Day 144 of 365

¹You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

²If there is found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant,

³and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded;

⁴and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

⁵then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

⁶At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

⁷The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁸If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose;

⁹and you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

¹⁰You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which the Lord shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

¹¹according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

¹²The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Israel.

¹³All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

¹⁴When you have come to the land which the Lord your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me";

¹⁵you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom the Lord your God shall choose: one from among your brothers you shall set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

¹⁶Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because the Lord has said to you, "You shall not go back that way again."

¹⁷Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

¹⁸It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

¹⁹and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

²⁰that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

¹The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his inheritance.

²They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: the Lord is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

³This shall be the priests' due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

⁴The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.

⁵For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.

⁶If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which the Lord shall choose;

⁷then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord.

⁸They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

⁹When you have come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

¹¹or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹²For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord your God does drive them out from before you.

¹³You shall be perfect with the Lord your God.

¹⁴For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you so to do.

¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.

¹⁶This is according to all that you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die."

¹⁷The Lord said to me, "They have well said that which they have spoken.

¹⁸I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

¹⁹It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

²⁰But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die."

²¹If you say in your heart, "How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?"

²²When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing doesn't follow, nor happen, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

¹When the Lord your God shall cut off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

²you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess it.

³You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which the Lord your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and did not hate him in time past;

⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he did not hate him in time past.

⁷Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for yourselves.

⁸If the Lord your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

⁹if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three:

¹⁰that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.

¹¹But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;

¹²then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

¹³Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

¹⁴You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess it.

¹⁵One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

¹⁶If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

¹⁷then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;

¹⁸and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

¹⁹then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

²⁰Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you.

²¹Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

¹Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle:

²my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge; who subdues my people under me.

³Lord, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

⁵Part your heavens, Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.

⁶Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners;

⁸whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.

¹⁰You are he who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.

¹¹Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

¹³Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.

¹⁴Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

¹Wine is a mocker, and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

³It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be quarreling.

⁴The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.

⁵Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?

⁷A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, "I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?"

¹⁰Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

¹¹Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.

¹²The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, The Lord has made even both of them.

¹³Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.

¹⁴"It's no good, it's no good," says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold and abundance of rubies; but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.

¹⁶Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.

¹⁷Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!

¹⁹He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; therefore do not keep company with him who opens wide his lips.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.

²¹An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won't be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, "I will pay back evil." Wait for the Lord, and he will save you.

²³The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales are not pleasing.

²⁴A man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?

²⁵It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows.

²⁶A wise king winnows out the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of man is the Lord's lamp, searching all his innermost parts.

²⁸Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength. The splendor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Wounding blows cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost parts.