Day 51: Deuteronomy 13-16
Idolatry, Community, Generosity, Justice, and Sacred Time
Deuteronomy 13
1 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let’s go after other gods”—which you have not known—“and let’s serve them,”
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, obey his voice, serve him, and cling to him.
5 That prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside from the way in which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
6 If your brother, 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, secretly entices you, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;
7 of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;
8 you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him;
9 but 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.
10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
11 All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.
12 If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, saying,
13 “Certain base fellows have gone out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods,’” which you have not known;
14 then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that this abomination has been done among you,
15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is therein and its livestock with the edge of the sword.
16 You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn the city with fire, with all its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
17 Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers,
18 when you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
Deuteronomy 14
1 You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor shave your forehead for the dead.
2 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
3 You shall not eat any abominable thing.
4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois.
6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof, and has the hoof split in two, and chews the cud, among the animals.
7 Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof split: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit, because they chew the cud but don’t have a split hoof. They are unclean to you.
8 The pig, because he has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.
9 Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat;
10 and whatever doesn’t have fins and scales you shall not eat. It is unclean to you.
11 Of all clean birds you may eat.
12 But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,
13 the red kite, the falcon, the kite after its kind,
14 every raven after its kind,
15 the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk after its kind,
16 the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl,
17 the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant,
18 the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
19 All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten.
20 You may eat of all clean birds.
21 You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
22 You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year.
23 You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock, that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always.
24 If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place which Yahweh your God chooses to set his name there is too far from you, when Yahweh your God blesses you,
25 then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God chooses.
26 You shall trade the money for whatever your soul desires, for cattle, for sheep, for wine, for strong drink, for whatever your soul desires. You shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
28 At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates.
29 The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and they shall eat and be filled, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
Deuteronomy 15
1 At the end of every seven years you shall cancel debts.
2 This is the way of the cancellation: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his brother or his neighbor, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed.
3 Of a foreigner you may require it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release.
4 However there will be no poor among you—for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess—
5 if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today.
6 For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
7 If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;
8 but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks.
9 Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.
10 You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.
11 For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you, saying, “You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.”
12 If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
13 When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty.
14 You shall furnish him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today.
16 It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you,
17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your female servant.
18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been worth a double hired servant to you in serving you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
19 You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.
20 You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household.
21 If it has any defect, such as being lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God.
22 You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean may eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer.
23 Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 16
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction, for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste, that you may remember the day that you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
4 There shall be no yeast seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Neither shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at evening remain overnight until the morning.
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you;
6 but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at sunset, at the season that you came out of Egypt.
7 You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work.
9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a servant in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
13 You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress;
14 and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.
15 You shall keep a feast seven days to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.
16 Three times in a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you.
18 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes. They shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 You shall not deprive anyone of justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and corrupts the words of the righteous.
20 You shall follow justice and justice alone, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
21 You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves.
22 Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh your God hates.
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
