Study Desk

"You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat;

"For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

"You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

"You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourself.

"And you shall not set up for yourself a memorial stone, which the LORD your God hates.

"You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your God.

"If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

"In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'

"And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

"Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law 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 to serve in the name of the LORD always.

"They shall eat equal portions, except for what they receive from the sale of their fathers' estates.

"For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is going to drive them out before you.

"For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.

"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen.

'I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.

you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

"You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as an inheritance, so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

"Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall set aside for yourself three cities.'

if you carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.