18. Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which יהוה your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

19. You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

20. That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which יהוה your God gives you.

21. You shall not plant an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of יהוה your God, which you shall make.

22. Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar; which יהוה your God hates.

Chapter 17

1. You shall not sacrifice to יהוה your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to יהוה your God.

2. If there be found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which יהוה your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of יהוה your God, in transgressing his covenant,

3. And has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the hosts of the sky, which I have not commanded;

4. And it be told you, and you have heard of it, then shall you inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

5. Then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

6. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

7. The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

8. If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then shall you arise, and go up to the place which יהוה your God shall choose;

9. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

10. You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which יהוה shall choose; and you shall observe to do all that they shall teach you:

11. According to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12. The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before יהוה, your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away  evil from Israel.

13. All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14. When you are come to the land which יהוה, your God, gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I shall set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me;

15. You shall surely set him king over you, whom יהוה, your God, shall choose: one from among your brothers shall you set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

16. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because יהוה has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

17. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18. It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites:

19. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear יהוה, his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

20. That his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong the days of his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Chapter 18

1. The priests, the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of יהוה made by fire, and his inheritance.

2. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers:  יהוה is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

3. This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

4. The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.

5. For  יהוה, your God, has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of יהוה, him and his sons for ever.

6. If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which יהוה shall choose;

7. Then he shall minister in the name of יהוה, his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before יהוה.

8. They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

9. When you are come into the land which יהוה, your God, gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

10. There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

11. Or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

12. For whoever does these things is an abomination to יהוה: and because of these abominations יהוה, your God, does drive them out from before you.

13. You shall be perfect with יהוה, your God.

14. For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, יהוה, your God, has not allowed you so to do.

15. יהוה, your God, shall raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen;

16. According to all that you desired of יהוה, your God,in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of יהוה, my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.

17. יהוה said to me, They have said well that which they have spoken.

18. I shall raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I shall put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

19. It shall happen, that whoever shall not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I shall require it of him.

20. But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

21. If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which יהוה has not spoken?

22. When a prophet speaks in the name of יהוה, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which יהוה has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

Chapter 19

1. When יהוה your God shall cut off the nations, whose land יהוה your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

2. You shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which יהוה your God gives you to possess it.

3. You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which יהוה your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.

4. This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past;

5. As when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

6. Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn’t hate him in time past.

7. Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

8. If יהוה your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

9. If you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love יהוה your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shall you add three cities more for you, besides these three:

10. That innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which יהוה your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.

11. But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;

12. Then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

14. You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that יהוה your God gives you to possess it.

15. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

16. If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,

17. Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before יהוה, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;

18. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and he has testified falsely against his brother;

19. Then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

20. Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you.

21. Your eyes shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Chapter 20

1. When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for יהוה your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

2. It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,

3. And shall tell them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

4. For יהוה your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

5. The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

6. What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.

7. What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

8. The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.

9. It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of the hosts at the head of the people.

10. When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

11. It shall be, if it make peace with you, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.

12. If it shall make no peace with you, but shall make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

13. And when יהוה your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

14. But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which יהוה your God has given you.

15. Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

16. But of the cities of these peoples, that יהוה your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

17. But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as יהוה your God has commanded you;

18. That they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against יהוה your God.

19. When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?

20. Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.

Chapter 21

1. If one be found slain in the land which יהוה your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him;

2. Then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

3. And it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

4. And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

5. The priests of the sons of Levi shall come near; for them יהוה your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of יהוה; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.

6. All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

7. And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

8. Forgive, יהוה, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood to remain in the midst of your people Israel. The blood shall be forgiven them.

9. So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of יהוה.

Haftarah - Isaiah 51:12-52:12 

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12. “I, even I, am he who comforts you.  Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die,  and of the son of man who shall be made as grass?

13. And have  forgotten יהוה your Maker,  who stretched forth the heavens,  and laid the foundations of the earth? And fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor,  when he makes ready to destroy?  And where is the fury of the oppressor?

14. The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit,  neither shall his bread fail.

15. For I am יהוה your God, who stirs up the sea,  so that the  waves of it roar:  יהוה of Hosts is his name.

16. I have put my words in your mouth,  and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens,  and lay the foundations of the earth,  and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

17. Awake, awake!  Stand up, Jerusalem,  that have drunk at the hand of   יהוה  the cup of  his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering,  and drained it.

18. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither  is there anyone who takes her by the hand among the sons  she has brought up.

19. These two things have happened to you—  who will bemoan  you? —desolation and destruction,   and the famine and the sword.  How shall I comfort you?

20. Your sons have fainted.  They lie at the head of all the streets,  as an antelope in a net. They are full of the wrath of  יהוה ,  the rebuke of your God.

21. Therefore hear now this, you afflicted,  and drunken, but not with wine:

22. Thus says יהוה,  your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering,  even the bowl of the cup of my wrath.  You shall no more drink it again :

23. And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,  who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may go over;’  and you have laid your back as the ground,  and as the  street to those who go over.”

Chapter 52 

1. Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion.  Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city:  for hence forth there shall no more come into you  the uncircumcised and the unclean.

2. Shake yourself from the dust!  Arise, sit on your throne, Jerusalem!  Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!

3. For thus says יהוה, “You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money.”

4. For thus says the Lord יהוה : “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.

5. “Now therefore, what do I do here,” says יהוה ,  “seeing that my people is taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them do howl,” says יהוה ,  “and my name is continually all the day  blasphemed.

6. Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who does speaks. Behold, it is I.”

7. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,  who publishes peace, who brings good news of good,  who publishes salvation,  who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

8. The voice of Your watchmen, they lift up the  voice  together do they sing;  for they shall see eye to eye, when יהוה returns to Zion.

9. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem;   for יהוה has comforted his people.  He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10. יהוה has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;  and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.