Deutéronome (NAB) 8
8 1 "Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers.2 Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.3 He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.5 So you must realize that the LORD, your God, disciplines you even as a man disciplines his son.6 "Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.
7 For the LORD, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys,8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey,9 a land where you can eat bread without stint and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper.
10 But when you have eaten your fill, you must bless the LORD, your God, for the good country he has given you.11 Be careful not to forget the LORD, your God, by neglecting his commandments and decrees and statutes which I enjoin on you today:12 lest, when you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses and lived in them,13 and have increased your herds and flocks, your silver and gold, and all your property,14 you then become haughty of heart and unmindful of the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery;15 who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock16 and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end.17 Otherwise, you might say to yourselves, 'It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has obtained for me this wealth.'18 Remember then, it is the LORD, your God, who gives you the power to acquire wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant which he swore to your fathers.19 But if you forget the LORD, your God, and follow other gods, serving and worshiping them, I forewarn you this day that you will perish utterly.20 Like the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so shall you too perish for not heeding the voice of the LORD, your God.
9 1 "Hear, O Israel! You are now about to cross the Jordan to enter in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves, having large cities fortified to the sky,2 the Anakim, a people great and tall. You know of them and have heard it said of them, 'Who can stand up against the Anakim?'3 Understand, then, today that it is the LORD, your God, who will cross over before you as a consuming fire; he it is who will reduce them to nothing and subdue them before you, so that you can drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD promised you.4 After the LORD, your God, has thrust them out of your way, do not say to yourselves, 'It is because of my merits that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; for it is really because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.5 No, it is not because of your merits or the integrity of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; but the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out before you on account of their wickedness and in order to keep the promise which he made on oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.6 Understand this, therefore: it is not because of your merits that the LORD, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 "Bear in mind and do not forget how you angered the LORD, your God, in the desert. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived in this place, you have been rebellious toward the LORD.8 At Horeb you so provoked the LORD that he was angry enough to destroy you,9 when I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you. Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking,10 till the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed, by God's own finger, with a copy of all the words that the LORD spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.11 Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the LORD had given me the two stone tablets of the covenant,12 he said to me, 'Go down from here now, quickly, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have become depraved; they have already turned aside from the way I pointed out to them and have made for themselves a molten idol.13 I have seen now how stiff-necked this people is,' the LORD said to me.14 'Let me be, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will then make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'15 "When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands,16 I saw how you had sinned against the LORD, your God: you had already turned aside from the way which the LORD had pointed out to you by making for yourselves a molten calf!17 Raising the two tablets with both hands I threw them from me and broke them before your eyes.18 Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the LORD and the evil you had done to provoke him.19 For I dreaded the fierce anger of the LORD against you: his wrath would destroy you. Yet once again the LORD listened to me.20 With Aaron, too, the LORD was deeply angry, and would have killed him had I not prayed for him also at that time.21 Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, and fusing it with fire, I ground it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi that went down the mountainside.22 "At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah likewise, you provoked the LORD to anger.23 And when he sent you up from Kadesh-barnea to take possession of the land he was giving you, you rebelled against this command of the LORD, your God, and would not trust or obey him.24 Ever since I have known you, you have been rebels against the LORD.25 "Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the LORD, because he had threatened to destroy you.26 This was my prayer to him: O Lord GOD, destroy not your people, the heritage which your majesty has ransomed and brought out of Egypt with your strong hand.27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Look not upon the stubbornness of this people nor upon their wickedness and sin,28 lest the people from whose land you have brought us say, 'The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he promised them'; or 'Out of hatred for them, he brought them out to slay them in the desert.'29 They are, after all, your people and your heritage, whom you have brought out by your great power and with your outstretched arm.
10 1 "At that time the LORD said to me, 'Cut two tablets of stone like the former; then come up the mountain to me. Also make an ark of wood.2 I will write upon the tablets the commandments that were on the former tablets that you broke, and you shall place them in the ark.'3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the former, and went up the mountain carrying the two tablets.4 The LORD then wrote on them, as he had written before, the ten commandments which he spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. After the LORD had given them to me,5 I turned and came down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. There they have remained, in keeping with the command the LORD gave me.6 (The Israelites set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan for Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, his son Eleazar succeeding him in the priestly office.7 From there they set out for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, a region where there is water in the wadies.)8 "At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to be in attendance before the LORD and minister to him, and to give blessings in his name, as they have done to this day.9 For this reason, Levi has no share in the heritage with his brothers; the LORD himself is his heritage, as the LORD, your God, has told him.10 "After I had spent these other forty days and forty nights on the mountain, and the LORD had once again heard me and decided not to destroy you,11 he said to me, 'Go now and set out at the head of your people, that they may enter in and occupy the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them.'
12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul,13 to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?14 Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. 15 Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked. 17 For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.19 So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.20 The LORD, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; hold fast to him and swear by his name.21 He is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and terrible things which your own eyes have seen.22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy strong, and now the LORD, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.
11 1 "Love the LORD, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees and commandments.2 It is not your children, who have not known it from experience, but you yourselves who must now understand the discipline of the LORD, your God; his majesty, his strong hand and outstretched arm;3 the signs and deeds he wrought among the Egyptians, on Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and on all his land;4 what he did to the Egyptian army and to their horses and chariots, engulfing them in the water of the Red Sea as they pursued you, and bringing ruin upon them even to this day;5 what he did for you in the desert until you arrived in this place;6 and what he did to the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up out of the midst of Israel, with their families and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.7 With your own eyes you have seen all these great deeds that the LORD has done.
8 Keep all the commandments, then, which I enjoin on you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land into which you are crossing,9 and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.10 "For the land which you are to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you would sow your seed and then water it by hand, as in a vegetable garden.11 No, the land into which you are crossing for conquest is a land of hills and valleys that drinks in rain from the heavens,12 a land which the LORD, your God, looks after; his eyes are upon it continually from the beginning of the year to the end.13 If, then, you truly heed my commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving and serving the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, 14 I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in; 15 and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat your fill.16 But be careful lest your heart be so lured away that you serve other gods and worship them.17 For then the wrath of the LORD will flare up against you and he will close up the heavens, so that no rain will fall, and the soil will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land he is giving you.
18 "Therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead.19 Teach them to your children, speaking of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.20 And write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,21 so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, you and your children may live on in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers he would give them.22 "For if you are careful to observe all these commandments I enjoin on you, loving the LORD, your God, and following his ways exactly, and holding fast to him,23 the LORD will drive all these nations out of your way, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.24 Every place where you set foot shall be yours: from the desert and from Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. 25 None shall stand up against you; the LORD, your God, will spread the fear and dread of you through any land where you set foot, as he promised you.
26 "I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse:27 a blessing for obeying the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today;28 a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, but turn aside from the way I ordain for you today, to follow other gods, whom you have not known.29 When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, then you shall pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim, the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 (Are they not beyond the Jordan, on the other side of the western road in the country of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite the Gilgal beside the terebinth of Moreh?)31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and occupy the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you. When, therefore, you take possession of it and settle there,32 be careful to observe all the statutes and decrees that I set before you today.
12 1 "These are the statutes and decrees which you must be careful to observe in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to occupy, as long as you live on its soil.2 Destroy without fail every place on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree where the nations you are to dispossess worship their gods.3 Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, destroy by fire their sacred poles, and shatter the idols of their gods, that you may stamp out the remembrance of them in any such place.4 "That is not how you are to worship the LORD, your God.
5 Instead, you shall resort to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses out of all your tribes and designates as his dwelling6 and there you shall bring your holocausts and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.7 There, too, before the LORD, your God, you and your families shall eat and make merry over all your undertakings, because the LORD, your God, has blessed you.
8 You shall not do as we are now doing; here, everyone does what seems right to himself,9 since you have not yet reached your resting place, the heritage which the LORD, your God, will give you.10 But after you have crossed the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, when he has given you rest from all your enemies round about and you live there in security,11 then to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place for his name you shall bring all the offerings I command you: your holocausts and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, and every special offering you have vowed to the LORD.12 You shall make merry before the LORD, your God, with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as with the Levite who belongs to your community but has no share of his own in your heritage.
13 Take care not to offer up your holocausts in any place you fancy,14 but offer them up in the place which the LORD chooses from among your tribes; there you shall make whatever offerings I enjoin upon you.15 "However, in any of your communities you may slaughter and eat to your heart's desire as much meat as the LORD, your God, has blessed you with; and the unclean as well as the clean may eat it, as they do the gazelle or the deer.16 Only, you shall not partake of the blood, but must pour it out on the ground like water.
17 Moreover, you shall not, in your own communities, partake of your tithe of grain or wine or oil, of the first-born of your herd or flock, of any offering you have vowed, of your freewill offerings, or of your personal contributions.18 These you must eat before the LORD, your God, in the place he chooses, along with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who belongs to your community; and there, before the LORD, you shall make merry over all your undertakings.19 Take care, also, that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in the land.20 "After the LORD, your God, has enlarged your territory, as he promised you, when you wish meat for food, you may eat it at will, to your heart's desire; 21 and if the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the abode of his name is too far, you may slaughter in the manner I have told you any of your herd or flock that the LORD has given you, and eat it to your heart's desire in your own community.22 You may eat it as you would the gazelle or the deer: the unclean and the clean eating it alike.23 But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for blood is life, and you shall not consume this seat of life with the flesh.24 Do not partake of the blood, therefore, but pour it out on the ground like water.25 Abstain from it, that you and your children after you may prosper for doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.26 However, any sacred gifts or votive offerings that you may have, you shall bring with you to the place which the LORD chooses,27 and there you must offer both the flesh and the blood of your holocausts on the altar of the LORD, your God; of your other sacrifices the blood indeed must be poured out against the altar of the LORD, your God, but their flesh may be eaten.28 Be careful to heed all these commandments I enjoin on you, that you and your descendants may always prosper for doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD, your God.
29 "When the LORD, your God, removes the nations from your way as you advance to dispossess them, be on your guard! Otherwise, once they have been wiped out before you and you have replaced them and are settled in their land,30 you will be lured into following them. Do not inquire regarding their gods, 'How did these nations worship their gods? I, too, would do the same.'31 You shall not thus worship the LORD, your God, because they offered to their gods every abomination that the LORD detests, even burning their sons and daughters to their gods.
13 1 "Every command that I enjoin on you, you shall be careful to observe, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it.2 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer who promises you a sign or wonder, 3 urging you to follow other gods, whom you have not known, and to serve them: even though the sign or wonder he has foretold you comes to pass,4 pay no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the LORD, your God, is testing you to learn whether you really love him with all your heart and with all your soul.5 The LORD, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandment shall you observe, and his voice shall you heed, serving him and holding fast to him alone.
6 But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the LORD, your God, has directed you to take, he has preached apostasy from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from that place of slavery. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.7 "If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known,8 gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other:9 do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him,10 but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you.11 You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
12 And all Israel, hearing of it, shall fear and never again do such evil as this in your midst.13 "If, in any of the cities which the LORD, your God, gives you to dwell in, you hear it said14 that certain scoundrels have sprung up among you and have led astray the inhabitants of their city to serve other gods whom you have not known,15 you must inquire carefully into the matter and investigate it thoroughly. If you find that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in your midst,16 you shall put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, dooming the city and all life that is in it, even its cattle, to the sword.17 Having heaped up all its spoils in the middle of its square, you shall burn the city with all its spoils as a whole burnt offering to the LORD, your God. Let it be a heap of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.18 You shall not retain anything that is doomed, that the blazing wrath of the LORD may die down and he may show you mercy and in his mercy for you may multiply you as he promised your fathers on oath;19 because you have heeded the voice of the LORD, your God, keeping all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, doing what is right in his sight.
14 1 "You are children of the LORD, your God. You shall not gash yourselves nor shave the hair above your foreheads for the dead.2 For you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God, who has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
3 "You shall not eat any abominable thing.4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,5 the red deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the ibex, the addax, the oryx, and the mountain sheep. 6 Any animal that has hoofs you may eat, provided it is cloven-footed and chews the cud.7 But you shall not eat any of the following that only chew the cud or only have cloven hoofs: the camel, the hare and the rock badger, which indeed chew the cud, but do not have hoofs and are therefore unclean for you;8 and the pig, which indeed has hoofs and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud and is therefore unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall not touch.9 "Of the various creatures that live in the water, whatever has both fins and scales you may eat,10 but all those that lack either fins or scales you shall not eat; they are unclean for you.
11 "You may eat all clean birds.12 But you shall not eat any of the following: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,
13 the various kites and falcons,14 all the various species of crows,15 the ostrich, the nightjar, the gull, the various species of hawks,16 the owl, the screech owl, the ibis,17 the desert owl, the buzzard, the cormorant,18 the stork, the various species of herons, the hoopoe, and the bat.19 All winged insects, too, are unclean for you and shall not be eaten. 20 But you may eat any clean winged creatures.21 "You must not eat any animal that has died of itself, for you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God. But you may give it to an alien who belongs to your community, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
22 "Each year you shall tithe all the produce that grows in the field you have sown;23 then in the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place of his name you shall eat in his presence your tithe of the grain, wine and oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, that you may learn always to fear the LORD, your God.24 If, however, the journey is too much for you and you are not able to bring your tithe, because the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the abode of his name is too far for you, considering how the LORD has blessed you, 25 you may exchange the tithe for money and, with the purse of money in hand, go to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses.26 You may then exchange the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep, wine or strong drink, or anything else you would enjoy, and there before the LORD, your God, you shall partake of it and make merry with your family.27 But do not neglect the Levite who belongs to your community, for he has no share in the heritage with you.28 "At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithes of your produce for that year and deposit them in community stores,29 that the Levite who has no share in the heritage with you, and also the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community, may come and eat their fill; so that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all that you undertake.
15 1 "At the end of every seven-year period you shall have a relaxation of debts, 2 which shall be observed as follows. Every creditor shall relax his claim on what he has loaned his neighbor; he must not press his neighbor, his kinsman, because a relaxation in honor of the LORD has been proclaimed.3 You may press a foreigner, but you shall relax the claim on your kinsman for what is yours.4 Nay, more! since the LORD, your God, will bless you abundantly in the land he will give you to occupy as your heritage, there should be no one of you in need.5 If you but heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and carefully observe all these commandments which I enjoin on you today,6 you will lend to many nations, and borrow from none; you will rule over many nations, and none will rule over you, since the LORD, your God, will bless you as he promised.
7 If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand to him in his need.8 Instead, you shall open your hand to him and freely lend him enough to meet his need.9 Be on your guard lest, entertaining the mean thought that the seventh year, the year of relaxation, is near, you grudge help to your needy kinsman and give him nothing; else he will cry to the LORD against you and you will be held guilty.10 When you give to him, give freely and not with ill will; for the LORD, your God, will bless you for this in all your works and undertakings.11 The needy will never be lacking in the land; that is why I command you to open your hand to your poor and needy kinsman in your country.
12 "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself to you, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall dismiss him from your service, a free man.13 When you do so, you shall not send him away empty-handed,14 but shall weight him down with gifts from your flock and threshing floor and wine press, in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.15 For remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD, your God, ransomed you. That is why I am giving you this command today.16 If, however, he tells you that he does not wish to leave you, because he is devoted to you and your household, since he fares well with you,17 you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall then be your slave forever. Your female slave, also, you shall treat in the same way. 18 You must not be reluctant to let your slave go free, since the service he has given you for six years was worth twice a hired man's salary; then also the LORD, your God, will bless you in everything you do.
19 "You shall consecrate to the LORD, your God, all the male firstlings of your herd and of your flock. You shall not work the firstlings of your cattle, nor shear the firstlings of your flock.20 Year after year you and your family shall eat them before the LORD, your God, in the place he chooses.21 If, however, a firstling is lame or blind or has any other serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD, your God,22 but in your own communities you may eat it, the unclean and the clean eating it alike, as you would a gazelle or a deer.23 Only, you shall not partake of its blood, which must be poured out on the ground like water.
16 1 "Observe the month of Abib by keeping the Passover of the LORD, your God, since it was in the month of Abib that he brought you by night out of Egypt. 2 You shall offer the Passover sacrifice from your flock or your herd to the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses as the dwelling place of his name.3 You shall not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat with it only unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, that you may remember as long as you live the day of your departure from the land of Egypt; for in frightened haste you left the land of Egypt.4 Nothing leavened may be found in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat which you sacrificed on the evening of the first day shall be kept overnight for the next day.5 "You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the communities which the LORD, your God, gives you;6 only at the place which he chooses as the dwelling place of his name, and in the evening at sunset, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt, shall you sacrifice the Passover.7 You shall cook and eat it at the place the LORD, your God, chooses; then in the morning you may return to your tents.8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh there shall be a solemn meeting in honor of the LORD, your God; on that day you shall not do any sort of work.
9 "You shall count off seven weeks, computing them from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain.10 You shall then keep the feast of Weeks in honor of the LORD, your God, and the measure of your own freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you. 11 In the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place of his name, you shall make merry in his presence together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who belongs to your community, as well as the alien, the orphan and the widow among you.12 Remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and carry out these statutes carefully.
13 "You shall celebrate the feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press. 14 You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community.15 For seven days you shall celebrate this pilgrim feast in honor of the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses; since the LORD, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you shall do nought but make merry.16 "Three times a year, then, every male among you shall appear before the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths. No one shall appear before the LORD empty-handed,17 but each of you with as much as he can give, in proportion to the blessings which the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.
18 "You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people in all the communities which the LORD, your God, is giving you.19 You shall not distort justice; you must be impartial. You shall not take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just.20 Justice and justice alone shall be your aim, that you may have life and may possess the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
21 "You shall not plant a sacred pole of any kind of wood beside the altar of the LORD, your God, which you will build; 22 nor shall you erect a sacred pillar, such as the LORD, your God, detests.
Deutéronome (NAB) 8