Study Desk

Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you were a resident alien in his land.

If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a bodily emission during the night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come anywhere inside the camp.

Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s earnings into the house of the Lord your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the Lord your God.

“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to keep it, because he will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin.

Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised to the Lord your God.

“If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“Do not take a pair of grindstones or even the upper millstone as security for a debt, because that is like taking a life as security.

You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.

All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God:

The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.

“You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not moisten your skin with oil, because your olives will drop off.

You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner.

Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything,

refusing to share with any of them his children’s flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns.

The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,

the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.

Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God.