Giving with an Open Hand

¹These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.

²You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

³You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.

⁴You shall not do so to the LORD your God.

⁵But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.

⁶You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there.

⁷There you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁸You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

⁹for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you.

¹⁰But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety,

¹¹then it shall happen that to the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the LORD.

¹²You shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

¹³Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

¹⁴but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the LORD your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

¹⁷You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;

¹⁸but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hand to.

¹⁹Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.

²¹If the place which the LORD your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.

²²Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

²³Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.

²⁴You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

²⁵You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in the LORD’s eyes.

²⁶Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD shall choose.

²⁷You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the LORD your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the LORD your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat.

²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the LORD your God’s eyes.

²⁹When the LORD your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

³⁰be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³¹You shall not do so to the LORD your God; for every abomination to the LORD, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

¹If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let’s go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let’s serve them,”

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him.

⁵That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

⁶If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods”—which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth—

⁸you shall not consent to him nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him;

⁹but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.

¹⁰You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹¹All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

¹²If you hear about one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there, that

¹³certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known,

¹⁴then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you,

¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, with all of its plunder, to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.

¹⁷Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers,

¹⁸when you listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in the LORD your God’s eyes.

¹You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

²For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³You shall not eat any abominable thing.

⁴These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois.

⁶Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

⁷Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof split: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don’t part the hoof, they are unclean to you.

⁸The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses.

⁹These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat whatever has fins and scales.

¹⁰You shall not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean to you.

¹¹Of all clean birds you may eat.

¹²But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

¹³the red kite, the falcon, the kite of any kind,

¹⁴every raven of any kind,

¹⁵the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any kind,

¹⁶the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl,

¹⁷the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant,

¹⁸the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten.

²⁰Of all clean birds you may eat.

²¹You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year.

²³You shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

²⁴If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it because the place which the LORD your God shall choose to set his name there is too far from you, when the LORD your God blesses you,

²⁵then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose.

²⁶You shall trade the money for whatever your soul desires: for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you. You shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

²⁸At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates.

²⁹The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, as well as the foreigner living among you, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

¹At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts.

²This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed.

³Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release.

⁴However there will be no poor with you (for the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess)

⁵if only you diligently listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today.

⁶For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;

⁸but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks.

⁹Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin to you.

¹⁰You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to.

¹¹For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.

¹²If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

¹³When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty.

¹⁴You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

¹⁵You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today.

¹⁶It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you,

¹⁷then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.

¹⁸It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you six years. The LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰You shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, you and your household.

²¹If it has any defect—is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

²²You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer.

²³Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.