Study Desk

You will have obeyed the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving to you today, and you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

You are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

stick an awl through his ear into the door; he will be your slave for life. Also do this to a female slave.

The king must not have many wives, or his heart will be led away from God. He must not have too much silver and gold.

He should keep it with him all the time and read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God, and he will obey all the teachings and commands.

He should not think he is better than his fellow Israelites, and he must not stop obeying the law in any way so that he and his descendants may rule the kingdom for a long time.

he may serve the Lord his God. He will be like his fellow Levites who serve there before the Lord .

If what a prophet says in the name of the Lord does not happen, it is not the Lord 's message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don't be afraid of him.

This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these cities in order to save his life. But the person must have killed a neighbor without meaning to, not out of hatred.

For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood and swings an ax to cut down a tree. If the ax head flies off the handle, hitting and killing the neighbor, the one who killed him may run to one of these cities to save his life.

Otherwise, the dead person's relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer might be angry and chase him. If the city is far away, the relative might catch and kill the person, even though he should not be killed because there was no intent to kill his neighbor.

But if a person hates his neighbor and, after hiding and waiting, attacks and kills him and then runs to one of these cities for safety,

the elders of his own city should send for the murderer. They should bring the person back from the city of safety and hand him over to the relative who has the duty of punishing the murderer.

The officers should say to the army, "Has anyone built a new house but not given it to God? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would get to give his house to God.

Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would enjoy his vineyard.

Then the officers should also say, "Is anyone here afraid? Has anyone lost his courage? He may go home so that he will not cause others to lose their courage, too."

when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love.

He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son.

If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn't obey them or listen when they correct him,

his parents must take him to the elders at the city gate.