Study Desk

"After you have threshed all your grain and pressed all your grapes, celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days.

Honor the Lord your God by celebrating this festival for seven days at the one place of worship. Be joyful, because the Lord has blessed your harvest and your work.

They are not to be unjust or show partiality in their judgments; and they are not to accept bribes, for gifts blind the eyes even of wise and honest men, and cause them to give wrong decisions.

"When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah.

And do not set up any stone pillar for idol worship; the Lord hates them.

"It may be that some cases will be too difficult for the local judges to decide, such as certain cases of property rights or of bodily injury or those cases that involve a distinction between murder and manslaughter. When this happens, go to the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God,

The king is not to have a large number of horses for his army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to buy horses, because the Lord has said that his people are never to return there.

This will keep him from thinking that he is better than other Israelites and from disobeying the Lord 's commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years, and his descendants will rule Israel for many generations.

Don't sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don't let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells

Then Moses said, "In the land you are about to occupy, people follow the advice of those who practice divination and look for omens, but the Lord your God does not allow you to do this.

But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it, and so must any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods.'

divide the territory into three parts, each with a city that can be easily reached. Then any of you that kill will be able to escape to one of them for protection.

For example, if two of you go into the forest together to cut wood and if, as one of you is chopping down a tree, the ax head comes off the handle and kills the other, you can run to one of those three cities and be safe.

If there were only one city, the distance to it might be too great, and the relative who is responsible for taking revenge for the killing might catch you and angrily kill an innocent person. After all, it was by accident that you killed someone who was not your enemy.

"But suppose you deliberately murder your enemy in cold blood and then escape to one of those cities for protection.

In that case, the leaders of your own town are to send for you and hand you over to the relative responsible for taking revenge for the murder, so that you may be put to death.

In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

When the officers have finished speaking to the army, leaders are to be chosen for each unit.

If they open the gates and surrender, they are all to become your slaves and do forced labor for you.

You may, however, take for yourselves the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city. You may use everything that belongs to your enemies. The Lord has given it to you.