also he said: Let Aser be blessed with children, let him be acceptable
to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.
25
His shoe shall be iron and brass. As the
days of thy youth, so also shall thy old age be.
26
There is no other god like the God of the rightest: he that is mounted upon the
heaven, is thy helper. By his
magnificence the clouds run hither and thither.
27
His dwelling is above, and underneath are the everlasting arms: he shall cast
out the enemy from before thee, and shall say: Be thou brought to nought.
28
Israel shall dwell in safety, and alone.
The eye of Jacob in a land of corn and wine, and the heavens shall be
misty with dew.
29
Blessed are thou, Israel: who is like to thee, O people, that art saved by the
Lord? the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy glory: thy enemies shall
deny thee, and thou shalt tread upon their necks.
____________________
*
3: Wisd. iii. 1. and v. 5.
9: Exod. xxxii. 27.; Levit. x. 5.
16: Exod. iii. 2.
====================
DEUTERONOMY
34
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Moses seeth the promised land, but is not suffered to
go into it. He dieth at the age of 120
years. God burieth his body secretly,
and all Israel mourn for him thirty days.
Josue, replenished (by the imposition of Moses' hands) with the spirit
of God, succeedeth. But Moses, for his
special familiarity with God and for most wonderful miracles, is commended
above all other prophets.
1
Then *Moses went up from the plains of Moab, upon Mount Nebo, to the top of
Phasga, **over-against Jericho: and the Lord shewed him all the land of Galaad,
as far as Dan,
2
And all Nephthali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasses, and all the land of
Juda unto the furthermost sea,
3
And the south part, and the breadth of the plain of Jericho, the city of
palm-trees, as far as Segor.
4
And the Lord said to him: *This is the land, for which I swore to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to thy seed. Thou hast seen it with thy eyes, and shalt
not pass over to it.
5
And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, by the
commandment of the Lord:
6
And he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, over-against Phogor: and
no man hath known of his sepulchre until this present day.
7
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim,
neither were his teeth moved.
8
And the children of Israel mourned for him, in the plains of Moab, thirty days:
and the days of their mourning, in which they mourned for Moses, were ended.
9
And Josue, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses
had laid his hands upon him. And the
children of Israel obeyed him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
10
And there arose no more a prophet in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord
knew face to face,
11
In all the signs and wonders which he sent by him, to do in the land of Egypt
to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land,
12
And all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which Moses did before all Israel.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 2553. --- ** Supra iii. 27. and xxxii.
49.; 2 Mac. ii. 4.
4: Gen. xii. 7. and xv. 18.
====================
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This blog is for serious exhortation to faith in this time of the Great Apostasy.