Day 83 of 730

¹These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.

²You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree:

³and you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods; and you shall destroy their name out of that place.

⁴You shall not do so to the Lord your God.

⁵But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even to his habitation you shall seek, and there you shall come;

⁶and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock:

⁷and there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

⁹for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁰But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety;

¹¹then it shall happen that to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the Lord.

¹²You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your male servants, and your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

¹³Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

¹⁴but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

¹⁷You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;

¹⁸but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you put your hand to.

¹⁹Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the Lord your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, "I want to eat meat," because your soul desires to eat meat; you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.

²¹If the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.

²²Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so you shall eat of it: the unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

²⁵You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁶Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which the Lord shall choose:

²⁷and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God; and you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

²⁹When the Lord your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;

³⁰take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise."

³¹You shall not do so to the Lord your God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.

³²Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

¹If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder come to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods" (which you have not known) "and let us serve them";

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proves you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cling to him.

⁵That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the Lord your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁶If your brother, the son of your father or the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;

⁸you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him:

⁹but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

¹⁰You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹¹All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you.

¹²If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell there, saying,

¹³Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known;

¹⁴then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in the midst of you,

¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶You shall gather all its plunder into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God: and it shall be a ruin forever; it shall not be built again.

¹⁷Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand; that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;

¹⁸when you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

¹God, do not keep silent. Do not keep silent, and do not be still, God.

²For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.

³They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones.

⁴"Come," they say, "and let's destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more."

⁵For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you.

⁶The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites;

⁷Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

⁸Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.

⁹Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;

¹⁰who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna;

¹²who said, "Let us take possession of God's pasturelands."

¹³My God, make them like tumbleweed; like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴As the fire that burns the forest, as the flame that sets the mountains on fire,

¹⁵so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.

¹⁶Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek your name, Lord.

¹⁷Let them be disappointed and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish;

¹⁸that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

¹The king's heart is in the Lord's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

²Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

³To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

⁴A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.

⁶Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right.

⁸The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

⁹It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

¹¹When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom. When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

¹²The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked, and brings the wicked to ruin.

¹³Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifies anger; and a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

¹⁵It is joy to the righteous to do justice; but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

¹⁶The man who wanders out of the way of understanding shall rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷He who loves pleasure shall be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil shall not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; the treacherous for the upright.

¹⁹It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.

²⁰There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man swallows it up.

²¹He who follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and brings down the strength of its confidence.

²³Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴The proud and haughty man, "scoffer" is his name; he works in the arrogance of pride.

²⁵The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

²⁶There are those who covet greedily all day long; but the righteous give and do not withhold.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

²⁸A false witness will perish, and a man who listens speaks to eternity.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face; but as for the upright, he establishes his ways.

³⁰There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.

³¹The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but victory is with the Lord.