Blessing or Curse: The Choice is YOurs

²⁶Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if ye shall hearken unto the mitzvot of Yehovah your God, which I command you this day; ²⁸and the curse, if ye shall not hearken unto the mitzvot of Yehovah your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. ²⁹And it shall come to pass, when Yehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set the blessing upon mount G’rizim, and the curse upon mount ‘Eival. ³⁰Are they not beyond the Yarden, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Kena’ani that dwell in the ‘Aravah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹For ye are to pass over the Yarden to go in to possess the land which Yehovah your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. ³²And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.

12 These are the statutes and the ordinances which ye shall observe to do in the land which Yehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath given thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. ²Ye shall surely destroy all the places wherein the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: ³and ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. ⁴Ye shall not do so unto Yehovah your God. ⁵But unto the place which Yehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come; ⁶and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock: ⁷and there ye shall eat before Yehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein Yehovah thy God hath blessed thee. ⁸Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes; ⁹for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yehovah thy God giveth thee. ¹⁰But when ye go over the Yarden, and dwell in the land which Yehovah your God causeth you to inherit, and he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; ¹¹then it shall come to pass that to the place which Yehovah your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto Yehovah. ¹²And ye shall rejoice before Yehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite that is within your gates, forasmuch as he hath no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; ¹⁴but in the place which Yehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

¹⁵Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of Yehovah thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer. ¹⁶Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. ¹⁷Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy grain, or of thy new wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill-offerings, nor the heave-offering of thy hand; ¹⁸but thou shalt eat them before Yehovah thy God in the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before Yehovah thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. ¹⁹Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest in thy land.

²⁰When Yehovah thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul desireth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, after all the desire of thy soul. ²¹If the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose, to put his name there, be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which Yehovah hath given thee, as I have commanded thee; and thou mayest eat within thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul. ²²Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat thereof: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof alike. ²³Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou shalt not eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. ²⁵Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the eyes of Yehovah. ²⁶Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which Yehovah shall choose; ²⁷and thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Yehovah thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of Yehovah thy God; and thou shalt eat the flesh. ²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the eyes of Yehovah thy God.

²⁹When Yehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land; ³⁰take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. ³¹Thou shalt not do so unto Yehovah thy God: for every abomination to Yehovah, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.

³²What thing soever I command you, that shall ye observe to do: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

13 If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder, ²and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; ³thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams: for Yehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴Ye shall walk after Yehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his mitzvot, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. ⁵And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he hath spoken rebellion against Yehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of the way which Yehovah thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.

⁶If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; ⁷of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; ⁸thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: ⁹but thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹¹And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee.

¹²If thou shalt hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which Yehovah thy God giveth thee to dwell there, saying, ¹³Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; ¹⁴then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of thee, ¹⁵thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, unto Yehovah thy God: and it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again. ¹⁷And there shall cleave nought of the devoted thing to thy hand; that Yehovah may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; ¹⁸when thou shalt hearken to the voice of Yehovah thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yehovah thy God.

14 Ye are the children of Yehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ²For thou art a holy people unto Yehovah thy God, and Jehovah hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

³Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. ⁴These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, ⁵the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the chamois. ⁶And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat. ⁷Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the coney; because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean unto you. ⁸And the swine, because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you: of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch.

⁹These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales may ye eat; ¹⁰and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you.

¹¹Of all clean birds ye may eat. ¹²But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the gier-eagle, and the ospray, ¹³and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, ¹⁴and every raven after its kind, ¹⁵and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind, ¹⁶the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, ¹⁷and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant, ¹⁸and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹And all winged creeping things are unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. ²⁰Of all clean birds ye may eat.

²¹Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou mayest give it unto the sojourner that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner: for thou art a holy people unto Yehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which cometh forth from the field year by year. ²³And thou shalt eat before Yehovah thy God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy grain, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest learn to fear Yehovah thy God always. ²⁴And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, because the place is too far from thee, which Yehovah thy God shall choose, to set his name there, when Yehovah thy God shall bless thee; ²⁵then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go unto the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose: ²⁶and thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou shalt eat there before Yehovah thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household. ²⁷And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee.

²⁸At the end of every three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: ²⁹and the Levite, because he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest.

15 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. ²And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because Yehovah’s release hath been proclaimed. ³Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it: but whatsoever of thine is with thy brother thy hand shall release. ⁴Howbeit there shall be no poor with thee (for Yehovah will surely bless thee in the land which Yehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it), ⁵if only thou diligently hearken unto the voice of Yehovah thy God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command thee this day. ⁶For Yehovah thy God will bless thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.

⁷If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land which Yehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; ⁸but thou shalt surely open thy hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. ⁹Beware that there be not a base thought in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nought; and he cry unto Yehovah against thee, and it be sin unto thee. ¹⁰Thou shalt surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing Yehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. ¹¹For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.

¹²If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. ¹³And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty: ¹⁴thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress; as Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. ¹⁵And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and Yehovah thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. ¹⁶And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go out from thee, because he loveth thee and thy house, because he is well with thee; ¹⁷then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. ¹⁸It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee six years: and Yehovah thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest.

¹⁹All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto Yehovah thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy herd, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. ²⁰Thou shalt eat it before Yehovah thy God year by year in the place which Yehovah shall choose, thou and thy household. ²¹And if it have any blemish, as if it be lame or blind, any ill blemish whatsoever, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto Yehovah thy God. ²²Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart. ²³Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it out upon the ground as water.

16 Observe the month of the Aviv, and keep the passover unto Yehovah thy God; for in the month of the Aviv Yehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. ²And thou shalt sacrifice the passover unto Yehovah thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yehovah shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. ³Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. ⁴And there shall be no leaven seen with thee in all thy borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which thou sacrificest the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. ⁵Thou mayest not sacrifice the Pesach within any of thy gates, which Yehovah thy God giveth thee; ⁶but at the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Pesach at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. ⁷And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. ⁸Six days thou shalt eat matzah; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yehovah thy God; thou shalt do no work therein.

⁹Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing grain shalt thou begin to number seven weeks. ¹⁰And thou shalt keep the Festival of Shavu’ot unto Yehovah thy God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as Yehovah thy God blesseth thee: ¹¹and thou shalt rejoice before Yehovah thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the L’vi’im that is within thy gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of thee, in the place which Yehovah thy God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. ¹²And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

¹³Thou shalt keep the Festival of Sukkot seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress: ¹⁴and thou shalt rejoice in thy Festival, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the L’vi’im, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. ¹⁵Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto Yehovah thy God in the place which Yehovah shall choose; because Yehovah thy God will bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful. ¹⁶Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before Yehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose: in the Festival of matzah, and in the Festival of Shavu’ot, and in the Festival of Sukkot; and they shall not appear before Yehovah empty: ¹⁷every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yehovah thy God which he hath given thee.