Study Desk

I will provide pasture for your livestock and you will eat your fill."

For if you carefully observe all of these commandments I am giving you and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, and remain loyal to him,

For you are about to cross the Jordan to possess the land the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess and inhabit it.

for you have not yet come to the final stop and inheritance the Lord your God is giving you.

Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing everything I am commanding you—your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him.

for you may do so only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribal areas—there you may do everything I am commanding you.

If the place he chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages just as you wish.

However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself—you must not eat the life with the meat!

You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being.

As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within.

You must not give in to him or even listen to him; do not feel sympathy for him or spare him or cover up for him.

You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.

You are children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald for the sake of the dead.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth.

you may convert the tithe into money, secure the money, and travel to the place the Lord your God chooses for himself.

Then you may spend the money however you wish for cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and enjoy it.

As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you.

This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, for it is to be recognized as "the Lord 's cancellation of debts."

However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he is giving you as an inheritance,