Bible-Reading.comDeuteronomy 11
1So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.
2And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,
3Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;
4And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day;
5And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place;
6And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel:
7But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done.
8So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage;
9And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:
11But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:
12A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other.
13And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,
14Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil.
15And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure.
16But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods;
17For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
18So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow;
19Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up:
20Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns:
21So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.
22For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him:
23Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
24Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
25All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.
26Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:
27The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day:
28And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours.
29And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?
31For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place.
32And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today.
Deuteronomy 12
1These are the laws and the decisions which you are to keep with care in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to be your heritage all the days of your life on earth.
2You are to give up to the curse all those places where the nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree:
3Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place.
4Do not so to the Lord your God.
5But let your hearts be turned to the place which will be marked out by the Lord your God, among your tribes, to put his name there;
6And there you are to take your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up to the Lord, and the offerings of your oaths, and those which you give freely from the impulse of your hearts, and the first births among your herds and your flocks;
7There you and all your families are to make a feast before the Lord your God, with joy in everything to which you put your hand, because the Lord has given you his blessing.
8You are not to do things then in the way in which we now do them here, every man as it seems right to him:
9For you have not come to the rest and the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you.
10But when you have gone over Jordan and are living in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as your heritage, and when he has given you rest from all those on every side who are fighting against you, and you are living there safely;
11Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of your oaths which you make to the Lord;
12And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you.
13Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in any place you see:
14But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do.
15Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it.
16But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water.
17In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted offering;
18But they will be your food before the Lord your God in the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them, with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you: and you will have joy before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand.
19See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long as you are living in your land.
20When the Lord your God makes wide the limit of your land, as he has said, and you say, I will take flesh for my food, because you have a desire for it; then you may take whatever flesh you have a desire for.
21If the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name is far away from you, then take from your herds and from your flocks which the Lord has given you, as I have said, and have a meal of it in the towns where you may be living.
22It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the unclean and the clean may take of it.
23But see that you do not take the blood for food; for the blood is the life; and you may not make use of the life as food with the flesh.
24Do not take it for food but let it be drained out on the earth like water.
25Do not take it for food; so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, while you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
26But the holy things which you have, and the offerings of your oaths, you are to take to the place which will be marked out by the Lord:
27Offering the flesh and the blood of your burned offerings on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your offerings is to be drained out on the altar of the Lord your God, and the flesh will be your food.
28Take note of all these orders I am giving you and give attention to them, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you for ever, while you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
29When the people of the land where you are going have been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have taken their land and are living in it;
30After their destruction take care that you do not go in their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did.
31Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32You are to keep with care all the words I give you, making no addition to them and taking nothing from them.
Deuteronomy 13
1If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;
3Then give no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God is testing you, to see if all the love of your heart and soul is given to him.
4But keep on in the ways of the Lord your God, fearing him and keeping his orders and hearing his voice, worshipping him and being true to him.
5And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put to death; for his words were said with the purpose of turning you away from the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; and of forcing you out of the way in which the Lord your God has given you orders to go. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
6If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers;
7Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other;
8Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover;
9But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
11And all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and no one will again do such evil as this among you.
12And if word comes to you, in one of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you for your resting-place,
13That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from among you, turning the people of their town from the right way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of whom you have no knowledge;
14Then let a full search be made, and let questions be put with care; and if it is true and certain that such a disgusting thing has been done among you;
15Then take up arms against the people of that town and give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it.
16And take all the goods into the middle of its open space, burning the town and all its property with fire as an offering to the Lord your God; it is to be a waste for ever; there is to be no more building there.
17Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his oath to your fathers:
18So long as you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep all his orders which I give you today, and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.