Deuteronomy 11-13

1You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

2Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;

3the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

4what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

5what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

6and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.

7For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done.

8You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

9and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.

11But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.

12It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.

13So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

15And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

16But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

17or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.

18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

22For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

23then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

24Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

25No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.

26See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—

27a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,

28but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

29When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?

31For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it,

32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

1These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess.

2Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.

3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

4You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way.

5Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

6To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

8You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

9For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

10When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely,

11then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.

12And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

14you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

16but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

17Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

18Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,

19and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

20When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

21If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

22Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

23Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

24You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

26But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.

27Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.

28Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

29When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

30be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

31You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

1If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,

2and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”

3you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

4You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him.

5Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you.

6If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,

7the gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, whether from one end of the earth or the other),

8you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.

9Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

10Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

11Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

12If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said

13that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),

14then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,

15you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock.

16And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

17Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers,

18because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.