23 “No man who has been castrated by having his testicles crushed or who has had his male organ cut off may come into the congregation of Jehovah.+
2 “No illegitimate son may come into the congregation of Jehovah.+ Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may come into the congregation of Jehovah.
3 “No Amʹmon·ite or Moʹab·ite may come into the congregation of Jehovah.+ Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants may ever come into the congregation of Jehovah, 4 because they did not come to your aid with food and water when you were on the way going out of Egypt,+ and because they hired against you Baʹlaam the son of Beʹor from Peʹthor of Mes·o·po·taʹmi·a to curse you.+ 5 But Jehovah your God refused to listen to Baʹlaam.+ Rather, Jehovah your God changed the curse into a blessing for you,+ because Jehovah your God loved you.+ 6 You should never seek their welfare or their prosperity all your days.+
7 “You must not hate an Eʹdom·ite, for he is your brother.+
“You must not hate an Egyptian, for you became a foreign resident in his country.+ 8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the congregation of Jehovah.
9 “When you are encamped against your enemies, you should avoid anything bad.+ 10 If a man becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission,+ he should go outside the camp and not reenter the camp. 11 When evening falls, he should wash with water, and then he may return to the camp at sunset.+ 12 A private place should be designated for use outside the camp, and there is where you should go. 13 A peg should be part of your equipment. When you squat outside, you should dig a hole with it and then cover your excrement. 14 For Jehovah your God is walking about within your camp+ to deliver you and to hand over your enemies to you, and your camp must be holy,+ so that he does not see anything indecent in you and turn away from accompanying you.
15 “You should not hand over a slave to his master when he escapes from his master and comes to you. 16 He may dwell among you in whatever place he chooses in one of your cities, wherever he likes. You must not mistreat him.+
17 “None of the daughters of Israel may become a temple prostitute,+ neither may anyone of the sons of Israel become a temple prostitute.+ 18 You must not bring the price paid to a female prostitute or the price paid to a male prostitute into the house of Jehovah your God to fulfill a vow, for both of them are something detestable to Jehovah your God.
19 “You must not make your brother pay interest,+ whether interest on money, on food, or on anything on which interest may be charged. 20 You may make a foreigner pay interest,+ but you must not make your brother pay interest,+ so that Jehovah your God may bless you in every undertaking of yours in the land you are going to take possession of.+
21 “If you make a vow to Jehovah your God,+ do not be slow about paying it.+ For Jehovah your God will surely require it of you; otherwise, it will be a sin on your part.+ 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin.+ 23 The word of your lips you should keep,+ and you must carry out what your own mouth vowed as a voluntary offering to Jehovah your God.+
24 “If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat enough grapes to satisfy your appetite, but you should not put any in your container.+
25 “If you go into your neighbor’s field of standing grain, you may pluck the ripe ears with your hand, but you should not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.+
24 “If a man marries a woman but she does not please him because he found something indecent about her, he must write out a certificate of divorce for her,+ hand it to her, and dismiss her from his house.+ 2 After she leaves his house, she may go and become another man’s wife.+ 3 If the second man hates her and writes out a certificate of divorce for her, hands it to her, and dismisses her from his house or if the second man who married her should die, 4 her first husband who dismissed her will not be allowed to take her back again as his wife after she has been defiled, for that is something detestable to Jehovah. You must not bring sin into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 “When a man is newly married, he should not serve in the army or be given any other duties. He should remain exempt for one year and stay at home and bring joy to his wife.+
6 “No one should seize a hand mill or its upper millstone as security for a loan,+ for that would be taking someone’s livelihood as security.
7 “If someone is found to have kidnapped one of his Israelite brothers and he has mistreated him and sold him,+ the kidnapper must die.+ You should remove what is bad from your midst.+
8 “When there is an outbreak of leprosy, be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests will instruct you.+ Be careful to do exactly as I commanded them. 9 Remember what Jehovah your God did to Mirʹi·am on the way when you were coming out of Egypt.+
10 “If you make any sort of loan to your neighbor,+ you must not enter into his house to seize from him what he has offered as security. 11 You should stand outside, and the man who received the loan should bring outside to you what he is giving as security. 12 And if the man is in need, you must not go to bed with what he gave as security still in your possession.+ 13 You should by all means return to him what he has given as security as soon as the sun sets, and he will go to bed with his garment,+ and he will bless you; and it will mean righteousness for you before Jehovah your God.
14 “You must not defraud a hired worker who is in need and poor, whether one of your brothers or a foreign resident in your land, within your cities.+ 15 You should give him his wages that very day,+ before the sun sets, because he is in need and his life depends on his wages. Otherwise, he will cry out to Jehovah against you, and you will be guilty of sin.+
16 “Fathers should not be put to death for what their children do, and children should not be put to death for what their fathers do.+ A person should be put to death only for his own sin.+
17 “You must not pervert the judgment of the foreign resident or of the fatherless child,+ and you must not seize the garment of a widow as security for a loan.+ 18 Remember that you became a slave in Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you from there.+ That is why I am commanding you to do this.
19 “When you reap your harvest from your field and you have forgotten a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It should be left for the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow,+ so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all that you do.+
20 “When you beat your olive tree, you should not repeat the procedure on its branches. What is left should remain for the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow.+
21 “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not return to gather the leftovers. They should be left for the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow. 22 Remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt. That is why I am commanding you to do this.
25 “When a dispute arises between men, they may present themselves before the judges,+ and they will judge them and pronounce the righteous one innocent and the wicked one guilty.+ 2 If the wicked one deserves to be beaten,+ the judge will have him lie down prostrate, and he will be beaten in his presence. The number of strokes should correspond to the wickedness of his deed. 3 He may beat him with up to 40 strokes,+ but no more. If he would continue beating him with more strokes than this, your brother would be disgraced before your eyes.
4 “You must not muzzle a bull when it is threshing out grain.+
5 “If brothers dwell together and one of them dies without having a son, the wife of the dead one should not marry someone from outside the family. Her brother-in-law should go to her, take her as his wife, and perform brother-in-law marriage with her.+ 6 The firstborn whom she will bear will carry on the name of his dead brother,+ so that his name may not be wiped out of Israel.+
7 “Now if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, his brother’s widow should then go to the elders at the city gate and say, ‘My husband’s brother has refused to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He has not consented to perform brother-in-law marriage with me.’ 8 The elders of his city must call him and speak to him. Should he insist and say, ‘I do not want to marry her,’ 9 then his brother’s widow should approach him before the elders, remove his sandal from his foot,+ spit in his face, and say, ‘That is what should be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s household.’ 10 After that his family name in Israel will be known as ‘The house of the one who had his sandal removed.’
11 “If two men get into a fight with each other and the wife of the one intervenes to protect her husband from the one striking him and she reaches out her hand and grabs hold of him by his private parts, 12 you must amputate her hand. You should not feel sorry.
13 “You must not have in your bag two different stone weights,+ a large one and a small one. 14 You must not have in your house two different measuring containers,+ a large one and a small one. 15 You should keep an accurate and honest weight and an accurate and honest measure, so that you will live long in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.+ 16 For every unjust person who does such things is detestable to Jehovah your God.+
17 “Remember what Amʹa·lek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,+ 18 how he met you along the way and attacked all those straggling behind you when you were exhausted and weary. He did not fear God. 19 When Jehovah your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,+ you should wipe out the mention of Amʹa·lek from under the heavens.+ You must not forget.
26 “When eventually you enter into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance and you have taken possession of it and are dwelling in it, 2 you are to take some of the firstfruits of all the produce of the ground, which you will gather from your land that Jehovah your God is giving you, and put them in a basket and go to the place that Jehovah your God chooses to have his name reside.+ 3 You must go to the priest who will be serving in those days and say to him, ‘Today I am reporting to Jehovah your God that I have come into the land that Jehovah swore to our forefathers to give to us.’+
4 “The priest will then take the basket out of your hand and deposit it before the altar of Jehovah your God. 5 Then you are to declare before Jehovah your God, ‘My father was a wandering A·ra·maeʹan,+ and he went down to Egypt+ and resided there as a foreigner, with few in his household.+ But there he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.+ 6 And the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us.+ 7 So we began to cry out to Jehovah, the God of our forefathers, and Jehovah heard our voice and looked upon our affliction and our trouble and our oppression.+ 8 Finally Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm+ and with terrifying deeds and with signs and miracles.+ 9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.+ 10 Now I have brought the firstfruits of the produce of the ground that Jehovah has given me.’+
“You must deposit it before Jehovah your God and bow down before Jehovah your God. 11 You will then rejoice over all the good that Jehovah your God has given you and your household, you and the Levite and the foreign resident who is among you.+
12 “When you finish tithing+ the entire tenth of your produce in the third year, the year of the tenth, you will give it to the Levite, the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow, and they will eat their fill within your cities.+ 13 You will then say before Jehovah your God, ‘I have cleared the holy portion out of my house and given it to the Levite, the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow,+ just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or neglected your commandments. 14 I have not eaten of it while mourning or removed any of it while unclean or given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of Jehovah my God and have done all that you commanded me. 15 Now look down from your holy dwelling, the heavens, and bless your people Israel and the land that you have given us,+ just as you swore to our forefathers,+ the land flowing with milk and honey.’+
16 “This day Jehovah your God is commanding you to carry out these regulations and judicial decisions. You must observe them and carry them out with all your heart+ and all your soul. 17 Today you have obtained Jehovah’s declaration that he will become your God as you walk in his ways and observe his regulations,+ his commandments,+ and his judicial decisions,+ and as you listen to his voice. 18 And today Jehovah has obtained your declaration that you will become his people, his special property,+ just as he has promised you, and that you will observe all his commandments 19 and that he will put you high above all the other nations that he has made,+ giving you praise and fame and glory as you prove yourself a people holy to Jehovah your God,+ just as he has promised.”