Passage: Deuteronomy 25, 26, 27 (RSV)


Deuteronomy 25


1"If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty,
2then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.
3Forty stripes may be given him, but not more; lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
4"You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
5"If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.
6And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
7And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, `My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'
8Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he persists, saying, `I do not wish to take her,'
9then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, `So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.'
10And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, The house of him that had his sandal pulled off.
11"When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts,
12then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall have no pity.
13"You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.
14You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small.
15A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have; that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
16For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.
17"Remember what Am'alek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt,
18how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God.
19Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Am'alek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

Deuteronomy 26


1"When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it, and live in it,
2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.
3And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, `I declare this day to the LORD your God that I have come into the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.'
4Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.
5"And you shall make response before the LORD your God, `A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
6And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.
7Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression;
8and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders;
9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which thou, O LORD, hast given me.' And you shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God;
11and you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.
12"When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled,
13then you shall say before the LORD your God, `I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all thy commandment which thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed any of thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them;
14I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, I have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.
15Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel and the ground which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.'
16"This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17You have declared this day concerning the LORD that he is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice;
18and the LORD has declared this day concerning you that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments,
19that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he has spoken."

Deuteronomy 27


1Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, "Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.
2And on the day you pass over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall set up large stones, and plaster them with plaster;
3and you shall write upon them all the words of this law, when you pass over to enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
4And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.
5And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall lift up no iron tool upon them.
6You shall build an altar to the LORD your God of unhewn stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God;
7and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God.
8And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly."
9And Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD your God.
10You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day."
11And Moses charged the people the same day, saying,
12"When you have passed over the Jordan, these shall stand upon Mount Ger'izim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Is'sachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
13And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zeb'ulun, Dan, and Naph'tali.
14And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel with a loud voice:
15"`Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, `Amen.'
16"`Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
17"`Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
18"`Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on the road.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
19"`Cursed be he who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
20"`Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered her who is his father's.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
21"`Cursed be he who lies with any kind of beast.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
22"`Cursed be he who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
23"`Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
24"`Cursed be he who slays his neighbor in secret.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
25"`Cursed be he who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'
26"`Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'



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