Study Desk

When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities,

the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.

Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

“When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’

If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.

so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?

The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

Lord, wipe away the guilt of your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then the responsibility for bloodshed will be wiped away from them.

You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.

remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.