I.
These are the words of admonition which Mosheh spake with all Israel. He gathered them together to him while they were beyond the Jordan, and answered and said to them:

Was it not in the wilderness at the mountain of Sinai that the law was given to you? and in the plains of Moab you were made to understand how many miracles and signs the Holy One, blessed be He, had wrought for you, from the time that you passed over the border of the Weedy Sea, where He made for you a way for every one of your tribes. But you declined from His word, and wrought provocation before Him, in Pharan, on account of the words of the spies, and put together lying words against Him, and murmured about the manna, which He had made to come down for you, white from the heavens; in Hazeroth you demanded flesh, and made yourselves deserving to perish from the midst of the world, but for the memory, on your behalf, of the merit of your righteous fathers, the tabernacle of ordinance, and the ark of the covenant, and the holy vessels which you had covered with pure gold, and made atonement for you on account of the sin of the golden calf. It is a journey of eleven days (only) from Horeb by the way of Mount Gebal unto Rekem Giah; but because you declined and provoked the Lord to displeasure, you have been retarded forty years.

And it was at the end of forty years, in the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, on the first of the month, that Mosheh spake with the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him commandment for them.

[JERUSALEM. These are the words which Mosheh, spake with all Israel, reproving them, while as yet they were situate beyond the Jordan. Mosheh answering said to them: Was it not in the wilderness at Mount Sinai, that the law was given to you? and on the plains of Moab was shown you what miracles and mighty acts the Word of the Lord had wrought on your behalf. When you stood by the Weedy Sea, the sea was divided before you, and there were made twelve ways of one way, (a path) for each tribe. Yet you provoked Him at the sea, and rebelled at the Sea of Suph. On account of the matter of the spies who had been sent from the wilderness of Pharan, the decree (came forth) against you, that you should not enter into the land of Israel; and for that of the manna, of which you said, Our soul is afflicted with this bread, whose eating is too light, the serpents were let loose upon you; and in Hazeroth, where your carcasses fell on account of the flesh, and concerning the calf that you had made, He would have spoken in His Word to destroy you, had He not been mindful of the covenant which He sware to your fathers, Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, and of the tabernacle of ordinance which you had made unto His name, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and of your burnt sacrifices in the midst (of the tabernacle and the ark) which you covered with purified gold. A journey of eleven days is it from Mount Horeb by way of Mount Gebal unto Rekem Giah; yet, because you sinned and provoked anger before Him, you have been delayed, and have been journeying for forty years. And it was at the end of forty years.]

After He had smitten Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Mathnan, who dwelt at Astarvata in Edrehath, beyond Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Mosheh to speak the words of this law, saying: The Lord our God spake with us (and not I, of my own mind) in Horeb, saying: It is enough for you, and hath been profitable for you until this time (during) which you have received the law, and have made the tabernacle and its vessels, and appointed your princes over you; but now it would be evil for you to tarry longer at this mount. Turn you, and journey to Arad and Hormah, and go up to the mountain of the Amorites; and to the dwelling-places of Ammon, Moab, and Gebala, in the plains of the forests, in mountain and valley, and by the south on the shore of the sea, Ashkelon and Kiserin, the land of the Kenaanite unto Kaldohi, and Lebanon, the place of the mountain of the sanctuary, to the great river, the River Phrat. See, I have given up the inhabitants of the land before you; nor shall it be needful to carry arms; go in and possess the land, and appoint the allotters, and divide it, even as the Lord sware to your fathers, to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, that He would give it unto them and their sons after them.

And I spake to you at that time, saying: We will not leave you with but one judge, for I am not able to bear you alone. The Word of the Lord our God hath multiplied you; and, behold, you are to‑day as the stars of heaven for multitude. The Lord God of your fathers increase you a thousand fold on account of this my benediction, and bless you beyond numbering as He hath said unto you. But how can I alone sustain the labour, your sensuality, your evil thoughts, your words of strife, your offering one shekel for two? Present, then, from among you wise men, prudent in their thinking, men of wisdom, by your tribes, and I will appoint them to be chiefs over you. And you answered me and said: The thing that thou hast spoken it is right for us to do. So I took the chiefs of your tribes, and moved them kindly with words; wise men, masters of knowledge, but prudent in their thoughts, I found not; and I appointed them chiefs over you, rabbans of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties; twelve thousand rabbans of tens, six myriads, officers of your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time with the orders of judgments, saying: So hear your brethren that one may not (be permitted to) speak all his words, while another is compelled to cut his words short; and so hearken to their words, as that it may be impossible for you not to judge them, and deliver judgment in truth, and to resolve (a matter) completely between a man and his brother, and between him who hireth words of litigation. You shall not have respect to persons in a judgment; you shall hear little words as well as great ones, nor be afraid before the rich man and the ruler; for a judgment is from before the Lord, and He seeth every secret. But the thing that is too hard for you bring to me, and I will hear it. And at that time I taught you all the Ten Words which you are to practise about judgments of money, and judgments of life.

And we journeyed from Horeb, and came through all that great and fearful desert, where you saw serpents like boughs, and loathsome scorpions darting at you like arrows, on the way of the mountain of the Amoraah, as the Lord our God had commanded us, and came to Rekem Giah. And I said to you, Ye are come to the mountain of the Amoraah, which the Lord our God will give to us. Behold, the Lord our God hath given you the land; arise and possess it, as the Lord your God hath told you; fear not, nor be dismayed (broken). And all of you came to me in a body, and said, We will send men before us to examine the land for us, and bring us back word by what way we shall go up to it, and the cities we should enter. And the thing was proper in my eyes; and I took from you twelve chosen men, one man for a tribe, and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came to the stream of Ethkela, and explored it. [JERUSALEM. And they prepared and went up into the mountain, and came to the stream of the Grapes, and surveyed it.] And they took in their hands of the produce of the land and brought to us. And they returned us word; and Kaleb and Jehoshua said, The land which the Lord our God hath given us is good. But you were not willing to go up, but believed the words of the ten wicked ones, and rebelled against the Word of the Lord your God. And you cried in your tents, taking your sons and your daughters to your breasts, saying, Woe to you, ye stricken ones! tomorrow ye will be slain. Why hath the Lord hated us, to have brought us out of the land of Mizraim, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? How shall we go up? Our brethren have dissolved our hearts, saying, The people are greater and mightier than we; their cities are vast and walled to the height of heaven, and we saw there also the sons of Ephron the giant.

And I said to you, Be not broken down, nor be afraid of them: the Word of the Lord your God who goeth before you will Himself fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Mizraim before your eyes. And in the desert, where thou sawest burning serpents full of deadly venom, the Lord thy God bare thee with the glorious clouds of His Shekinah, as a man carrieth his child, all the way that you went, until you have come to this place. But in this thing you believed not in the Word of the Lord your God, who led before you in the way to prepare for you the place of your encampments, in the pillar of fire by night to light you in the way you should go, and in the pillar of the cloud by day. And the voice of your words was heard before the Lord, and He was displeased, and did make oath saying, If any one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I covenanted to give unto their fathers, except Kaleb bar Jephunneh, who shall see it, and to whom I will give the good land, the land of Hebron through which he walked, and to his children, because he hath followed with integrity the fear of the Lord. Against me also was there displeasure before the Lord on your account, saying, Thou too art not to go in thither; Jehoshua bar Nun, who ministereth in thy house of instruction, he is to go in thither: strengthen him, for he is to make Israel possess it. But your little ones, of whom you said, They will be for prey, and your children, who as yet know not between good and evil, they shall go in thither: I will give it to them, and they shall possess it for an inheritance. As for you, turn, and go (back) into the wilderness by the way of the Weedy Sea. Then answered you, and said to me, We have sinned before the Lord ; we will go up and fight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And you girded on every man his arms, and began to ascend the mountain. But the Lord said to me, Say to them, Go not up, nor prepare for battle, for My Shekinah goeth not among you; that you be not crushed before your enemies. And I spake with you, but you would not obey but were rebellious against the Word of the Lord, and did wickedly, and went up to the mountain. And the Amoraah who dwelt in that mountain came out to meet you, and pursued you, as they drive away and destroy hornets, and smote you from Gebal unto Hormah. [JERUSALEM. And they chased you as bees are chased, and slew you in Gebal unto destruction.] And you returned, and wept before the Lord: but the Lord would not receive your prayers, nor hearken to your words. So you abode in Rekem many days, according to the days that you abode.

II.
And turning we journeyed into the wilderness, by the way of the Sea of Suph, as the Lord had bidden me, and we compassed Mount Gebal many days. And the Lord spake to me, saying: It is enough for you to have dwelt about this mountain: turn you to the north, and command the people, saying, You are to pass by the border of your brethren, the children of Esau, who dwell in Gebala, and they will be afraid of you; be very heedful therefore; provoke them not; for of their land I have not given you as much as the sole of the foot; for I have given Mount Gebal an inheritance unto Esau on account of the honour which he did unto his father. You shall buy fresh provision of them for silver, that you may eat, and water shall you buy with silver, to drink. Be careful that you vex them not : for the Lord your God hath blessed you in all the works of your hands, he hath supplied your wants in thy journeying in the great wilderness; these forty years hath the Word of the Lord your God been your helper; you have not wanted anything.

So we passed by our brethren the sons of Esau, who dwell in Gebala, from Elath and the fortress of Tarnegola and turned and went by the way of the wilderness of Moab [JERUSALEM. So we passed by our brethren the sons of Esau, who dwell in Gebala, by the way of the plain from Elath and from the fortress of Tarnegola, and we turned and went by the way of the wilderness of Moab.] And the Lord spake to me, saying: Thou shalt not aggrieve the Moabaee, nor make war against them; for I have not given you their land to inherit, because I have given Lachaiath for a possession to the children of Lot. The Emthanaia dwelt in it of old, a people great and many, and mighty as the giants. The giants who dwelt in the plain of Geyonbere were also reputed as the giants who perished in the Flood; but the Moabites called them Emethanee. And in Gebala dwelt the Genosaia in old times, and the Beni Esau drave them out and destroyed them, and dwelt in their place; as did Israel in the land of their inheritance, which the Lord gave to them. Now arise, and pass over the stream of Tarvaja. And we crossed the stream of Tarvaja. And the days in which (from the time) we came from Rekem Giah till we crossed the stream of Tarvaja, were thirty and eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. But a plague also from the Lord had scourged them to consume them from the host, until they were brought to an end.

And when all the men of war, the makers of the high places, were consumed by dying out of the host, the Lord spake with me, saying: You are this day to pass the border of Moab towards Lechaiath. But coming near over against the children of Ammon, you are not to vex, nor provoke them to war; for I have not given you the land of the Beni Ammon for a possession: I have given it an inheritance to the children of Lot, for the sake of Abraham's righteousness. That also was accounted a land of giants; in old time the giants dwelt in it, and the Ammonites called them Zimthanee, a people great and mighty as giants: but the Word of the Lord destroyed them, and drave them out before them, and they dwelt in their place; as He did for the Beni Esau who dwell in Seir: for He destroyed the Horaee before them, and drave them out, and they dwell in their place to this day. And the rest of the escaped of the Kenaanah which dwelt in the cities of Dephia to Gaza, the Kapotkaee who came out of Kapotkaia destroyed them, and dwelt in their place. Arise, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnona; behold, I have delivered into your hands Sihon the king of Heshbon and the Amoraah, and his land: begin to drive them out, and to provoke him to wage war. To‑day I will begin to put thy terror and fear upon the faces of all the peoples which are under the whole heavens who shall hear the report of thy virtue, that the sun and moon have stood still, and have ceased from speaking (their) song for the space of a day and a half, standing still in their habitation until thou hadst done battle with Sihon; and they will shiver and tremble before thee.

And I sent messengers from Nehardea, which is by the wilderness of Kedemoth, to Sihon king of the Amorites, with words of peace, saying, I would pass through thy land; by the way which is the beaten road will I go; I will not turn aside to do thee harm on the right hand or the left. I will buy fresh provision with silver, to eat, and thou shalt give me water for silver, to drink; I will only pass through: as the Beni Esau, who dwell in Gebal, and the Moabaee, who dwell in Lechaiath have done to me, until the time that I pass over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us. But Sihon the king of Heshbon was not willing to allow us to pass through his borders; for the Lord our God had hardened the form of his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, to deliver him into thy hand as at this day. And the Lord said to me, See, within the space of a sun and a moon I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country into thy hand; begin thou to cast him out, to inherit his land.

And Sihon came out to meet us, he and all his people, to do battle at Jehaz. And the Lord our God delivered him up before us, and we smote him, and his children, and all his people. And we subdued all his cities at that time, and destroyed all the towns, the men, women, and children, we left none to escape; only the cattle took we for prey and the spoil of the towns which we subdued. From Aroer, on the bank of the river Arnona, and the city which is built in the midst of the river, even unto Gilead, there was no city too strong for us, the Lord our God gave all of them up before us. Only to the land of the children of Ammon we went not nigh, nor to any place on the river Jobeka, nor to the cities of the mountain, according to all that the Lord our God had commanded us.

III.
And turning, we went up by the way of Mathnan: and Og the king of Mathnan came out to meet us, he and all his people, to give battle in Edrehath. And the Lord said to me, Fear him not; for into thy hand I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou hast done to Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt in Heshbon. [JERUSALEM. When Mosheh saw that wicked one, he trembled before him, and said, Is not this he who did scoff at our father Abraham and Sarah, and said to them, Ye are like trees planted by a fountain of water, but ye bear no fruit? Therefore did the Holy One, blessed be He, and let His Name be glorified, cause him to wait, and prolong him many years alive, to show to him the generations, because He would deliver him into the hands of his (Abraham's) children: therefore the Word of the Lord said to Mosheb, Be not afraid of him, for into thy hand have I given him up, and all his people, and his land, and thou shalt do to him as thou hast done to Sihon. king of the Amoraee, who dwelt in Heshbon.] And the Lord our God gave up into our hands Og the king of Mathnan, and all his people; and we smote him till no remnant remained to him. And we subdued all his cities at that time, there was no city which we took not from them, sixty cities, the whole boundary of Targona, the kingdom of Og in Mathnan. All these cities were fortified, surrounded with high walls, shut up with gates and bars; besides open towns very many. [JERUSALEM. All these cities were fortified, surrounded with high walls, with gates and bars.] And we utterly destroyed their cities: as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, so destroyed we with every city the men, women, and children. But all the cattle, and the prey of the cities, we made a spoil for ourselves. And at that time we took from the power of the two kings of the Amorites the land beyond the Jordan, from the streams of Arnona unto Mount Hermon. The Sidonaee call Hermon the fruit-producing Mount, but the Amoraee call it the Snowy Mountain, because the snownever ceases from it either in summer or winter. [JERUSALEM. The Sidonaee call Hermon the fruit-producing land, but the Amoraee call it the land which multiplies the fruits of the tree.] All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Mathnan, unto Selukia and Edrehi, cities of the kingdom of Og in Mathnan. For only Og king of Mathnan remained of the remnant of the giants who perished in the deluge. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; behold, it is placed in the archive house in Rabbath, of the Beni Ammon, nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, in the cubit of his own (stature). [JERUSALEM. Is it not placed in the citadel of the Beni Ammon ?] And this land which we took in possession at that time, from Aroer unto the border of the river, and half of Mount Gilead, and the cities, I have given to the tribe of Reuben and Gad; but the remaining part of Gilead, and all Mathnan, the kingdom of Og, I have given to the half tribe of Menasheh; all the limit of the region of Targona, and all Mathnan, which is called the land of the giants.

And Jair bar Menasheh took the whole limit of the region of Targona, unto the limit of Korze and Antikiros, [JERUSALEM. All the limit of Atarkona, unto the limit of the city of Aphikeras,] and called them by his own name Mathnan, the towns of Jair, unto this day. But I gave Gilead to Makir. To the tribe Reuben and the tribe Gad have I given from Gilead to the river Arnona, half of the valley and its limit, unto the stream of Jubeka on the limit of the children of Ammon, the plain also, the Jordan, the boundary from Genesar to the sea of the plain, and the city of Tebaria, which is by the Sea of Salt, the limit of the outflow of waters from the heights of the east. [JERUSALEM. The plain, the Jordan, and the limit from Ginosar to the sea of the plain, the Sea of Salt, under the place of the pouring forth of ashes from the east.] And I commanded you, the tribe of Reuben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Menasheh, at that time, saying: The Lord your God hath given this land to you to possess it; but you are to go over armed before your brethren, every one girded for the host. Only your wives, your children, and your cattle, (for I know that you have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you, until the time when the Lord will have given rest to your brethren as to you, that they also may possess that land which the Lord your God hath conferred upon you; then shall you return every one to his inheritance which I have given you.

And I instructed Jehoshua at that time, saying: Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord thy God hath done to these two kings; so will the Lord do unto all the kingdoms to which thou art passing over. Fear them not, for the Word of the Lord your God fighteth for you.

And I sought mercy at that time from before the Lord, saying: I supplicate compassion before Thee, 0 Lord God: Thou hast begun to show unto Thy servant Thy greatness and the power of Thy mighty hand; for Thou art God, and there is none beside Thee; for Thy glory dwelleth in the heavens on high, and Thou rulest upon the earth; there is none who can work according to Thy working or Thy power. [JERUSALEM. And I prayed and sought mercy in that hour, said Mosheh, saying: I supplicate compassion before Thee, 0 Lord God; Thou hast begun.] Let me, I pray, pass over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain on which is builded the city of Jerusalem, and Mount Lebanon, where the Shekinah will dwell. But the Lord was displeased with me on your account, and received not my prayer; but the Lord said to me: Let it be enough for thee; speak not before Me again of this matter: go up to the head of the mountain, and lift up thine eyes to the west, to the north, to the south, and to the east, and behold with thy eyes, for thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. But instruct Jehoshua, strengthen and confirm him; for he shall go over before this people, and give them the inheritance of the land which thou seest. And we dwelt in the valley, weeping for our sins, because we bad been joined with the worshippers of the idol of Peor. [JERUSALEM. And we dwelt in the valley weeping for our guilt, and confessing our sins, for that we had been joined with the worshippers of the idol of Baal Peor.]

IV.
And now, Israel, hear the statutes and judgments which I teach you to do, that you may live, and go in and inherit the land the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add to the words that I teach you nor diminish them, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the Word of the Lord hath done to the worshippers of the idol Peor: for all the men who went astray after the idol Peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed from among you; but you who have cleaved to the worship of the Lord your God are alive all of you this day. See, I teach you statutes and judgments, as the Lord God hath taught me, that you may so do in the land which you are entering to possess it. So shall you observe and perform the law; for it it is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes, and will say: How wise and intelligent is this great people! For what people so great, to whom the Lord is so high in the Name of the Word of the Lord? But the custom of (other) nations is to carry their gods upon their shoulders, that they may seem to be nigh them; but they cannot hear with their ears, (be they nigh or) be they afar off; but the Word of the Lord sitteth upon His throne high and lifted up, and heareth our prayer what time we pray before Him and make our petitions. [JERUSALEM. For what people is so great, who hath God so nigh to it as the Lord our God is, in every hour that we cry unto Him, and He answereth us?] And what people have statutes and right judgments according to all this law which I order before you this day? Only take heed to yourselves and diligently keep your souls, lest you forget the things which you beheld with your eyes at Sinai, and that they depart not from thy heart all the days of thy life, and you may teach them to your children, and to your childrens children; and that you may make yourselves pure in your transactions thereby, as in the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, at the time when the Lord said to me: Gather the people before Me, that they may hear My words, by which they shall learn to fear before Me all the days that they remain upon the earth, and may teach their children. And you drew near, and stood at the lower part of the mount, and the mountain burned with fire, and its flame went up to the height of the heavens, with darkness, clouds, and shadows. And the Lord spake with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the word, but you saw no like­ness, but only a voice speaking. And He proclaimed to you His covenant which He commanded you to per­form; Ten Words which He wrote upon sapphire tablets.

And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments, that you may do them in the land which you pass over to possess. Keep then your souls diligently; for you saw no likeness on the day when the Lord spake with you in Horeb from the midst of the fire. Be admonished, lest you corrupt your works, and make to you an image or likeness of any idol, the likeness either male or female of any beast of the earth, of any winged bird that flieth in the air in the expanse of heaven, of any reptile on the ground, or of any fish in the waters under the earth. [JERUSALEM. The likeness of any fishes which are in the waters under the earth.] And lest, when you lift up your eyes to the height of the heavens, and gaze at the sun, or the moon, and the principal stars of all the hosts of the heavens, you go astray, and adore and serve them; for the Lord your God hath by them distributed (or divided) the knowledge of all the peoples that are under the whole heavens. For you hath the Word of the Lord taken for His portion, and hath brought you out from the iron furnace of Mizraim to be unto Him a people of inheritance as at this day. [JERUSALEM. To be a people beloved as a treasure in this day.]

But against me was displeasure before the Lord on account of your words, because you had murmured for the water; and He sware that I should not pass the Jordan, nor go into the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. But I must die in this land; I am not to pass over Jordan; but you will pass over and possess the inheritance of that good land. Beware, then, that you forget not the covenant of the Lord your God which He hath confirmed with you, or make to you an image, the likeness of any thing of which the Lord your God hath commanded that you should not make it. For the Word of the Lord your God is a consuming fire; the jealous God is a fire, and He avengeth Himself in jealousy. [JERUSALEM. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; the jealous God is a fire, and He avengeth Himself in jealousy.]

If, when thou wilt have begotten children and children's children, and wilt have grown old in the land, you corrupt your works, and make to you an image or any likeness, and do that which is evil before the Lord to provoke Him; I attest against you this day the sworn witnesses of the heavens and the earth, that perishing you will perish swiftly from the land to possess which you pass the Jordan: you will not lengthen out days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the Gentiles, and you will remain as a little people with the nations among whom the Lord will disperse you in captivity. And there will you be constrained to serve the worshippers of idols, the work of men's hands, of wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if there you seek to return to the fear of the Lord your God, you shall find mercy, when you seek before Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you suffer oppression, and all these things come upon you in the end of the days, and you be converted to the fear of the Lord your God, and obey His Word; for the Lord our God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He sware unto them.

For ask now the generations which have been from the days of the beginning, which have been before thee from the day when the Lord created man upon the earth, from one end of the heavens to the other, whether so great a thing as this hath been, or any like to it hath been heard? Hath it ever been that a people should hear the voice of the Word of the Lord, the Living God, speaking from the midst of fire, as you heard, and remained alive? Or, as the wonder which the Lord hath wrought, revealing Himself to separate a people to Himself from among another people, by signs, by miracles, by portents, by the victories of ordered battles, by an uplifted arm, and by great visions, like all that the Lord our God hath done for us in Mizraim, and your eyes beholding? [JERUSALEM. Or what is the people or kingdom that hath heard?. . . . . Or the signs which the Word of the Lord hath wrought, coming to announce (that He would separate) to Himself a people from among a people ?] Unto thee have these wonders been shown, that thou mayest know that the Lord is God, and there is none beside Him. He made you hear the voice of His Word from the heavens on high, to give you discipline by His doctrine, and showed thee upon earth His great fire, and made thee hear His words from the midst of the flame. And because He loved thy fathers Abraham and Izhak, therefore hath He plea­sure in the children of Jakob after him, and hath brought you in His lovingkindness and power from Mizraim, to drive out nations greater and stronger than you from before you, and give you their land to inherit as at this day. Know therefore today, and set your heart upon it, that the Lord is God, whose Shekinah dwelleth in the heavens above, and reigneth on the earth beneath, neither is there any other beside Him. Therefore observe His covenant, and the commandments which I command you this day, that He may do good to you and to your children after you, and that you may have continuance upon the land which the Lord your God giveth you for all days.

And now, behold, Mosheh set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, that the manslayer who had killed his neighbour without intention, not having hated him yesterday or before, may flee, and escape into one of those cities, and be spared alive. [JERUSALEM. Who had slain his neighbour unawares, but had not entertained enmity toward him yesterday or before.] Kevatirin the wilderness, in the plain country, for the tribe of Reuben, and Ramatha in Gilead for the tribe of Gad, and Dabera in Mathnan for the tribe of Menasheh. This is the declaration of the law which Mosheh set in order before the sons of Israel [JERUSALEM. This is the declaration of the law which Mosheh set before the sons of Israel,] and the statutes and judgments which Mosheh spake with the sons of Israel at the time when they had come out of Mizraim. And Mosheh delivered them beyond Jordan over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amoraee, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Mosheb and the sons of Israel smote when the had come out of Mizraim. And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, king of Mathnan, the two kings of the Amoraee, who were beyond the Jordan, eastward, from Aroer on the bank of the river Arnon to the mountain of Saion, which is the Snowy Mount; [JERUSALEM. From Lechaiath, on the side of the river Arnona, unto the mountain whose fruits are delivered, which is the Snowy Mount;] and all the plain beyond Jordan, eastward, unto the sea that is in the plain under the spring of the heights.

V.
And Mosheh called all Israel, and said to them: Hear, Israel, the statutes and judgments that I speak before you this day, to learn them, and observe to perform them. The Lord our God confirmed a covenant with us in Horeb: not with our fathers did the Lord confirm this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here this day alive and abiding. Word to word did the Lord speak with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the Word of the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the Word of the Lord, because you were afraid before the voice of the Word of the Lord, which you heard from the midst of the fire; neither did you go up to the mountain while He said : Sons of Israel, My people, I am the Lord your God, who made and led you out free from the land of Mizraim, from the house of the bondage of slaves. Sons of Israel, My people, no other god shall you have beside Me. You shall not make to you an image or the likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, or in the earth below, or in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not worship them or do service before them; for I am the Lord your God, a jealous and avenging God, taking vengeance in jealousy; remembering the sins of wicked fathers upon rebellious children to the third genera­tion and to the fourth of them that hate Me, when the children complete to sin after their fathers; but keeping mercy and bounty for a thousand generations of the righteous who love Me and keep My mandates and My laws. Sons of Israel, My people, no one of you shall swear by the Name of the Word of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord, in the day of the great judgment, will not acquit any one who shall swear by His Name in vain. Soils of Israel, My people, observe the day of Sabbath, to sanctify it according to all that the Lord your God hath commanded. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day (shall be for) rest and quiet before the Lord your God; ye shall do no work, neither you, nor your sons, nor your daughters, nor your servants, nor your handmaids, nor your oxen, your asses, nor any of your cattle, nor your sojourners who are among you; that your servants and handmaids may have repose as well as you. And remember that you were servants in the land of Mizraim, and that the Lord your God delivered and led you out with a strong hand and uplifted arm; therefore the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Sons of Israel, My people, be every one mindful of the honour of his father and his mother, as the Lord your God hath commanded you, that your days may be proIonged, and it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God giveth you. Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not murder, nor be companions or participators with those who do murder, nor shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel (those who have part) with murderers; that your children may not arise after you, and teach their own to have part with murderers; for because of the guilt of murder the sword cometh forth upon the world.

Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not be adulterers, nor companions of, or have part with, adulterers; neither shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel (those who have part) with adulterers, and that your children may not arise after you, and teach theirs also to be with adulterers; for through the guilt of adulteries the plague cometh forth upon the world. Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not be thieves, nor be companions nor have fellowship with thieves, nor shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel (those who have part)with theives; for because of the guilt of robberies famine cometh forth on the world. Sons of Isreal, My people, you shall not bear false witness, nor be companions or have fellowship with the bearers of false testimony;neither shall there be seen in the congregations of Isreal those who (have part) with false witnesses; for because of the guilt of false witnesses the clouds arise, but the rain does not come down, and dearth cometh on the world. Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not be covetous, nor be companions or have fellowship with the covetous; neither shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel any who (have part) with the covetous; that your children may not arise after you, and teach their own to be with the covetous. Nor let any one of you desire his neighbour's wife, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that belongeth to his neighbour; for because of the guilt of covetousness the government (malkutha) seizeth upon men's property to take it away, and bondage cometh on the world.

These words spake the Lord with all your congregation at the mount, from the midst of the fiery cloud and tempest, with a great voice which was not limited; and the voice of the Word was written upon two tables of marble, and He gave them unto me. But when you had heard the voice of the Word from the midst of the darkness, the mountain burning with fire, the chiefs of your tribes and your sages drew nigh to me, and said, Behold, the Word of the Lord our God hath showed us His glorious Shekinah, and the greatness of His excellency, (tushbachteih, Hismagnificence,) and the voice of His Word have we heard out of the midst of the fire. This day have we seen that the Lord speaketh with a man in whom is the Holy Spirit, and he remaineth alive. But now why should we die? For this great fire will devour us; if we again hear the voice of the Word of the Lord our God, we shall die. For who, of all the offspring of flesh, hath heard the voice of the Word of the Living God speaking from amid the fire as we, and hath lived? Go thou nigh, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou with us all that the Lord our God will say to thee, and we will hearken and will do. And the voice of your words was heard before the Lord when you spake with me, and the Lord said to me, All the words of this people which they have spoken with thee are heard before Me; all that they have said is good. O that the disposition of their heart were perfect as this willingness is to fear Me and to keep all My commandments all days, that it may be well with them and with their children for ever! [JERUSALEM. O that they may have this good heart!] Now therefore be separate from thy wife, that with the orders above thou mayest stand before Me, and I will speak with thee the commandments, statutes, and judgments, which thou shalt teach them to perform in the land that I give you to inherit. And now observe to do as the Lord your God hath commanded you; decline not to the right hand or to the left. Walk in all the way which the Lord your God commandeth you, that you may live and do well, and lengthen out days in the land you shall inherit.

VI.
And this is the declaration of the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God hath commanded (me) to teach you to perform in the land to which you pass over to inherit; that thou mayest fear the Lord thy God, and keep all His statutes and precepts which I command thee; thou, thy son, and the son of thy son, all the days of thy life; and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Hearken then, Israel, to keep and to do, that it may be well with thee, and you may increase greatly, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath spoken to thee, (that) He will give thee a land whose fruits are rich as milk, and sweet as honey. [JERUSALEM. A land producing good fruits, pure as milk, sweet and tasty as honey.]

It was, when the time came that our father Jakob should be gathered out of the world, he was anxious lest there might be an idolater among his sons. He called them, and questioned them, Is there such perversity in your hearts? They answered, all of them together, and said to him: HEAR, ISRAEL OUR FATHER: THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD! Jakob made response, and said, Blessed be His Glorious Name for ever and ever. [JERUSALEM. When the end had come to our father Jakob, that he should be taken up from the world, he called the twelve tribes, his sons, and gathered them round his couch. Then Jakob our father rose up, and said to them., Do you worship any idol that Terah the father of Abraham worshipped? do you worship any idol that Laban (the brother of his mother) worshipped? or worship you the God of Jakob? The twelve tribes answered together, with fulness of heart, and said, Hear now, Israel our father: The Lord our God is one Lord. Jakob responded and said, May His Great Name be blessed for ever!]

Mosheh the prophet said to the people of the house of Israel, Follow after the true worship of your fathers, that you may love the Lord your God with each disposition of your hearts, and also that He may accept your souls, and the (dedicated) service of all your wealth; and let these words which I command you this day be written upon the tables of your hearts. And thou shalt unfold them to thy children, and meditate upon them when thou art sitting in your houses, at the time when you are occupied in secret chambers, or in journeying by the way; at evening when you lie down, and at morn when you arise. And you shall bind them as written signs upon thy left hand, and they shall be for tephillin upon thy forehead over thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the pillars, and affix them in three places, against the cupboard, upon the posts of thy house, and on the right hand of thy gate, in thy going out.

And when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land which he promised to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, thy fathers, to give thee cities great and goodly which thou didst not toil in building, houses also, filled with all good, which thou wast not occupied in filling, and hewn cisterns in hewing which thou didst not labour, vineyards and olives with planting which thou wast not wearied; and when thou hast eaten. and art satisfied, beware lest you forget the fear of the Lord your God, who delivered and led you out free from the land of Mizraim, from the house of the affliction of slaves; but fear the Lord your God, and worship before Him, and swear by the Name of the Word of the Lord in truth. You shall not go after the idols of the Gentiles, the idols of the peoples who are round about you: for the Lord our God is a jealous God, and an Avenger, whose Shekinah dwelleth in the midst of you; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He quickly destroy you from the face of the earth. Sons of Israel, my people, be warned not to tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in the ten temptations; keeping keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and statutes which He hath commanded you; and do what is good and right before the Lord, that it may be well with you, and ye may go in, and possess by inheritance the good land which the Lord covenanted to your fathers; that He may drive out all thy enemies before thee, as the Lord hath said.

When thy son, in time to come, shall ask thee, say­ing, What are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then shall you say to your sons, We were servants to Pharoh in Mizraim, and the Word of the Lord brought us out of Mizraim with a mighty hand; and the Word of the Lord wrought signs, great wonders, and sore plagues on Mizraim and on Pharoh and all the men of his house, which our eyes beheld; but us He led forth free to bring us in and give us the land which He sware to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to perform all these statutes, that we may fear the Lord our God for good to us in all days, that He may preserve us alive as at the time of this day; and (the reward of ) righteousness will be reserved for us in the world to come, if we keep all these commandments to perform them before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.

VII. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land to which thou wilt come to possess it, and He will make many peoples to go out from before thee, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Kenaanites, Perizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and strong than thou., and the Lord your God will deliver them up before you, then shall you blot them out and utterly consume them by the curse of the Lord. You shall strike no covenant with them, nor have pity upon them. You shall not intermarry with them; your daughters you shall not give to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons; for whosoever marrieth with them is as if he made marriage with their idols. [JERUSALEM. You shall not be commixed with them.] For their daughters will lead your sons away from My worship to serve the idols of the Gentiles; so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and He will destroy you suddenly. But this shall you do to them : you shall destroy their altars, break their statues in pieces, cut down their groves for worship, and burn the images of their idols with fire. For you shall be a holy people before the Lord your God, as the Lord your God hath taken pleasure in you, that you may be a people more beloved before Him than all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Not because You were more excellent than all other peoples hath the Lord had pleasure in you and chosen you, but because you were poor in spirit, and more humble than all the nations. Therefore, because the Lord had mercy on you, and would keep the covenant He had sworn with your fathers, He led you out free with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of the affliction of slaves, from the hand of Pharoh king of Mizraim. Know therefore that the Lord your God is a Judge, strong and faithful, keeping covenant and mercy with them who love Him and keep His commandments unto a thousand generations, and who repayeth to them who hate Him the reward of their good works in this world, to destroy them (for their evil works) in the world to come; neither delayeth He (to reward) His enemies, but while they are alive in this world He payeth them their recompense. [JERUSALEM. And he repayeth them who hate Him for their little deeds of good which are in their hands in this world, to destroy them in the world to come; nor doth He delay to render to them that hate Him the reward of the slight works that are in their hands in this world.] Observe therefore the mandates, the statutes, and judgments which I command you, to perform them.

If you receive these judgments, and observe and perform them, then will the Lord your God keep with you the covenant and the lovingkindness which He sware to your fathers. And He will love, bless, and multiply you, and will bless the children of your wombs, the fruit of your ground, your corn, wine, and oil, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep, on the land which He sware to your fathers to give you. More blessed will you be than all peoples; there shall not be among you barren men or women, nor thy cattle (be wanting) in wool, or milk, or offspring. And the Lord will put away from thee all the diseases and evil plagues that He sent upon Mizraim which thou hast known; He will not put them upon you, but will send them forth upon all your enemies. And thou shalt consume all the nations which the Lord thy God giveth up to thee; thine eye shall not spare them nor their idols, because they would be a stumblingjblock to thee. Neither say in thy heart, These nations are greater and stronger than I am: how shall I be able to drive them out? Be not afraid of them; remember the work of power which the Lord thy God wrought upon Pharoh and all the Mizraee; the great miracles which thou didst see with thine eyes, the signs and wonders, the strength of the mighty hand, and the victory of the uplifted arm, when the Lord your God led you out free: so will the Lord your God do unto all the peoples before whom thou art afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the plague of biting hornets among you, until they who have remained shall perish and disappear before you. Therefore be not downjbroken before them, for the Shekinah of the Lord your God is among you, the Great and Fearful God. 

But the Lord your God will make these nations depart from before thee by little and little. You may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field multiply against you, when they have come to devour their carcases. But the Lord your God will give them up before you, and will trouble them with great trouble, until they shall be consumed [JERUSALEM. And shall trouble them with great trouble, till the time that they shall be destroyed.] And He will deliver their kings into your hands, and you shall destroy their names from remembrance under the whole heavens: not a man shall stand before you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn their images with fire, nor desire the silver and gold that may be upon them, nor take them, lest through them you offend, for they are an abomination before the Lord your God. Neither may you bring their abominable idols or their servicejvessels into your houses, that you be not accursed as they but you shall utterly loathe them as a loathsome reptile, and abhor them altogether, because they are accursed. 

VIII.
Every commandment which I command you this day, observe ye to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and inherit the land which the Lord sware to your fathers. And remember all the way by which the Lord your God hath led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble and try you, to know whether you will keep His commandments or not. And He humbled thee and let thee hunger, and fed thee with the manna which thou knewest not, nor thy fathers had known, that He might make thee to know that man liveth not by bread only, but by all that is created by the Word of the Lord doth man live. [JERUSALEM. That by manna only.] Your raiment hath not waxen old upon your bodies, and your feet have not gone without covering these forty years. But you know with the thoughts of your hearts, that as a man regardeth his child, so the Lord your God hath regarded you. Keep, therefore, the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in the ways that are right before Him, and to fear Him. For the Lord your God bringeth you into a land whose fruits are celebrated, a land whose streams flow in clear waters, from sweet fountain springs, and depths that dry not up, issuing forth among the vales and mountains; a land producing wheat and barley, and growing vines from which cometh out wine sweet and ripe, and a land which yieldeth figs and pomegranates, a land whose olive trees make oil, and whose palms give honey; a land where, without poverty, you may eat bread and want nothing; a land whose sages will enact decrees unalloyed as iron, and whose disciples will propound questions weighty as brass.[JERUSALEM. A land from whose olive trees they make oil, and from whose palms they make honey......whose stones are, pure as iron, and whose hills are firm as brass.] 

Be mindful, therefore, in the time when you will have eaten and are satisfied, that you render thanksgiving and blessing before the Lord your God for all the fruit of the goodly land which He hath given you, lest you forget the fear of the Lord your God, and keep not His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day; lest, when you shall have eaten and are satisfied, and you have builded pleasant houses to dwell in, and your oxen and sheep are multiplied, and silver and gold are increased to you, and all things you have are multiplied, your heart be lifted up, and you forget the fear of the Lord your God, who brought you out free from the land of Mizraim, from the house of the affliction of slaves; who led thee in mercy through that great and fearful desert, a place abounding in burning serpents and scorpions with stings, a place where there is thirst but no water; but (where) He brought thee forth water out of the hard rock, and fed thee in the desert with manna which thy fathers knew not, to humble thee and to prove thee, that He may do thee good in thine end. 

Beware that you say not in your heart, Our strength and the might of our hands have obtained us all these riches; but remember the Lord your God ; for He it is who giveth thee counsel whereby to get wealth; that He may confirm the covenant which He sware to your fathers at the time of this day. For it shall be that if you forget the fear of the Lord your God, and go after the idols of the Gentiles, to serve and worship them, I testify against you this day, you will surely perish; as the peoples which the Lord your God disperseth before you, so will you perish, because you were not obedient to the Word of the Lord your God. 

IX.
Hear, Israel: you are this day (about) to pass Jordana to enter in and possess (the country of) nations greater and stronger than you, and cities many, and fortified to the height of heaven. A people (are they) strong and tall as the giants whom you know, and of whom you have heard (say), Who can stand before the sons of the giants? Know, therefore, tojday that the Lord your God, whose glorious Shekinah goeth before you, whose Word is a consuming fire, will destroy them and drive them out before you; so shall you drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord your God hath said to you. Speak not in your heart when the Lord your God hath driven them away from before you saying, For the sake of my righteousness hath the Lord brought me in to inherit this land; for on account of the sins of these people the Lord driveth them out before you. Not for your righteousness, or the integrity of your heart, will you be brought in to possess their land, but for the sins of these people the Lord your God driveth them away before you; and that the Lord may establish the word which He sware to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, your fathers. Know, therefore, that it is not on account of your merit that the Lord your God giveth you this glorious land to possess it; for a hardjnecked people are you. Be mindful and forget not how you have provoked unto anger, before the Lord in the wilderness, from the day that you went out of the land of Mizraim until you came to this place, and have been perverse before the Lord. (Even) at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, so that there was wrath before the Lord against you, to destroy you. When I had gone up to the mountain to receive the tables of marble, the tables of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, and I tarried on the mountain forty days and forty nights, I ate no bread, I drank no water; and the Lord gave to me the two tables of marble inscribed by the finger of the Lord, and upon which was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you on the mount from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembling of the congregation. But at the end of the forty days and nights, when the Lord gave to me the two tables of marble, the tables of the covenant, the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from hence, for the people who are called by thy name, whom I led forth from the land of Mizraim, have corrupted their way; they have soon gone aside from the way that I commanded them on Sinai, saying, Make not to you a likeness or image; for they have made for themselves a molten (form). And the Lord spake to me saying, the sin of this people is revealed before Me, and behold this people is hard-necked: desist from thy prayer to Me, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens; and I will make of thee a people stronger and greater than they. 

And I prepared and went down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were upon my two hands. And I saw, and, behold, you had sinned before the Lord your God; you had made for you a molten calf, and had quickly declined from the way which the Lord had commanded to you. And taking the two tables, I cast them from my two hands and broke them; and you looked on while the tables were broken and the letters fled away. [JERUSALEM. And I took both the tables and cast them down.] But I prayed for mercy as at the first before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I ate no bread, nor drank water, for all your sin whereby you had sinned in doing what was evil before the Lord to provoke Him to anger. 

At that time five destroying angels were sent from the Lord to destroy Israel, Wrath, Burning, Relentlessness, Destruction, and Indignation; but when Mosheh the Rabban of Israel heard, he went and made memorial of the great and glorious Name, and called. And Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob arose from their tomb, and stood in prayer before the Lord; and forthwith three of them were restrained, and two of them, Wrath and Burning, remained. But Mosheh (yet) supplicated mercy, and were also restrained ; and he digged a grave in the land of Moab and buried them, in swearing by the great and tremendous Name; for so it is written: For I was afraid before the anger with which the Lord was angry with you to destroy you, and the Lord received my prayer at that time also. 

But against Aharon was there great displeasure before the Lord, (so that) He would destroy him; but I prayed for Aharon also at that time. And your sin, the calf which you had made, I took, and burned it in fire, and crushed it well with crushing until I had bruised it into dust; and I threw the dust into the stream that descended from the mountain. 

And at the place of Burning, and that of the Temptation, and at the Graves of Desire [JERUSALEM. And at the Graves of Desire] you provoked to anger before the Lord. And at the time when the Lord sent you from Rekem Giah, saying: Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you, then were you perverse with the Word of the Lord your God, and would not believe Him, nor be obedient to His Word. You have been perverse before the Lord from the day that I have known you. 

And I bowed down in prayer before the Lord for the forty days and nights in which I was prostrate in supplication, because the Lord had said He was about to destroy you. And I prayed before the Lord, and said: I implore mercy before Thee, 0 Lord God, that Thou wouldst not destroy Thy people and Thy heritage which Thou hast redeemed by Thy power, and led forth from Mizraim by the strength of Thy mighty hand. Remember Thy servants Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, nor regard Thou the hard heart of this people, nor their wickedness, nor their sin: lest the inhabitants of the land from whence Thou hast led us say, that power failed before the Lord to bring them into the land of which Thou hast told them, and that because Thou didst hate them, therefore didst Thou lead them out to kill them in the wilderness. But they are Thy people and Thy heritage, whom Thou didst bring out by Thy great power, and with Thy uplifted arm. 

X.
At that time did the Lord say to me: Hew thee two tables of marble according to the form of the first; and ascend before Me into the mountain, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write upon the tables the words which were upon the former ones, which thou didst break with thy entire strength; and thou shalt put them within the ark. And I made an ark of sitta wood, and hewed two marble tables according to the form of the first, and went up into the mountain, having the two tables in my hand. And He wrote upon the tables according to the former writing, the Ten Words which the Lord spake with you from the mount in the midst of the fire on the day that the congregation was gathered together, and the Lord gave them to me. And I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables into the ark which I had made, and there are they laid up (hidden) as the Lord commanded me. 

And the children of Israel journeyed from the villages of the wells of the Beni Jahakan to Mosera. There Amalek, who reigned in Arad, and who had heard that Aharon was dead, and that the Cloud of Glory had gone up, (came and) fought with them. And those of Israel who were distressed by that war sought to go back into Mizraim, and returned (towards it) six journeys; (but) the sons of Levi followed after them, and slew eight families of them, and the remainder returned. Of the sons of Levi also four families were slain. And they said one to another, What hath been the cause of this slaughter? Because we have been remiss in the mourning for Aharon the Saint. Therefore all the children of Israel observed there a mourning for Aharon's death; and there was he buried, and Elazar his son ministered in his stead. Thence they journeyed to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jotbath, a land flowing with streams of water. At that time the Lord distinguished the tribe of Levi, because they had been zealous (even) to slay for His honour; that they should bear the ark of the Lord's covenant, and stand before the Lord to minister unto Him and to bless in His Name until this day. Therefore the tribe of Levi hath not a portion or inheritance with his brethren; the gifts which the Lord giveth him are his inheritance, as the Lord your God hath spoken to him. But I stood in the mount praying and interceding as in the former days (of the) forty days and nights, and the Lord received my prayer at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy you. And the Lord said to me, Arise, go, lead forth the people, that they be brought in, and possess the land which I promised to their fathers to give them. 

And now, Israel, what doth the Lord your God require of you, but that you fear the Lord your God, to walk in all the ways that are right before Him, and that you love Him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you this day, that it may be well with you ? Behold, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens, are be Lord's your God, and the hosts of angels are in them to minister before Him, and the earth, and whatsoever is therein. Only the Lord had pleasure in your fathers, and because He would love you He hath had favour to their children after them, as you, above all the nations upon the face of the earth, at the time of this day. Put away folly, therefore, from your heart, and be not stiffjnecked any more; for the Lord thy God is God, the Judge, and the Monarch of kings, a Great God, mighty and terrible, before whom there is no respect of persons, and who taketh no bribe; He doeth judgment for the orphan and widow, and hath compassion upon the stranger to give him food and raiment. Have pity then (yourselves) upon the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Mizraim. Revere the Lord your God, and worship before Him, and cleave closely to His fear, and swear by His Name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who hath done for thee these great and mighty acts which thou hast beheld with thy eyes. With seventy souls your fathers went down into Mizraim, and now hath the Lord your God set you as the stars of the heavens for multitude. 

XI.
Therefore shall you love the Lord your God, and diligently observe His Word, His statutes, and His judgments always. And know you this day, for (I speak) not with your children who have not known or seen the instruction of the law of the Lord your God, nor His greatness, nor His mighty hand, nor His uplifted arm, or His signs and works which He wrought in Mizraim, on Pharoh king of Mizraim, and on all the inhabitants of his land; what He did also to the hosts of Mizraim, to their horses and chariots, when He made the waters of the Red Sea to overwhelm their faces when they followed after you, when the Lord destroyed them unto this day's time; and what He hath done to you in the wilderness till the time that you came to this place; and what He did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab bar Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up with the men of their house, and all their substance, in the midst of all Israel: for with your eyes have you seen all the great work of the Lord which He hath wrought. Therefore shall you keep all the precepts which I command you this day, that you may be strengthened, and go in, and inherit the land to possess which you go over; and that your days may be multiplied upon the land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give it to them and their children; a land whose fruits are rich as milk, and sweet as honey. For the land to which thou goest in to possess it is not like the land of Mizraim, from whence you have come, in which thou didst sow thy seed, and water it thyself as a garden of herbs; but the land which you pass over to inherit is a land of mountains and valleys: it drinketh water from the rain that cometh down from the heavens; it is a land which the Lord your God inquireth after by His Word, that He may bless it evermore; [JERUSALEM. A land which the Lord your God inquireth after continually.] the eyes of the Lord your God look upon it from the beginning of the year to the year's end. And it shall be that if you diligently obey My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, then will I give you the rain of your land in its time, the early in Marchesvan, and the latter in Nisan, that you may gather in your corn, your wine., and your oil. I will give herbage also in thy field for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and have enough. 

Take heed to yourselves, lest you be led away by the imagination of your heart, and turn aside to serve the idols of the Gentiles, and worship them, and the Lord's anger be provoked against you, and He shut up the clouds of heaven, and let not the rain come down, and the earth yield no provender, and you perish soon from off the glorious land which the Lord shall give you. But lay these my words upon your heart, and upon your soul, and bind them, written upon tephillin, as a sign upon the upper part (wrist?) of your left hands, and let them be for tephillin over thy forehead between thy eyes. And thou shalt teach them to thy children to study them when you are sitting in your house with your kindred, and when you are walking in the way, and in the evening when you lie down, and in the morning when you arise. [JERUSALEM. And when you repose, and when you rise up.] And you shall write them upon parchment, upon the posts, and affix them to three (things), against thy chest, against the pillars of thy house, and against thy gates: that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give you, as the number of the days that the heavens abide over the earth. 

For if you diligently keep every commandment that I command you to do it, to love the Lord your God, and walk in all the ways that are right before Him, and cleave unto His fear, then will the Word of the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall possess the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves. Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread will be yours, from the wilderness and the mountain; (among) your mountains shall be the house of the sanctuary, and from the great river, the River Phrat, unto the ocean sea, whose waters are (old as) the creation, on the western side shall be your limit. Not a man will be able to stand before you; but the Lord your God will set the fear and dread of you upon the faces of all the inhabiters of the land that you tread upon, as it hath been told you. [JERUSALEM. Not a ruler nor a prince shall stand before you; but your terror and your fear.]

MOSHEH the prophet said: Behold, I have this day set in order before you a Blessing and its contrary: the Blessing, if you will be obedient to the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day; and its contrary, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, [JERUSALEM. And their contraries, if you will not hearken.] but will go astray from the path which I have taught you this day, in turning aside after the idols of the nations whom thou hast not known. And it shall be, when the Lord your God will have brought you to the land into which you are going, to possess it, you shall place six tribes upon the mountain of Gerizim, and six tribes on the mountain of Ebal. They who recite the blessings shall turn their faces towards Mount Gerizim, and they who recite the curses shall turn their faces towards Mount Ebal. Are they not situated beyond Jordan by the way of the sunset, in the land of the Kenaanah, who dwell in the plain over against Gilgela by the side (of the place) of the vision of Mamre? For you are to pass over Jordan to enter and possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you will hold and will dwell therein. Look well, therefore, that you perform all the statutes and judgments that I have set before you this day. 

XII.
These are the statutes and judgments which you are to observe to do in the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you to inherit all the days that you live upon the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places in which the people (whose land) you will possess have worshipped their idols, upon the high mountains and hills, and under every tree of beautiful form. You shall lay their altars in ruin, break down their pillars, burn their abominations with fire, and utterly destroy the images of their gods, and abolish their names from that place. 

Not so may you do to blot out the inscription of the Name of the Lord your God. But in the land which the Word of the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes for His Shekinah to dwell there, unto the place of His Shekinah shall you have recourse, and come thither, and bring your sacrifices and consecrated oblations, your tythes, the separation of your hands, your vows, your voluntary offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. And you shall there eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all that you put your hand unto, you and your households, in which the Lord your God will have blessed you. 

It will not be lawful for you to do (there) as we do here today, whatever any one thinks fit for himself; for you are not yet come to the Sanctuary, to the dwelling of Peace, and to the inheritance of the land which the Lord your God will give you. But when you have passed over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God will give you to inherit, and He hath given you repose from all your enemies round about, then shall you build the house of the Sanctuary, and afterward shall dwell securely. And to the place which the Word of the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there, shall you bring all your oblations, firstlings, and tythes, which I command you; there shall you offer your sacrifices and hallowed victims, there eat your tythes and the separation of your hands, and all your goodly vows which you may have vowed before the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and handmaids, and the Levite who is in your cities, for he hath no portion or inheritance with you. 

Beware lest you offer your sacrifices in any place which thou mayest see; but in the Place which the Lord will choose in the inheritance of one of your tribes, there shall you offer your sacrifices and do whatever I command you. Nevertheless, after every wish of your soul, you may kill and eat flesh according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which He will give you in all your cities; they who are unclean so as not to be able to offer holy things, and they who are clean that they may offer holy things, may eat of it alike, as the flesh of the antelope or of the hart. Only be careful to pour out the blood upon the ground like water. It will not be lawful for you to eat the tenths of your corn, or wine, or oil, or the firstlings of your herd or flock, nor any of the vows that you have vowed, or freewill offerings, or the separation of your hands in your cities; but you shall eat it before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God will choose; you, and your sons and daughters, and your handmaids, and the Levites who are in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. Beware that thou aggrieve not the Levite all your days in which you dwell in your land. 

When the Lord your God will have enlarged your border, as He hath said unto you; and thou sayest, I would eat flesh, because thy soul may desire to eat flesh, thou mayest eat flesh according to all thy desire. But if the place which the Lord your God will have chosen that His Shekinah may dwell there be too far off, then may you eat of your herds and flocks which the Lord your God shall give you, as I have com&endash;manded you, in your cities you may eat, according to all the desire of your soul: as the flesh of the antelope or hart so may you eat it; he who is unclean that he may not offer holy things, and he who is clean that he may offer them, may eat of it alike. [JERUSALEM. He who is restrained from holy things, and he who is clean for holy things, may eat alike.] Only put a strong restraint upon your desires, that you eat no blood; for the blood is the subsistence of the life. You may not, with the flesh, eat blood, in which is the subsistence of life: you shall not eat it, you shall pour it out upon the ground like water: eat it not, that it may be well with you, and with your children after you, while you do that which is right before the Lord. Nevertheless, animals which are your consecrated tenths, and your votive offerings, you shall take and bring to the place which the Lord will choose; and thou shalt do (with them) according to the rite of thy burnt offerings, (and offer) the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the Lord thy God: the blood of the rest of thy holy oblations shall be poured out at the altar of the Lord thy God, but of the flesh it is lawful to eat. 

Observe and obey all these words that I command you, that it may be well with you and with your children after you for ever, while you do that which is good and right before the Lord your God. When the Lord your God shall have cut off the nations among whom you go, and have expelled them from before you, and you inherit and dwell in their land, beware that you stumble not after their idols when they shall have been destroyed before you, or lest you seek after their idols, saying, How did these peoples worship their gods, that we may worship as they did? So shall you not do in serving the Lord your God; for whatever is abominable and hateful to Him have they done to their idols; for even their sons and daughters they have bound and burned with fire unto their idols. Whatsoever I command you, that shall you observe to do; ye shall not add to it nor diminish from it. 

XIII.
When there may arise among you a false prophet or a dreamer of a profane dream, and he give you a sign or a miracle, and the sign or the miracle come to pass, (yet) because he spake with you, saying, Let us go after the gods of the peoples whom thou hast not known, and worship them, you shall not hearken to the words of that lying prophet, or his who hath dreamed that dream; for the Lord your God (thereby) trieth you, to know whether you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the service of the Lord your God, and Him shall you fear, and keep His commandments, hearken to His word, pray before Him, and cleave unto His fear. And that prophet of lies, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be slain with the sword, because he had spoken perversity against the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of the Mizraee, and redeemed you from the house of the affliction of slaves to make you to go astray from the path which the Lord your God hath commanded you to walk in: so shall you bring down the doers of evil among you. 

When thy brother, the son of thy mother, when even the son of thy father, or thy own son or thy daughter, or thy wife who reposeth with thee, or thy friend who is beloved as thy soul, shall give thee evil counsel, to make thee go astray, speaking out and saying, Let us go and worship the gods of the Gentiles, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; or the idols of the seven nations who are near you round about, or of the rest of the nations who are far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other; you shall not consent to them, nor hearken to him, neither shall your eye spare him or have compassion, nor shall you hide him in secret; but killing you shall kill him; your hand shall be the first upon him to slay him, and afterwards the hand of all the people; and you shall stone him that he die; because he sought to draw them away from the fear of the Lord thy God, who brought you out free from the land of Mizraim, from the house of the affliction of slaves. And all Israel will hear and be afraid, and never more do according to that evil thing among you. [JERUSALEM. When thy brother, the son of thy mother, thy son, thy daughter, or the wife who reposeth with thee, shall turn thee away.] 

When, in one of your cities which the Lord your God will give you to dwell in, you hear it said that (certain) men of pride are drawing back from the doctrine of the Lord your God, or that even sages of your rabbins have gone forth and led away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and worship the gods of the nations which you have not known: then search you out, and examine with witnesses, and make good inquiry; and, behold, if the thing be true and certain that this abomination hath been really done among you, you shall smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, to destroy it utterly and whatever is therein, even its cattle, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of the street, and burn the city with fire, together with the whole of the spoil, before the Lord your God; and it shall be a desolate heap for ever, never to be builded again: that the Lord may be turned from the fierceness of His anger, and may show His mercy upon you, and love you, and multiply you, as He hath sworn to your fathers. So be ye obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, that you may do what is right before the Lord your God. 

XIV.
As beloved children before the Lord your God, you shall not make lacerations in your flesh, nor make bare the crown of the hair over your foreheads on account of the soul of the dead. [JERUSALEM. You are beloved children before the Lord your God; you shall not make divers wounds for strange worship, nor cause baldness above your forehead to mourn for a person who is dead.] For you are to be a holy people before the Lord your God: the Lord your God hath chosen you to be a people more beloved than all the peoples who are upon the face of the earth. You may not eat of any thing that for you is abominable. 

These are the animals which you may eat: oxen, and lambs of the ewes, such as are not blemished (unclean), and kids of the goats unmixed with what are unclean. Harts and antelopes and fallow deer, rock goats and reems, wild oxen and pygargs; and every animal that hath the divided hoof, and horns, and that cleaveth the cleft, bringing up the cud among animals, that you may eat. [JERUSALEM. Which bringeth up the cud among animals, that may you eat.] But of these you may not eat that bring up the cud, or of those who (only) have the hoof divided, the cast thing (embryo) which hath two heads or a double back, things which are not to be perpetuated in the same species (i.e. as a species); nor the camel, the hare, or the coney, because they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean to you. [JERUSALEM. Because they bring up the cud, but have not the hoof divided.] The swine, because, though he hath the hoof divided, and there is none produced that like him divideth (the hoof), and yet cheweth not the cud, is unclean to you; of their flesh you shall not eat, nor touch their dead bodies. But this you may eat, of all that are in the waters, whatever hath fins to move, as by flying, and scales upon its skin; and though (some of which) may fall away, yet if there remain on under its jaw, another under its fin, and another under its tail, that you may eat. But whatever hath neither fins nor scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you. Every bird which hath a vesicle or crop which may be picked away, and which (bird) is longer than a finger, and not of the rapacious kind, you may eat. But these are they which you may not eat: the eagle, the ossifrage, the osprey, the daitha (lammer geyer?) white or black, which is a bird of prey, a kind of vulture. [JERUSALEM. 12. And these are they of which you may not eat; the eagle, and the sea eagle (ossifrage), and the osprey. 13. And the rook, the heron also, and the vulture after his kind.] And every raven after his kind; and the owl, and nighthawk, and the cuckoo, and the falcon after his kind; the great owl, and the sea gull (catcher of fish from the sea), and the night owl, and the cormorant white or black, and the pica, and the stork white or black after its kind, and the heathcock, and the bat, [JERUSALEM. And the white daitha, and the ibis according to his kind, and the heathcock, and the bat,] and all flies (bees) and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and pulse, which come away from (materials of) food and fly as birds, are unclean to you, they may not be eaten; but any clean beast you may eat. You shall not eat of anything that is unclean through the manner of its death; you may give it to the uncircumcised stranger who is in your cities to eat it, or sell it to a son of the Gentiles; for you are a holy people before the Lord your God. It shall not be lawful for you to boil, much less to eat, flesh with milk when both are mixed together. 

Be mindful to tythe your fruitage of whatsoever cometh forth, and which you gather in from the field year by year; not giving the fruit of one year for the fruit of another. [JERUSALEM. My people of the house of Israel, tything you shall tythe all the produce of your seed, of that which you sow upon the face of the field and gather in the produce of each year. Israel, My people, it is not lawful for you to tythe and eat the fruit of one year along with the fruit of (another) year.] And the second tythe you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place which He will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there; the tenths of your corn, your vines, and your oil, and likewise the firstlings of your oxen and sheep, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God all the days. And if the way be too great for you to be able to carry the tenth, because the place which the Lord thy God will choose for His Shekinah to dwell there is too distant from you, when the Lord thy God shall have blessed thee, then thou mayest make exchange for it into silver, and bind the sum in thy band, and proceed to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and give the silver for any thing that thy soul pleaseth, of oxen, sheep, wine new or old, or whatever thy soul desireth; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and the men of your house. And the Levite who is in your cities forsake not, for he hath not a portion or a heritage with you. At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tenths of your produce for that year, and lay them up in your cities. And the Levite, because he hath no part or heritage with you, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your cities, shall come and eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands that you do. 

XV.
At the end of seven years you shall make a Release. And this is the indication of the custom of the Release: Every man who is master of a loan, who lendeth to his neighbour, shall give remission. He shall not have power to coerce his neighbour in demanding his loan, nor of his brother, a son of Israel; because the beth din hath published the Release before the Lord. From a son of the Gentiles thou mayest exact, but the lawful right (dina) which is thine with thy brother thou shalt release with thine hand. If you will only be diligent in the precepts of the law, there will be no poor among you; for, blessing, the Lord will bless you in the land which the Lord your God will give you for a possession to inherit; if, obeying, you will only obey the Word of the Lord your God, to observe and do all these commandments which I command you this day. For the Lord your God blesseth you, as He saith to you (that) you shall take from many nations, but they will not take from you; and you will have power over many nations, but they shall not have power over you. But if you be not diligent in the precepts of the law, and there be among you a poor man in one of thy cities of the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor hold back thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thy hand to him, and lend to him according to the measure of his want through which he is in need. Beware lest there be a word in thy proud heart, saying: The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye become evil toward your poor brother, so as to be not willing to give to him, and he cry against you to the Lord, and there be guilt upon you. Giving you shall give to him, nor shall your heart be evil when you give to him; for on account of this matter the Lord your God will bless you in all your works that you put your hands unto. But forasmuch as the house of Israel will not rest in the commandments of the law, the poor will not cease in the land: therefore I command you, saying: You shall verily open your hands toward your neighbours, to the afflicted around you, and to the poor of your country. [JERUSALEM. Giving thou shalt give to him, nor let your looks be evil at the time you give to him. If Israel would keep the precepts of the law, there would be no poor among them; but if they will forsake the precepts of the law, the poor shall not cease from the land: therefore I command you, saying: You shall verily open your hands to your poor brethren, and to the needy who will be in your land.] 

If your brother, a son of Israel, or if a daughter of Israel, be sold to you, he shall serve you six years; and when the seventh comes, thou shalt send him from you free. And when thou lettest him go away from thee at liberty, thou shalt not send him away empty. Comforting thou shalt comfort him out of your flocks, your floors, and your wine presses; as the Lord hath blessed you ye shall give to him. [JERUSALEM. Thou shalt furnish him.] And be mindful that you were servants in the land of Mizraim, and that the Lord your God set you free; therefore I command you today that you do this thing. 

But if he say to thee, I will not go out from thee, because I love thee and the men of thy house, and because it hath been good for him to be with thee, then thou shalt take an awl, and bore (or apply) it through his ear, and that to the door of the house of judgment, and he shall be thy serving servant until the Jubilee. And for thy handmaid also thou shalt write a certificate of release, and give it to her. It must not be a hardship in thy eyes when thou sendest him away from thee; for double the hire of an hireling hath he been of service to thee six years; and on his account the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all that thou hast done. 

Every firstling male that cometh of thy herd and flock thou shalt consecrate before the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not work with the firstlings of your herd, nor shear the firstlings of your flocks; you shall eat thereof before the Lord your God from year to year, in the place which the Lord will choose, you and the men of your houses. But if there be any spot in it, if it be lame or blind, or have any blemish, you shall not sacrifice it before the Lord your God: you may eat it in your cities; he who is unclean, (so) that he may not approach to holy things, and he who being clean may approach the holy, may alike (eat), as the flesh of the antelope or hart. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out upon the ground like water. 

XVI.
Be mindful to keep the times of the festivals, with the intercalations of the year, and to observe the rotation thereof: in the month of Abiba to perform the pascha before the Lord your God, because in the month of Abiba the Lord your God brought you out of Mizraim; you shall eat it therefore by night. But you shall sacrifice the pascha before the Lord your God between the suns; and the sheep and the bullocks on the morrow, on that same day to rejoice in the feast at the place which the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there. You shall not eat leavened bread with the pascha; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread unto His Name, the unleavened bread of humiliation; for with haste you went forth from the land of Mizraim; that you may remember the day of your out going from the land of Mizraim all the days of your life. Take heed that in the beginning of the pascha there be no leaven seen among you within all your borders for seven days; and that none of the flesh which you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain till the morning. It will not be allowed you to eat the pascha in (any) one of your cities which the Lord your God giveth to you; but in the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell,there shall you sacrifice the pascha; and in the evening at the going down of the sun you may eat it until the middle of the night, the time when you began to go out of Mizraim. And you shall dress and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and in the early morn (if need be) thou mayest return from the feast, and go to thy cities. On the first day thou shalt offer the omer, and eat unleavened cakes of the old corn; but in the six remaining days you may begin to eat unleavened cakes of the new corn, and on the seventh day you shall assemble with thanksgiving before the Lord your God; no work shall you perform. 

Seven weeks number to you; from the time when you begin to put the sickle to the harvest of the field after the reaping of the omer you shall begin to number the seven weeks. And you shall keep with joy the Festival of Weeks before the Lord your God, after the measure of the freewill offerings of your hands, according as the Lord your God shall have blessed you. And you shall rejoice with the joy of the feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons, your daughters, your servants and handmaids, the Levites who are in your cities, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the Lord your God will choose where to make His Shekinah to dwell. Remember that you were servants in Mizraim; so shall you observe and perform these statutes. 

The Feast of Tabernacles you shall make to you seven days, when you will have completed to gather in the corn from your threshing floors, and the wine from your presses. And you shall rejoice in the joy of your feasts with the clarinet and flute, you and your sons and daughters, your handmaids, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities. Seven days you shall keep the feast before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will have blessed you in all your provision, and in all the work of your hands, and so shall you be joyful in prosperity. 

Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the Unleavened, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; nor must you appear before the Lord your God empty of any of the requirements; every one after the measure of the gifts of his hands, according to the blessing which the Lord your God hath bestowed upon you.

With the pascha; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread unto His Name, the unleavened bread, of humiliation; for with haste you went forth from the land of Mizraim; that you may remember the day of your outgoing from the land of Mizraim all the days of your life. Take heed that in the beginning, of the pascha there be no leaven seen among you within all your borders for seven days; and that none of the flesh which you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain till the morning. It will not be allowed you to eat the pascha in (any) one of your cities which the Lord your God giveth to you; but in the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell, there shall you sacrifice the pascha; and in the evening at the going down of the sun you may eat it until the middle of the night, the time when you began to go out of Mizraim. And you shall dress and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and in the early morn (if need be) thou mayest return from the feast, and go to thy cities. On the first day thou shalt offer the omer, and eat unleavened cakes of the old corn; but in the six remaining days you may begin to eat unleavened cakes of the new corn and on the seventh day you shall assemble with thanksgiving before the Lord your God; no work shall you perform.

Seven weeks number to you; from the time when you begin to put the sickle to the harvest of the field after the reaping of the omer you shall begin to number the seven weeks. And you shall keep with joy the Festival of Weeks before the Lord your God, after the measure of the freewill offerings of your hands, according as the Lord your God shall have blessed you. And you shall rejoice with the joy of the feast before the Lord your [p. 609] God, you and your sons, your daughters, your servants and handmaids, the Levites who are in your cities, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the Lord your God will choose where to make His Shekinah to dwell. Remember that you were servants in Mizraim; so shall you observe and perform these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles you shall make to you seven days, when you will have completed to gather in the corn from your threshing floors, and the wine from your presses. And you shall rejoice in the joy of your feasts with the clarinet and flute, you and your sons and daughters, your handmaids, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities. Seven days you shall keep the feast before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will have blessed you in all your provision, and in all the work of your hands, and so shall you be joyful in prosperity.

Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the Unleavened, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; nor must you appear before the Lord your God empty of any of the requirements; every one after the measure of the gifts of his hands, according to the blessing, which the Lord your God hath bestowed upon you.

UPRIGHT judges and efficient administrators you shall appoint in all your cities which the Lord your God will give you for your tribes, and thev shall judge the people with true judgment. [JERUSALEM. Judges and administrators.] You shall not set judgment aside, nor respect persons, nor take a gift, because a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise who take it; for it perverteth them to foolishness, and confuseth equitable words in the mouth of the judges in the hour of their decision [JERUSALEM. You shall not go astray in judgment., nor respect persons, nor take the wages of mammon; for a bribe blindeth the eyes of the wise, and depraveth their right words in the hour of their judgment.] Upright and perfect judgment in truth shalt thou follow, that you may come to inherit the land which the Lord your God will give you. As it is not allowed you to plant a grove by the side of the Lord's altar, so is it not allowed you to associate in judgment a fool with a wise judge to teach that which you are to do. As it is not for you to erect a statue, so are you not to appoint to be a governor a proud man, whom the Lord your God doth abhor. 

XVII.
You shall not sacrifice before the. Lord your God a bullock or lamb which hath any blemish or evil in it, or which is torn or rent; for that is abominable before the Lord your God.

If there be found among you in one of your cities that the Lord your God will give you a man or woman who doth what is evil before the Lord your God in transgressing His covenant, and, following after evil desire, shall serve the idols of the Gentiles, and worship them, or the sun, or the moon, or all the host of the heavens, which I have not commanded; and it be told you, and you hear and make inquiry by witnesses fairly; and, behold, if this word be true and certain, that such abomination is wrought among you, then you shall bring forth that man or woman who hath done this evil thing, [p. 611] unto the gate of your house of judgment, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them that they die. Upon the word of two witnesses or of three he shall die who is guilty of death ; they shall not be put to death on the word of one witness. The bands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterward the hands of all (any of) the people; and so shall you bring down the evil doer among you.

If there be with you an extraordinary matter for judgment between unclean and clean blood, cases of life or of money, or between a plague of leprosy or of the scall, with words of controversy in your beth din, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God will choose; and you shall come to the priests of the tribe of Levi, and to the judge who will be in those days, and inquire of them, and they will show you the process of judgment. Then shall you do according to the word of the custom of the law that they will show you at the place the Lord will choose, and observe to do whatsoever they teach you. [JERUSA.LEM. When a matter is too occult for you, in setting judgment in order between the blood of murder and innocent blood, between leprosy and the scall, with words of contention in your cities, then shall you arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God will choose.] According to the word of the law that they will teach you, and the manner of judgment they pronounce, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence they will show you, to the right or to the left. And the man who will act with presumption, and not obey the judge or the priest who standeth there to minister before the Lord your God, that man shall be put to death; so shalt you put down the doer of evil from Israel, and all the people will hear, and be afraid, and not do wickedly again.

When you enter the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and possess, and dwell in it, and you say, Let us appoint a king over us, like all the nations about me, you shall inquire for iustruction before the Lord and afterward appoint the king over you: but it will not be lawful to set over you a foreign man who is not of your brethren. Only let him not increase to him more than two horses, lest his princes ride upon them, and become proud, neglect the words of the law, and commit the sin of the captivity of Mizraim; for the Lord hath told you, By that way ye shall return no more. Neither shall he multiply to him wives above eighteen, lest they pervert his heart; nor shall he increase to him silver or gold, lest his heart be greatly lifted up, and he rebel against the God of heaven. And it shall be that if he be steadfast in the commandments of the law he shall sit upon the throne of his kingdom in security. And let the elders write for him the section (pharasha) of this law in a book before the priests of the tribe of Levi ; and let it be at his side, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and all these statutes to perform them: that his heart may not be arrogant toward his brethren, nor decline from the precepts to the right or the left, and that his days may be prolonged over his kingdom, his and his sons' among Israel. 

XVIII.
The priests of the tribe of Levi will have no part or inheritance with their brethren: they shall eat the oblations of the Lord as their portion, but an inheritance in field or vineyard they will not have among their brethren. The twenty and four gifts of the priesthood which the Lord will give to him are his heritage; as He said to him, And this shall be the portion belonging to the priest from the people, from them who offer sacrifices, whether bullock or lamb they shall give to the priest the right shoulder, the lower jaw, the cheeks, and the maw; the firsts of your corn, wine, and oil, the first of the fleece of your sheep, as much as a girdle measureth shall you give to him: because the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand and minister in the Name of the Lord, him, and his sons, all the days.

And when a Levite may come from one of your cities out of all Israel where he hath dwelt, and come with all the obligation of his soul's desire to the place which the Lord will choose, then he shall minister in the Name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites who minister there before the Lord. Portion for portion equally shall they eat, besides the gifts of the oblations which the priests do eat, which Elazar and Ithamar your fathers have given them to inherit. [JERUSALEM. And the allowance of his sale which they sell to him according to the fathers.]

When you have entered the land which the Lord your God giveth you, ye shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. None shall be found among you to make his sons or daughters pass through the fire, nor who enchant with enchantments, or inspect serpents, nor observe divinations and auguries, or make (magical) knots and bindings of serpents and scorpions or any kind of reptile, or who consult the oba, the bones of the dead or the bone Jadua, or who inquire of the manes. [JERUSALEM. No one shall be found among you to make his son or daughter pass through the fire, to enchant with enchantments, to inspect serpents, or to observe divinations and auguries; or any who use, (magical) knots, or are binders of snakes, scorpions, or any kinds of reptiles, or are consulters of oba, or who bring up the manes, or seek to learn from the dead.] For every one who doeth these is an abomination before the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord driveth them out before you. Ye shall be perfect in the fear of the Lord your God. For these nations which thou art about to dispossess have listened to inspectors of serpents and enchanters. [JERUSALEM. To inspectors of serpents and to users of enchantments have they hearkened.] But you are not to be like them the priests shall inquire by Urim and Thummim and a Right Prophet will the Lord your God give you; a Prophet from among you of your brethren like unto me, with the Holy Spirit will.the Lord your God raise up unto you; to Him shall you be obedient. According to all that you begged before the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembling of the tribes to receive the law, saying, Let us not again bear the Great Voice from before the Lord our God, nor behold again that great fire, lest we die: and the Lord said to me, That which they have spoken is right; I will raise up unto them a Prophet from, among their brethren in whom shall be the Holy Spirit, as in thee; and I will put My Word of prophecy in his mouth, and he shall speak with them whatsoever I command him; and the man who will not hearken to the words of My prophecy which shall be spoken in My Name, My Word shall take vengeance upon him. But the false prophet who doeth wickedly in speaking a thing in My Name, when I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of the gods of the Gentiles., that prophet shall be slain with the sword. And if thou shalt say in your thoughts, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a [p. 615] false prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, and the thing doth not come to pass, or be not confirmed, it is a word which the Lord hath not spoken; the false prophet spake it in presumption; fear him not. 

XIX.
When the Lord your God shall have destroyed the nations whose land the Lord your God giveth you, and you possess them, and dwell in their cities and houses, three cities shall you set apart within your land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. You shall prepare a high road, and divide your limit which the Lord your God bestoweth upon you, that any manslayer may flee thither. And this is the regulation for the manslayer who fleeth thither that he may live: Whoever shall have killed his brother without intention, he not having kept enmity against him yesterday, or the day before, (as for example) if any one goeth with his neighbour into the thicket to cut wood, and he driveth his hand with the axe to cut wood, and the iron flieth apart from the haft and lighteth on his neighbour that be die, he may flee to one of those appointed cities, and. save his life. [JERUSALEM. He who may go with his neighbour into the thicket to cut wood, and exerting himself with the axe to cut the wood, the iron separate from the.handle, and fall upon his neighbour that he die, be may flee into one of those cities, and live.] Lest the avenger of blood follow after him his heart boiling within him on account of his grief, and apprehend him, if the way be long, and take his life, though he is not guilty of the judgment of death, because he had not enmity against him in time past. [JERUSALEM. Because his heart is boiling and be meeteth.] Therefore I command you to-day that you set apart for you three cities.

And if the Lord your God enlarge your border, as He hath sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which He Hath sworn to your fathers to give, then shall you keep all this commandment which to-day I command you to do, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and walk in the ways which are right before Him all days; and you shall add yet three cities to those thre ; that innocent blood may not be shed in your land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and the guilt of the judgment of death may not be upon you.

But if a man with enmity against his neighbour shall lay wait for him in secret, to destroy his life, and he die, then should he flee into one of those cities, the sages of his cities shall send and take him thence, and give him up into the band of the pursuer for blood, and he shall be put to death. Your eye shall not spare him, but you shall put away shedders of innocent blood from Israel, that it may be well with you.

You shall not remove the boundary mark of your neighbours which the predecessors did set for the limit in your possession of inheritance in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit.

The testimony of one (witness) shall not be valid against a man for any crime (regarding the taking) of life, or guilt concerning money, or any sin with which one may be charged with sinning; but, by the Word of the Lord, (to insure) retribution upon secret crimes, (while) one witness may swear to deny what hath been attested against him, the sentence shall be confirmed upon the mouth of two witnesses, or of three.

When false witnesses stand up against a man to testify wrong things against him, then the two men between whom lies the subject of contention shall stand in the presence of the Lord, before the priests and judges who will be in those days: and the judges shall question the witnesses of their times fairly; and, behold, false testimony is in the mouth of the witnesses; they have borne false witness against their brother. And so shall you do unto them as they had devised to do against their brother, and you shall put down the doers of evil from among you. And the wicked who remain will hear and be afraid, and not add to repeat an evil thing like this among you. Your eye shall not spare; life for life, the value of an eye for an eye, the value of a tooth for a tooth, the value of a hand for a hand, the value of a foot for a foot. 

XX.
When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, and peoples proud, overbearing, and stronger than you, fear them not; for all of them are accounted as a single horse and a single chariot before the Lord your God, whose Word will be your Helper; for He brought you free out of the land of Mizraim. And at the time that you draw nigh to do battle, the priest shall approach and speak with the people, and say to them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to fight against your adversaries; let not your heart be moved, be not afraid, tremble not, nor be broken down before them: for the Shekinah of the Lord your God goeth before you to fight for you against your enemies, and to save you.

And the officers shall speak with the people, saying: Who is the man who hath builded a new house, and hath not set fast its door-posts to complete it? let him go and return to his house, lest through sin he be slain in the battle, and another man complete it. Or, what man hath planted a vineyard, and hath not redeemed it from the priest [JERUSALEM. And hath not redeemed it] to make it common? let him go and return to his house, lest sin be the occasion of his not redeeming it, but he be slain in the battle, and another make it common. And what man hath betrothed a wife, but not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest sin prevent him from rejoicing with his wife and he be slain in the battle, and another take her. Yet more shall the officers speak to the people, and say, Who is the man who is afraid on account of his sin and whose heart is broken? let him go and return to his house, that his brethren be not implicated in his sins, and their heart be broken like his. And when the officers shall have finished to speak with the people, they shall appoint the captains of the host at the head of the people.

When you come nigh to a city to make war against it, then you shall send to it certain to invite it to peace; and if they answer you with words of peace, and open their gates to you, all the people whom you find therein shall be tributaries, and serve you. [JERUSALEM. And if it answer thee with words of peace, and open the gates to you, all the people whom you find.] But if they will not make peace, but war, with you, then you shall beleaguer it. And when the Lord your God will have delivered it into your hand, then may you smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women, children, and cattle, and whatever is in the city, even all the spoil, you shall seize, and eat the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God giveth you. Thus shall you do to all cities that are remote from you, which are not of the cities of these seven nations; but of the cities of these peoples, which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, ye shall not spare alive any breathing thing: for destroying ye shall destroy them, Hittites, Amorites, Kenaanites, Pherizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the Lord your God hath commanded you; that they may not teach you to do after their abominations with which they have served their idols, and you sin before the Lord your God.

When you beleaguer a city all the seven days to war against it, to subdue it on the Sabbath, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by bringing against them (an instrument of) iron; that you may eat its fruit, cut it not down; for a tree on the face of the field is not as a man to be hidden (put out of sight) before you in the siege. But the tree that you know to be a tree not making fruit to eat, that you may destroy and cut down. And you shall raise bulwarks against the city which maketh war with you, until you have subdued it. 

XXI.
If a mail be found slain upon the ground, unburied, in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, lying down, and not hanged on a tree in the field, nor floating on the face of the water; and it be not known who did kill him: then two of the sages shall proceed from the chief court of judgment, and three of thy judges, and shall measure to the surrounding cities which lie on the four quarters from the (spot where) the dead man (is found); and the city which is nearest to the dead man, being the suspected one, let the chief court of justice take means for absolution (or disculpation). Let the sages, the elders of that city, take an heifer from the herd, not commixed, an heifer of the year, which hath not been wrought with nor hath drawn in the yoke: and the sages of that city shall bring the heifer down into an uncultivated field, where the ground hath not been tilled by work, nor sowed; and let them there behead the heifer from behind her with an axe (or knife, dolch) in the midst of the field. And the priests the sons of Levi shall draw near; for the Lord your God hath chosen them to minister to Him, and to bless Israel in His Name, and according to their words to resolve every judgment, and in any plague of leprosy to shut up, and pronounce concerning it; and all the elders of the city lying nearest to the dead man shall wash their

hands over the heifer which hath been cut off in the field, and shall answer and say: It is manifest before the Lord that this hath not come by our hands, nor have we absolved him who shed this blood, nor have our eyes beheld. [JERUSALEM. Nor have our eyes seen who it is who hath shed it.] And the priests shall say: Let there be expiation for thy people Israel, whom Thou, O Lord, hast redeemed, and lay not the guilt of innocent blood upon Thy people Israel; but let him who hath done the murder be revealed. And they shall be expiated concerning the blood; but straightway there will come forth a swarm of worms from the excrement of the heifer, and spread abroad, and move to. the place where the murderer is, and crawl over him: and the magistrates shall take him, and judge him. So shall you, O house of Israel, put away from among you whosoever sheddeth innocent blood, that you may do what is right before the Lord.

WHEN you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, and you take some of them captive: if you see in the captivity a woman of fair countenance, and you approve of her, and would take her to you to wife; then thou shalt take her into thy house, and let her cut off the hair of her head, pare her nails, and put off the dress of her captivity, and, dipping herself, become a proselyte in thy house, and weep on account of the idols of the house of her father and mother. And thou shalt wait three months to know whether she be with child; and afterwards thou mayest go to her, endow her, and make her thy wife.

But if thou hast no pleasure in her, then thou mayest send her away, only with a writing of divorce: but thou shalt in no wise sell her for money, nor make merchandise of her, after thou hast had intercourse with her. [JERUSALEM. If thou hast no pleasure in her, thou mayest send her away with power over herself; but thou shalt in no wise sell her for money, nor make merchandise of her; because thy power over her is given up.]

If a man have two wives, and one is beloved and the other hated, and they bear him sons, both the beloved and the hated (wife), and the first-born son be of the hated, it shall be in the day that he deviseth to his sons the inheritance of the wealth that may be his, he shall not be allowed to give the birthright portion to the son of the beloved, over the head of the son of the hated wife, to whom the birthright belongs; but (let him acknowledge) the birthright of the son of her who is disliked, and all that belongeth to it, to give him the double portion of all that may be found with him, because he is the beginning of his strength, and to him pertaineth the birthright.

If a man hath a son depraved and rebellious, who will not obey the word of his father or of his mother, and who, when they reprove him, will not receive admonition from them; his father and mother shall take him, and bring him before the sages of the city at the door of the court of justice in that place, and say to the sages of the city, We had transgressed the decree of the Word of the Lord; therefore was born to us this son, who is presumptuous and disorderly; he will not hear our word, but is a glutton and a drunkard. And it shall be that if he brought to fear and receive instruction, and beg that his life may be spared, you shall let him live; but if he refuse and continue rebellious, then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die; and so shall you put away the evil doer from among you, and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.

When a man hath become guilty of the judgment of death, and is condemned to be stoned, and they afterwards hang him on a beam, [JERUSALEM. And you hang him on a beam,] his dead body shall not remain upon the beam, but he shall be certainly buried on the same day; for it is execrable before God to hang a man, but that his guilt gave occasion for it; and because he was made in the image of God, you shall bury him at the going down of the sun, lest wild beasts abuse him, and lest you overspread your land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess, with the dead bodies of criminals. 

XXII.
Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his lamb going astray, and estrange thy knowledge from them; thou shalt certainly restore them to him. But if knowledge of thy brother is not thine, if thou knowest him not, thou shalt bring it into thy house, and it shall be supported by thee till the time that thou hast sought out thy brother, and thou shalt restore it to him. So shalt thou do with his ass, with his garment, and with any lost thing of thy brother's. If thou find, it is not lawful for thee to hide it from him; thou shalt cry it, and restore it. [JERUSALEM. And so shalt thou do with his ass, and with his robe.] Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass nor his ox thrown on the way, and turn thy eyes from them; thou shalt verily lift it up for him. [JERUSALEM. Thou shalt forgive what may be in thy heart against him, thou shalt deliver and lead it.]

Neither fringed robes nor tephillin which are the ornaments of a man shall be upon a woman; neither shall a man shave himself so as to appear like a woman; for every one who doeth so is an abomination before the Lord thy God.

If thou find the nest of a clean bird before thee in the way, in a tree, or upon the ground, in which there are young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young ones or eggs, thou shalt be sure to send the mother away, but thou mayest take the young for thyself that it may be well with thee in this world, and that thou mayest prolong tby days in the world to come.

When thou buildest a new house, thou shalt make a surrounding fence to thy roof, that it may not be the occasion of blood guilt by the loss of life at thy house, by any one through heedlessness falling therefrom. [JERUSALEM. Then thou shalt make a parapet to thy roof, that the guilt of innocent blood shedding may not be set upon thy house.]

You shall not sow your vineyard with seeds of dif ferent kinds, lest thou be chargeable with burning the mixed seed that you have sown and the produce of the vine. You shall not plough with an ox and an ass nor with any animals of two species bound together. You shall not clothe nor warm yourselves with a garment combed (carded) or netted, or interwoven with woollen and linen mixed together. Ncvertheless on a robe of linen thread you may be permitted to make fringes of woollen upon the four extremities of your vestments with which you dress in the day. [JERUSALEM. Fringes of threads shall you make upon the four edges of your vestments with which you dress.]

If a man take a wife or virgin and go unto her, but afterwards dislike her, and bring upon her words of calumny in an evil report against her, and say, I took this woman, and lay with her, but found not the witnesses for her; then the father and mother of the damsel may have licence from the court of judgment to produce the linen with the witnesses of her virginity, before the sages of the city, at the door of the beth din. And the father of the damsel shall say to the sages, I wedded my daughter to this man to be his wife; but after lying with her he hath hated her; and, behold, he hath thrown upon her occasion of words, saying: I have not found the witnesses of thy daughter's (virginity) but these are my daughter's witnesses; and they shall spread the linen before the sages of the city; and the sages shall take that man, scourge him, and fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give to the father of the damsel, because he had brought out an evil report against an upright virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife, nor shall he have power to put her away all his days. But if that word be true, and the witnesses of virginity were not found with the damsel then shall they bring her forth to the door of her father's house, and the men of that city shall stone her with stones that she die; for she bad wrought dishonour in Israel in bringing the ill fame of whoredom against her father's house; and so shall they put away the evil doer from Israel. [JERUSALEM. But if this word be true, and the damsel's witnesses are not found, they shall bring that damsel from the door of her father's house, and the people shall stone her.]

If a man be found lying with another's wife, both of them shall be put to death; the mail who hath lain with the woman, and the woman. Even if she be with child, they shall not wait till she is delivered, but in the same hour they shall put them to death by strangulation with the napkin, and cast away the evil doer from Israel.

If a damsel a virgin is betrothed to a man, and another man find her in the city, and lie with her, they shall bring forth both of them to the door of the beth din of that city, and stone them with stones that they die; the damsel because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he lay with his neighbour's wife; and you shall put away the evil doer from among you. But if a man find a damsel in the wilderness, and do violence to her and lie with her, the man only shall die who lay with her, for the damsel is not guilty of death; but her husband may put her away from him by a bill of divorcement; for as when a man lieth in wait for his neighbour and taketh his life, so is this matter: he found her upon the face of the field ; the betrothed damsel cried out for help, but there was no one to deliver her.

If a man find a damsel who is not betrothed, and seize and lie with her, and they be found, then the man who lay with her shall give to her father, as a fine for her dishonour, fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be hiswife, because he humbled her, nor shall be have power to put her away by divorcement all his days. 

XXIII.
A man should not take a wife who is bowed down (or violated), or who hath had intercourse with his father, much less his father's wife, nor disclose the skirt that covereth his father. He who is castrated is not fit to take a wife from the congregation of the Lord's people. He who is born of fornication, or who hath upon him the evil mark which is set upon the unclean Gentiles, is not fit to take an upright wife from the congregation of the people of the Lord; nor unto the tenth generation shall it be fit for him to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Neither an Ammonite nor a Moabite man is fit to take a wife from the congregation of the Lord's people, nor unto the tenth generation shall they take a wife from the congregation of the people of the Lord, because they met you not with bread and water in the way when you came from Mizraim, but hired against you Bileam bar Beor from Petho Chelmaya, which is built in the land of Aram upon the Phrat, to curse you; but the Lord your God would not hearken unto Bileam, but turned in his mouth curses into blessings, because the Lord your God loveth you. Ye shall not seek their peace or, their prosperity all your days, because, if even they become proselytes, they will entertain enmity in their hearts for ever. You shall not abhor an Edomite when he cometh to be a proselyte, for he is your brother; nor shall you abhor a Mizraite, because you were dwellers in their land. The children who are born to them in the third generation shalt be fit to take wives from thepeople of the congregation of the Lord.

When you go forth in hosts against your enemies, beware of every evil thing, of strange worship, the, exposure of the shame, and the shedding of innocent blood. Should there be a man among you who is unclean from accidents of the night, let him go without the camp, and come not among the tents. But at evening time let him wash with water, and on the going down of the sun he may come within the camp. [JERUSALEM. And at evening let him bathe with water.] Let a place be prepared for thee without the camp where thou mayest shed the water of thy feet, and insert a blade with your weapon in the place oil which you bind your swords, and in thy sitting without thou shalt dig with it, and do what thou needest there, and turn and cover it. For the Shekinah of the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to save you, and to deliver your enemies into your hands ; therefore shall the place of your camps be holy, and nothing impure be seen in it, that His Shekinah go not up from you.

Thou shalt not deliver up a stranger into the hand of the worshipper of idols; (the sojourner) who hath escaped to be among you shall be under the protection of My Shekinah ; for therefore he hath fled from,his idolatry. Let him dwell with you, and observe the commandments among you; teach him the law, and put him in a school in the place that he chooseth in one of your cities: employ (or, have business. with) him, that he may do well, and trouble him not by words.

You shall not profane your daughters to make them harlots; nor shall any man of Israel debase himself by fornication. You shall not bring a gift of the hire of an harlot, nor the price of a dog to offer it in the sanctuary of the Lord your God for any vow, much less as any of the oblations; for they are abominable, both of them, before the Lord your God. [JERUSALEM. There shall not be a harlot among the daughters of the house of Israel, nor a whoremonger among the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the hire of an harlot, nor the price of a dog.]

Thou shalt not make usury of that which is thine from thy neighbour upon the loan which thou lendest, either of money, or food, or any thing by which thou mayest make usury. To a son of the Gentiles thou mayest lend for usury, but to thy brother thou shalt not lend for usury; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou puttest thine hand un to, in the land into which thou art entering to possess it.

When you vow a vow before the Lord your God, delay not to fulfil it in (one of) the three festivals; for the Lord your God requiring will require it. And in the oblation there shall not be any fault or blemish, for in the prescription of the Lord of the world it is so ordained. And thou shalt not be guilty of keeping back (delaying) thy vow: though, if you refrain from vowing, it will not be sin in you, the oath which goeth from your lips you shall confirm. The precepts of integrity you shall verily perform, but that which is not right to do ye shall not do; and according as you have vowed shall you fulfil; sin offerings, trespass offerings, burnt sacrifices, and consecrated victims shall you present before the Lord your God, and bring the libations and the gifts of the sanctuary of which you have spoken (in promises), and alms for the poor which your lips have declared. When thou hast come for hire into thy neighbour's vineyard, thou mayest eat there as thou wilt, till thou art satisfied; but thou mayest not put any into thy basket. When you go to work for hire in the field of thy neighbour, thou mayest gather with thy hands, but thou art nolt to put forth the sickle upon thy neighbour's corn (for thyself). 

XXIV.
When a man hath taken a wife and gone unto her, if she hath not favour in his eyes because he findeth the thing that is wrong in her, then he may write her a bill of divorce before the court of justice, and put it into her power, and send her away from his house. And departing from his house she may go and marry another man. But should they proclaim from the heavens about her that the latter husband shall dislike her, and write her a bill of divorce, and put it into her power to go from his house; or should they proclaim about him that lie the latter husband shall die: it shall not be in the power of the first husband who dismissed her at the beginning to return and take her to be with him as his wife, after that she hath been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord: for the children whom she might bear should not be made abominable, or the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit become obnoxious to the plague.

When a man hath taken a new wife a virgin lie shall not go forth with the army, lest anything evil befall him; he shall be at leisure in his house one year, and rejoice with his wife whom he hath taken.

A man shall not take the millstones, lower or upper, as a pledge; for they are necessary in making food for every one. [JERUSALEM. You shall not take the upper and lower millstones for a pledge; for the pledge is a necessary of life.] Neither shall a man join bridegrooms and brides by magical incantations ; for what would be born of such would perish. [JERUSALEM. Nor shall there be unlawful conjoinments of bridegrooms and brides; for what such produce is denied the life of the world to come.]

Then a man is found stealing a person of his brethren of the sons of Israel, making merchandise of him, and selling him, that man shall die by strangulation with the napkin; and you shall put away the evil doer from among thee.

Take heed that you cut not into flesh in which there is an ulcer; but make careful distinction between the plague of leprosy and ulceration; between the unclean and clean, according to all that the priests of the tribe of Levi shall teach you: whatever, they prescribe to you be observant to perform. Be mindful that no one contemn his neighbour, lest he be smitten: remember that which the Lord your God did to Miriam, who contemned Mosheh for that which was not in him, when she was smitten with leprosy, and you were delayed in the way when coming out of Mizraim.

When a man hath lent any thing to his neighbour upon a pledge, he shall not enter into his house to take his pledge; he shall stand in the street, and the man to whom thou hast made the loan shall bring out the pledge to thee into the street. If the man be poor, thou shalt not have his pledge all night with thee; as the sun goeth down, thou shalt return the pledge, that he may lie in his garment and may bless thee; and to thee it shall be righteousness, for the sun shall bear the witness of thee before the Lord thy God. [JERUSALEM. Thou shalt certainly return the pledge to him as the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his garment, and may bless thee and to thee it shall be righteousness before the Lord thy God.]

You shall not be hard upon your neighbours, or shift (or decrease) the wages of the needy and poor hireling of thy brethren, or of the strangers who sojourn in your land, in your cities. In his day thou shalt pay him his hire. Nor let the sun go down upon it; because he is poor, and he hopes (for that hire) to sustain his life: lest he appeal against thee before the Lord, and it be guilt in thee. [JERUSALEM. You shall not wilfully keep back the wages of the poor and needy of your brethren. In his day thou shalt pay his wages, nor let the sun go down upon them; for he is poor, and by means of his hire he sustaineth his life: that he may not cry against thee before the Lord: so beware that it become not guilt in you.]

Fathers shall not die either by the testimony or for the sin of the children, and children shall not die either by the testimony or for the sin of the fathers: every one shall die, by proper witnesses, for his own sin. Thou shalt not warp the judgment of the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, nor shall any one of you take the garment of the widow for a pledge, that evil neighbours rise not and bring out a bad report against her when you return her pledge unto her. And remember that you were bondservants in the land of Mizraim, and that the Word of the Lord your God delivered you from thence; therefore have I commanded you to observe this thing.

When you have reaped your harvests in your fields, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not return to take it; let it be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that the Word of the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not search them after (you have done it); for the stranger, the orphan, and widow, let it be. [JERUSALEM. When you beat your olive trees, search them not afterward; let them be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.] When you gather in your vineyard, you shall not glean the branches after you; they shall be for the stranger, the orphan, and widow. [JERUSALEM. When you gather vour vines, search not their branches afterwards let them be for the stranger and the widow.] So remember that you were bondservants in the land of Mizraim; therefore I command you to do this thing. 

XXV.
If there be a controversy, between two men, then they shall come to the judges, and they shall judge them, and give the decision (or outweighing of) righteousness to the innocent, and of condemnation to the guilty. And if the wicked deserve stripes, the judge shall make him lie down, and they shall scourge him in his presence by his judgment, according to the measure of his guilt. [JERUSALEM. And if it be needful to scourge the guilty, the judge shall make him lie down, and they shall smite him in his presence, according to the measure of his guilt, by number.] Forty (stripes) may be laid upon him, but with one less shall he be beaten, (the full number) shall not be completed, lest he should add to smite him beyond those thirty and nine, exorbitantly, and he be in danger ; and that thy brother may not be made despicable in thy sight.

You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox in the time of his treading out; [JERUSALEM. Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not muzzle the ox in the hour of his treading;] nor the wife of the (deceased) brother, who would be mated with one smitten with an ulcer, and who is poorly related, shalt thou tie up with him.

When brethren from the (same) father inhabit this world at the same time, and have the same inheritance, the wife of one of them, who may have died, shall not go forth into the street to marry a stranger; her brother-in-law shall go to her, and take her to wife, and become her husband. And the first-born whom she beareth shall stand in the inheritance in the name of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man be not willing, to take his sister-in-law, then shall his sister-in-law go up to the gate of the beth din before five of the sages, three of whom shall be judges and two of them witnesses, and let her say before them in the holy language: My husband's brother refuseth to keep up the name of his brother in Israel, he not being willing to marry me. And the elders of his city shall call him and speak with him, with true counsel; and he may rise up in the house of justice, and say in the holy tongue, I am not willing to take her. Then shall his sister-in-law come to him before the sages, and there shall be a shoe upon the foot of the brother-in-law, a heeled sandal whose lachets are tied, the latchets at the opening of the sandal being fastened; and he shall stamp on the ground with his foot; and the woman shall arise and untie the latchet, and draw off the sandal from his foot, and afterward spit before him, as much spittle as may be seen [p. 633] by the sages, and shall answer and say, So is it fit to be done to the man who would not build up the house of his brother. And all who are standing there shall exclaim against him, and call his name in Israel the House of the Unshod. [JERUSALEM. And his name in Israel shall be called the House of him whose shoe was loosed, and who made void the law of Yeboom. ]

While men are striving together, if the wife of one of them approach to rescue her husband from the hand uf him who smiteth him, and putting forth her hand layeth hold of the place of his shame, you shall cut off her hand; your eyes shall not pity. [JERUSALEM. If she put forth her hand, and lay hold by the place of his shame.]

You shall not have in your bag weights that are deceitful; great weights to buy with, and less weights to sell with. Nor shall you have in your houses measures that deceive; great measures to buy with, and less measures to sell with. [JERUSALEM. You shall not have in your houses measures and measures; great .ones for buying with, and small ones to sell with.] Perfect weights, and true balances shalt thou have, perfect measures and scales that are true shall be yours, that your days may be multiplied on the land which the Lord your God giveth you. For whosoever committeth these frauds, every one who acteth falsely in trade, is an abomination before the Lord.

Keep in mind what the house of Amalek did unto you in the way, on your coming up out of Mizraim; how they overtook you in the way, and slew every one of those among you who were thinking to go aside from My Word; the men of the tribe of the house of Dan, in whose hands were idols (or things. of strange worship), and the clouds overcast them, and they of the house of Amalek took them and mutilated them, and they were cast up: but you, O house of Israel, were faint and weary from great servitude of the Mizraee, and the terrors of the waves of the sea through the midst of which you had passed. Nor were the house of Amalek afraid before the Lord. [JERUSALEM. Who overtook you in the way, and slew among you those who were thinking to desist from My Word, the cloud overcast him, and they of the house of Amalek took him and slew him. But you, people of the sons of Israel, were weary and faint; nor were they of the house of Amalek afraid before the Lord.] Therefore, when the Lord hath given you rest from all your enemies round about in the land that the Lord Your God giveth you to inherit for a possession, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; but of the days of the King Meshiha you shall not be unmindful.

XXVI.
And when you have entered into the land which the Lord thy God giveth you for an inheritance, and you possess and dwell in it; you shall take of the earliest first fruits which are ripe at the beginning, of all the produce of the ground which thou ingatherest from the land which the Lord your God hath given you, and put them into a basket, and go unto the place which the Lord your God will choose that His Shekinah may dwell there. And you shall put crowns upon the baskets, hampers, and paper cases, and bring them to the priest appointed to be the chief priest in those days, and shall say to him: We acknowledge this day before the Lord thy God that we have come into the land which the Lord sware unto our fathers to give us. [JERUSALEM. And thou shalt come to the priest who will be appointed the chief priest in those days, and say to him: We give glory and thanks this day before the Lord thy God, that we have come into the land which the Word of the Lord did covenant unto our fathers to give us.] And the priest shall receive the basket of early fruits from thy hand, and take, bring, uplift, and lower it, and afterward lay it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall respond, and say before the Lord your God:

Our father Jakob went down into Aram Naharia at the beginning, and (Laban) sought to destroy him; but the Word of the Lord saved him out of his hands. And afterwards went he down into Mizraim and sojourned there, a few people; but there did he become a great people, and mighty and many. But the Mizraee evil-treated and afflicted us, and laid heavy bondage upon us. But we prayed before the Lord our God, and the Lord hearkened to our prayers, our affliction and our travail; and our oppression was manifest before Him. And the Lord brought us out of Mizraim with a mighty hand and uplifted arm, and with great visions, signs, and wonders, and brought us into this place, and gave us this land, a land of fruits rich as milk and sweet as honey. Now, therefore, behold, I have brought the early firstlings of the fruit of the land which thou hast given me, 0 Lord.

And thou shalt lay them before the Lord thy God, and worship, and rejoice in all the good which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou and the men of thy house, and enjoy and eat, you, the Levites and the sojournerswho are among you.

When you make an end of tything all the tenths of your produce in the third year, which is the year of release, you shall give the first tenth to the Levites, the second tenth, which is the tythe of the poor, to the stranger, the orphan, and widow, that they may eat in your cities, and be satisfied. [JERUSALEM. When you finish tything all the tenths of your produce in the third year, which is the year of the tythe for the poor, you shall give the first tenth to the Levites, and the poor's tenth to the stranger, the orphan, and widow, that they may eat in your cities, and be satisfied.] But the third tenth you shall bring up, and eat before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt say:

Behold, we have set apart the consecrations from the house, and have also given the first tenth to the Levites, the second tenth to the strangers, the fatherless, and the widow, according to the commandment which Thou hast commanded me. I have not transgressed one of Thy commandments, nor have I forgotten. I have not eaten of it in the days of my mourning, nor separated from it for the unclean, neither have I given of it a covering for the soul of the dead: we have hearkened to the voice of the Word of the Lord; I have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. [JERUSALEM. We have not eaten thereof in (our) mourning, nor separated therefrom for the unclean, nor given of it for the defiled soul; for we have obeyed the voice of the Word of the Lord our God; we have done according to all that Thou hast commanded us.] Look down from heaven, from the habitation of the glory of Thy holiness, and bless Thy people Israel, and the land which Thou hast given to us, as Thou didst swear unto our fathers, a land of fruits rich as milk and sweet as honey. [JERUSALEM. Look down, we beseech Thee, from the heavens, the habitation of Thy glory and Thy holiness, and bless Thy people Israel, and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou didst swear unto our fathers (to give us a land) producing good fruits, pure as milk, sweet and delicious as honey.]

This day doth the Lord our God command you to perform these statutes and judgments, which you shall observe and do with all your heart and with all your soul. The Lord have you confessed with one confession in the world this day; for so it is written, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; that He may be thy God, and that thou mayest walk in the ways that are right before Him, and keep His statutes, commandments, and judgments, and be obedient unto His Word. And the Word of the Lord doth acknowledge (or honour) you with one acknowledgment in the world this day; as it is written, Who is as Thy people Israel, a peculiar people upon the earth, to be to Him a people beloved, as He hath said unto you, and that you may obey all His commandments? [JERUSALEM. You have chosen the Word of the Lord to be King over you this day, that He may be your God. But the Word of the Lord becometh the King over you for His Name's sake, as over a people beloved as a treasure, as He hath spoken to you, that you may obey all His commandments.] And He will set you on high, and exalt you above all the peoples He hath made in greatness, and with a name of glory and splendour, that you may be a holy people before the Lord your God, as He hath spoken.

XXVII.
And Mosheh and the elders of Israel instructed the people, saying: Observe all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day that you pass over the Jordana into the land which the Lord your God giveth you, that you shall erect for you great stones, and plaster them with lime; and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when you go over to enter the land which the Lord your God giveth you, a land whose fruits are rich as milk and producing honey, as the Lord God of your fathers hath said to you. When you pass over Jordana, you shall erect the stones that I command you on the mountain of Ebal, and plaster them with lime; and you shall build there an altar before the Lord your God, an altar of stone, not lifting up iron upon it. With perfect stones ye shall build an altar to the Lord your God, and offer sacrifices upon it before the Lord your God. And you shall immolate the consecrated victims, and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. And upon the stones you shall write all the words of this law with writing deeply (engraven) and distinct, which shall be read in one language, but shall be interpreted in seventy languages. [JERUSALEM. And you shall write upon the stones all the glorious words of this law in writing deep and plain, to be well read, and to be interpreted in seventy tongues.]

And Mosheh and the priests, the sons of Levi, spake with all the people, saying: Listen, O Israel, and hear: This day are you chosen to be a people before the Lord your God. Hearken, therefore, to the Word of the Lord your God, and perform His commandments which I command you today. And Mosheh instructed the people that day, saying: These tribes shall stand to bless the people on the mountain of Gerezim when you have passed the Jordan, Shemeon, Levi, Jehudah, Issakar, Joseph, and Benjamin; and these tribes shall stand (to pronounce) the curses on the mountain of Ebal, Reu­ben, Gad, Asher, Zebulon, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites proclaimed and said to every man of Israel with a high voice: Six tribes shall stand on Mount Gerezim, and six on Mount Ebal; and the ark, the priests, and Levites in the midst. In blessing they shall turn their faces towards Mount Gerezim, and say:

Blessed shall be the man who maketh not an image or form, or any similitude which is an abomination before the Lord, the work of the craftsman's hand, and who placeth not such in concealment. In cursing, they shall turn their faces toward Mount Ebal, and say: Accursed be the man who maketh an image, figure, or any similitude which is an abomination before the Lord, the work of the craftsman's hand, or who placeth such in concealment. And all of them shall respond together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who contemneth the honour of his father or his mother. And all of them shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who shall transfer the boundary of his neighbour. And all of them shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who causeth the pilgrim, who is like the blind, to wander from the way. And all of them shall answer together, and say, Amen. [JERUSALEM. Six tribes of them shall stand on Mount Gerezim, and six tribes on Mount Ebal. And the ark, with the priests and Levites in the midst. And all Israel, here and there, turning their faces towards Mount Gerezim, shall open their mouth in benediction: Blessed be the man who hath not made an image, or a figure, or any similitude which the Lord hateth, and which is an abomination before Him, (being) the work of man's band, and who bath not hidden such. But in pronouncing the curses let them turn their faces toward Mount Ebal, and say: Accursed be the man who shall make an image, or figure, or any similitude which the Lord hateth and which is an abomination to Him, the work of man's hands; or the man who hath concealed such. And all the people shallanswer them, and say, Amen. Accursed be the man who changeth thebound mark. Accursed be the man who makeththe wayfarer, who is like the blind, to wander from the way. And all the people shall answer, and say, Amen.] Accursed be he who perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who lieth with his father's wife, because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is be who lieth with a beast. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father or mother. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who shall lie with his mother-in-law. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. [JERUSALEM. Accursed is he who lieth with his mother-in-law. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen.] Accursed is he who attacketh his neighbour with slander in secret. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen. Accursed is he who receiveth hire to kill and to shed innocent blood. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen.

The twelve tribes, each and every, shall pronounce the blessings altogether, and the curses altogether. In blessing, they shall turn their faces (in pronouncing) word by word towards Mount Gerezim, and shall say: Blessed is the man who confirmeth the words of this law to perform them. In cursing, they shall turn their faces towards Mount Ebal, and say: Accursed is the man who confirmeth not the words of this law to perform them. And all shall answer together, and say, Amen.

These words were spoken at Sinai, and repeated in the tabernacle of ordinance, and (again) the third time on the plains of Moab, in twelve sentences (words), as the word of every tribe; and each several commandment (was thus) ratified by thirty and six adjurations.

XXVIII.
And it shall be, if you will diligently hearken to the Word of the Lord your God, to observe and perform all the commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord your God will set you on high, and exalt you above all the nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come upon you, and abide with you, for that you will have hearkened to the Lord your God.

Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of your womb, the fruits of your ground, the oxen of your herd, and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be the basket of your first fruits, and the first cakes of your flour. Blessed shall you be in your coming in to your houses of instruction, and blessed shall you be when you go out to your affairs. [JERUSALEM. Blessed shall you be in the baskets of your first fruits, and in your wheaten cakes. Blessed shall you be when you go in to your houses of instruction, and blessed when you go out of them.] The Word of the Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to hurt you, to be broken before you. By one way they will come out to fight against you, but seven ways they shall be dispersed, I fleeing before you. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your treasuries, and on all that you put your hands unto, and will bless you in the land which the Lord your God giveth you. The Word of the Lord will establish you to be a holy people before Him, as He hath said unto you, when you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in the ways that are right before Him. And all the nations of the earth will see that the Name is written by (His own) appointment on the tephillin that are upon thee, and will be afraid of thee. And the Word of the Lord will make thee to abound in good, in the offspring of thy womb, and the increase of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord hath promised to thy fathers.-- Four keys are in the hand of the Lord of all the world, which He hath not delivered into the hands of any secondary power: the key of life, and of the tombs, and of food, and of rain; and thus did Mosheh the prophet speak:-- The Lord will open to you His good treasure which is with Him in the heavens, and will give you the rain of your land in its season; the early in Marchesvan, and the latter in Nisan; and will bless you in all the works of your hands; and you will lend to many peoples, but shall have no need to borrow. And the Word of the Lord will appoint you to be kings and not subjects, and to be ennobled and not abased, when you have hearkened to the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day to keep and perform. Decline not from any of these words that I teach you today either to the right or the left, in walking after the idols of the Gentiles to serve them.

When Mosheh the prophet began to pronounce the words of threatening the earth trembled, the heavens were moved, the sun and moon were darkened, the stars withdrew their beams, the fathers of the world cried from their sepulchres, while all creatures were silent, the very trees waved not their branches. The fathers of the world answered and said, Woe to our children should they sin, and bring these maledictions upon them; for how will they bear them? lest destruction be executed on them, and no merit of ours protect, and there be no man to stand and intercede on their behalf! Then fell the Bath‑kol from the high heavens, and said, Fear not, ye fathers of the world; if the merit of all generations should fail, yours shall not; and the covenant which I have confirmed with you shall not be annulled, but will (still) overshadow them.

Mosheh the prophet answered and said, Whomsoever I threaten I threaten conditionally, saying, If you hearken not to the Word of the Lord your God in neither observing nor doing all my commandments and statutes which I command you this day, then shall all these maledictions come upon and cleave unto you.

Accursed shall you be in the city and in the field. Accursed shall be the basket of your first fruits, and the first cakes of your flour. Accursed the children of your wombs, the fruits of your ground, the oxen of your herds, and the sheep of your flocks. Accursed shall you be in your going into the houses of your theatres, and the places of your public shows, to make void the words of the law; and accursed shall you be in your coming out to your worldly affairs. The Word of the Lord will send forth curses among you to curse your wealth, and confusion to confound your prosperity, and vexation with all that you put your hands to do, until He hath undone you, and you perish soon on account of the wickedness of your doings when you have forsaken My worship. The Word of the Lord will make the pestilence to cleave to you, to consume you from off the land which you are going to inherit. The Word of the Lord will smite you with abscess and inflammation, and fire in the bones that will burn up the marrow, and with fearful imaginations in the thoughts of the heart; and with the naked sword, and with blasting, and the jaundice of Macedonia, which shall follow you to your beds, until you are destroyed.

And the heavens above you shall be as brass which sweateth, but that will not yield you any dew or rain; and the ground under you be as iron which sweateth not. nor maketh green the trees, nor yieldeth spiceries, fruits, nor herbs. After the rain which cometh down on the earth, the Lord will send a wind that shall drive dust and ashes upon the herbage of your fields; and calamity will fall upon you from the heavens, until you are consumed.

The Word of the Lord will cause you to be broken before your enemies: by one way you will go out to battle, but by seven ways shall you flee confounded before them, to become an execration in all the kingdoms of the earth. And your carcases will be cast out to be meat for all the fowls of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth, and no one will scare them away from your corpses. [JERUSALEM. And no one shall drive them away.] And the Word of the Lord will smite you with the ulcers with which the Mizraee were smitten, and with haemorrhoids that blind the sight, and with blotches, and with erysipelas, from which you will not be able to be healed. [JERUSALEM. The Word of the Lord will smite you with the ulcer of Mizraim, and with haemorrhoids, and with the blotch, and with scurvy, which cannot be healed.] The Word of the Lord will smite you with fearfulness which bewildereth the brain, and with blindness and stupor of heart. And you will seek good counsel for enlargement from your adversities, but there will be none among you to show the truth, so that you will grope in darkness like the blind who have none passing by the road to see how to direct them in the way; nor shall you prosper in your ways, but be oppressed and afflicted all the days, without any to deliver.

Thou wilt betroth a wife, but another man will have her; thou wilt build a house, but not dwell in it; thou wilt plant a vineyard, but not make it common. Your oxen will be killed, you looking on, but without eating of them; your asses will be taken away from before you, but they will not be returned; yoursheep will bedelivered over to your enemies, and there will for you be no deliverance; your sons and daughters will be given up to another people, and your eyes see it, and grow dim because of them from day to day; and in your hand will be no good work by which you may prevail in prayer before the Lord your Father who is in heaven, that He may save you. [JERUSALEM. Your sons and daughters shall be delivered unto another people, while your eyes behold and fail on account of them all the day; nor will you have the good works to give satisfaction unto God, that He might redeem you.] The fruitage of your ground, and of all your labour, will a people whom thou hast not known devour, and thou shalt be oppressed and trodden down all the days. And you will be maddened by the venge­ance, and shaken by the sight of your eyes that you will see. The Word of the Lord will smite you with a sore ulcer in the knees, because you bent (them) in the matter of the transgression; and in the legs, by which you ran into it; for if you be not converted to the law you cannot be saved, but will be beaten by it from the sole of your feet unto the crown of your bead.

The Lord will make you and your king whom you may set over you to go away among a people that neither you nor your fathers have known; and you will carry tribute to peoples who worship idols of wood and stone. And if the thought of your heart be to worship their idols, you shall be for astonishment, for proverbs and tales, among the sons of the Gentiles where the Lord will have scattered you.

You will carry much seed into the field, but gather in little, for the locust shall eat it. [JERUSALEM. You will carry out, but collect little, for the locust will devour it.] You will plant vineyards and till them, but will not drink the wine nor press out the vintage, because the worm will have consumed it. You will have olive trees in all your borders, but will not be anointed with oil, for your olive trees will fail. [JERUSALEM. But with oil you will not be anointed, for the bloom of your olive trees shall be destroyed.] You will beget sons and daughters, but they will yield you no advantage, for they shall go into captivity. All the trees and fruits of your land the locusts will destroy. [JERUSALEM. Robbers shall take possession of the trees and the fruits of your land.] The uncircumcised who dwelleth among you will rise above you with ascension upon ascension, but you will go downwards by descent after descent. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the master, and you the servant.

And all of these curses will come upon you, and will follow and cleave to you until you have perished, because you would not hearken to the Word of the Lord your God, to observe His commandments and statutes which He had commanded you. And they will be upon you for signs and portents, and upon your children for ever; for that you would not serve before the Lord your God cheerfully, with rightness of heart for the abundance of all good. But you will serve your enemies whom the Word of the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and the want of every good; and they will put an iron yoke upon your necks until it hath worn you away. The Word of the Lord will cause a people to fly upon you from afar, from the ends of the earth, swift as an eagle flieth; a people whose language thou wilt not understand; a people hard in visage, who will not respect the old nor have pity on the young. [JERUSALEM. A people hard in visage, who will not respect the aged nor have mercy on the children.] And they will consume the increase of your cattle and the fruit of your ground till you are wasted away; for they will leave you neither corn, oil, wine, herds, nor flocks, until the time that they have destroyed you. And they will shut you up in your cities until they have demolished your high walls whereby you trusted to be saved in all your land; for they shall besiege you in all your cities, in the whole land which the Lord your God gave you. And the children of your wombs shall be consumed; for you will eat them in the famine, even the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God did give you, by reason of the anguish and oppression wherewith your enemies shall oppress you. The man who is gentle and refined among you will look with evil eyes upon his brother, and the wife who reposeth on his bosom, and upon the rest of his children who remain. He will not give to one of them of the flesh of his children which he eateth, because nothing remaineth to him in the anguish and straitness with which I will straiten you in all your cities. She who is delicate and luxurious among you, who hath not ventured to put the sole of her foot upon the ground from tenderness and delicacy, will look with evil eyes upon the husband of her bosom, upon her son and her daughter, and the offspring she hath borne; for she will eat them in secret, through the want of all things, by reason of the anguish and oppression with which your enemies shall oppress you in your cities. [JERUSALEM. The man who is gentle and most tender among you will look with evil eyes upon his brother, and on the wife of his youth, and on the rest of his children who remain. She who is tender and delicate among you, who hath not attempted to walk with her feet upon the ground from delicacy and tenderness, will look with evil eyes on the husband of her youth, and on her son and her daughter.]

If you observe not to perform all the commands of this law written in this book, to reverence this glorious and fearful Name, The Lord your God, the Word of the Lord will hide the Holy Spirit from you, when the plagues come upon you and your children, great and continuous plagues which will not leave you, and grievous and continual evils that will grow old upon your bodies; and will turn upon you all the woes which were sent upon the Mizraee before which thou wast afraid, and they shall cleave to you; and evils also that are not written in the book of this law will the Word of the Lord stir up against you until you are consumed. And you who were as the stars of heaven for multitude will be left a few people, because you hearkened not to the Word of the Lord your God. And as the Word of the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so will He rejoice (in sending) against you strange nations to destroy and make you desolate, and you shall be uprooted from the land which you are going to possess. And the Lord will disperse you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and you shall be tributaries to the worshippers of idols of wood and stone which neither thou nor thy fathers have known. And if your mind be divided to worship their idols, He will send (that) between you and those nations that you shall have no repose or rest for the sole of your feet, and will give you there a fearful heart which darkens the eyes and wears out the soul. And your life will be in suspense; you will be in dread day and night, and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, O that it were evening! for afflictions will make the hours of the day longer before you; and at evening you will say, O that it were morning! for afflictions will make the hours of the night longer before you, because of the terror of your heart; for you will be in stupor by a vision of your eyes, which you will see for punishment, and be terrified.

And the Word of the Lord will bring you captive to Mizraim in ships through the Sea of Suph, by the way you passed over, of which I said to you, No more shall you see it. [JERUSALEM. And the Word of the Lord will cause you to return into Mizraim in galleys, by the way of which I said to you, Ye shall see it no more.] And there will you be sold to your enemies, at the beginning for a dear price, as artificers, and afterward at a cheap price, as servants and handmaids, until you be worthless and (be consigned) to unpriced labour, and there be none who will take you.

XXIX.
These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Mosheh to ratify with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides that covenant which He ratified with them at Horeb.

And Mosheh called to all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the plagues which the Word of the Lord wrought in the land of Mizraim on Pharoh and all his servants, and all the inhabitants of that land; those great temptations, signs, and wonders which you saw with your eyes. And the Word of the Lord hath given you a heart not to forget, but to understand; eyes, not to blink, but to see; ears, not to be stopped, but to listen with: yet you have forgotten the law with your heart, and have blinked with your eyes, and have stopped your ears, unto the time of this day. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your garments have not become old upon your bodies, nor your shoes worn away from your feet. You have not eaten leavened bread, nor drunk wine new or old; and My law hath been diligently delivered in your schools, that you might be occupied therein, and you might know that I am the Lord your God. And you came to this place; and Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Mathnan came out to meet us in battle array, and we smote them, and subdued their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Menasheh. Keep, therefore, the words of this covenant and perform it, that you may have prosperity in all that you do. [JERUSALEM. And you shall keep the words of this covenant and perform them, that you may prosper in all that you do.]

MOSHEH the prophet said: I have called you not in secret, but while standing this day all of you before the Lord your God; the princes of your sanhedrin, the chiefs of your tribes, your elders and your officers, all men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and your sojourners who are in your camps, from the hewer of your wood to the filler of your water, that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and may have in remembrance the oath which the Lord your God doth ratify with you this day: [JERUSALEM. Your little ones, wives, and sojourners within your camps, from the hewer of your wood to the filler of your water, that you may not transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, nor the oath which He confirmeth with you this day:] that you may stand to‑day before Him a purified people; and that He may be a God to you, as He hath spoken to you, and as He did swear unto Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob.

And not with you only do I ratify this covenant, and attest this adjuration; but all the generations which have arisen from the days of old stand with us today before the Lord our God, and all the generations which are to arise unto the end of the world, all of them stand with us here this day. [JERUSALEM. All the generations which have arisen from the days of old until now stand with thee today before the Lord your God, and all the generations which are to arise after us stand also here with us today.] For you know the number of the years that we dwelt in the land of Mizraim, and the mighty works which were wrought for us among the nations through which you have passed. You have seen their abominations, and their idols of wood and stone which they have set forth in the streets, and the idols of silver and gold that they have placed with themselves in the houses, shutting the doors after them lest they should be stolen. Beware, then, lest there be among you now or hereafter a man, woman, family, or tribe, whose heart may be turned away to wander any day from the service of the Lord our God to worship the idols of those nations; or lest there be among you the error which striketh root (in them) whose heart wandereth after his sin; for the beginning of sin may be sweet, but its end is bitter as the deadly wormwood; [JERUSALEM. You have seen their hateful things and their abominations, the idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold; idols of wood and stone set forth in the streets, but those of silver and gold kept with themselves in the house because they were afraid they would be stolen. . . . . . . Lest there be among you man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God to go and worship the idols of these people, or there be a man among you whose heart pondereth upon sin, which is like a root struck into the earth; for its beginning may be sweet as honey, but its end will be bitter as the deadly wormwood;] or it be that when he heareth the words of this curse he become reprobate in his heart, saying: I shall have peace, though I go on in the strength of the evil desires of my heart: so that he will add presumption to the sins of ignorance. It will not be pleasing to the Lord to forgive him; for the Lord's anger and indignation will wax hot against that man, and all the words of the curses written in this book will rest upon him, and the Lord will blot out the memorial of his name from under the heavens. And the Lord will separate him unto evil, from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the maledictions of the covenant which are written in this book. And the generations of your children who will arise after you, and the stranger who will come from a far‑off land, when they see the plagues of that land, and the afflictions which the Lord will have sent upon it, the whole land burnt with brimstone, salt, and fierce heat, no longer fit for sowing, nor productive of a blade of any springing herbage; ruined, as Sedom and Amorah, Admah and Zeboim, were overthrown by the Word of the Lord in His wrath and indignation; then all people will say, Why hath the Lord done so unto this land? What meaneth the strength of this great anger? And they will say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Mizraim. But they went after their evil desires, and served the gods of the Gentiles, and worshipped gods which they had not known nor had any part with. And the anger of the Lord waxed strong against this land, to bring upon it all the curses written in this book. And the Lord hath made them to wander forth from their country with anger, indignation, and wrath, and hath cast them into captivity in another land until this day.

The secret things are manifest before the Lord our God, and He will take vengeance for them; but the things that are revealed are delivered unto us and to our children for ever, to perform by them the thing that is right, for the confirmation of all the words of this law.

XXX.
And it will be, when all these words of blessings, or their contraries, which I have set in order before you shall have come upon you, you will be converted in your hearts to return unto My fear, in all the dispersions (among) the nations where the Lord will have scattered you. The upright of you will be favoured with a blessed repentance; and though you have sinned, yet shall your repentance come up unto the glorious throne of the Lord your God, if you will hearken to His Word according to all that I have commanded you this day, you, and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul. And His Word will accept your repentance with favour, and will have mercy upon you, and He will gather you again from all the nations whither the Lord your God had scattered you. Though you may be dispersed unto the ends of the heavens, from thence will the Word of the Lord gather you together by the hand of Elijah the great priest, and from thence will He bring you by the hand of the King Meshiha. And the Word of the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed by inheritance, and you shall possess it, and He will bless you and increase you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will take away the foolishness of your heart, and of your children's heart; for He will abolish evil desire from the world, and create good desire, which will give you the dictate to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, that your lives may flow on for evermore. And the Word of the Lord your God will send these curses upon your enemies who have oppressed you in your captivities, and such as have hated and persecuted, to destroy you. But you shall return, and be obedient to the Word of the Lord, and do all His commandments that I command you this day. And the Lord your God will make you to abound in good; for you shall prosper in all the works of your hands, in the offspring of thy womb, the increase of thy cattle, and the produce of your land, for good; for the Word of the Lord will return, to rejoice over you, to bless you, as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you will hearken to the Word of the Lord your God in keeping His commandments and statutes which are written in the book of this law, when you have returned to the fear of the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, nor afar off. It is not in the heavens, that thou shouldst say, Who will ascend for us into heaven, and bring it to us to make us hear, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the great sea, that thou shouldst say, Who will go beyond the sea for us, and fetch it for us to make us hear, that we may do it? For the Word is nigh you, in your schools; open your mouth, that you may meditate on it; purify your hearts, that you may perform it. Behold, I have set before you this day the way of life, wherein is the recompense of the reward of good unto the righteous, and the way of death, wherein is the retribution of the wages of evil unto the wicked. [JERUSALEM. The law is not in the heavens, that thou shouldst say, O that we had one like Mosheh the prophet to ascend into heaven, and bring it to us, and make us hear its commands, that we may do them! Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that thou shouldst say, O that we had one like Jonah the prophet, who could descend into the depths of the sea, and bring it to us, and make us hear its commands, that we may do them! For the word is very nigh you, in your mouth, that you may meditate upon it, and in your hearts, that you may perform it. See, behold, I have set before you this day the way of life, which is the path of the good, and the way of death, which is the path of the evil.] For I teach you to‑day to love the Lord your God, and to walk in the ways that are right before Him, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and judgments, and live and multiply; that the Lord your God may bless you in the land into which you are entering to possess it. But if you think in your heart that you will not obey, but will go astray to worship the idols of the nations, and serve them, I proclaim to you this day, that you will perish, and will not prolong your days on the land to which you are to pass over the Jordan to possess it. I attest this day, not only you, who are to pass away from this world, but the heavens and the earth, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and its reverse. Choose therefore the way of life, even the law, that you and your children may live the life of the world to come; that you may love the Lord thy God, to obey His Word, and keep close unto His fear; for the law in which you occupy yourselves will be your life in this world, and the prolongment of your days in the world that cometh; and you shall be gathered together at the end of the scattering, and dwell upon the land which the Lord sware to your fathers, to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, to give it unto them.

XXXI.
AND Mosheh went into the tabernacle of the house of instruction, and spake these words unto all Israel, and said to them: I am the son of a hundred and twenty years this day. I am no more able to go out and come in, and the Word of the Lord hath said to me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. The Lord your God, and His Shekinah, will go over before you. He will destroy those nations, and you shall possess them. Jehoshua also will go before you, as the Lord hath said. And the Lord will execute judgment on them, as He did on Sihon and Og kings of the Amoraee, and the people of their land, whom He destroyed. And the Word of the Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded you. Be strong, then, and of good courage, fear not, nor be dismayed before them; for the Shekinah of the Lord your God will be the Leader of you, He will not forsake nor be far from you.

And Mosheh called Jehoshua from among the people, and said to him: Be thou strong, and of good courage; for thou art appointed to go with this people to the land which the Word of the Lord sware to your fathers to give them, and thou art to divide it among them. And the Shekinah of the Word of the Lord will go before thee, and His Word will be thy helper; He will not forsake nor be far from thee; fear not, nor be dismayed.

And Mosheh wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bare the ark of the Lord's covenant, and to all the sages of Israel. And Mosheh commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years in the time of the year of remission at the feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel cometh to appear before the Lord your God, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel while they listen. Assemble the people, the men, that they may learn, the women, that they may hear instruction, the children, that they may partake the benefit (reward) of those who bring them, and your sojourners who are in your cities, that they may behold the majesty of the law, and be reverent all of them before the Word of the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law. Let their children also, who know not, hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God all the days that you live in the land to inherit which you pass over Jordan.

Unto three of the just was it told that the time of their death was drawing nigh, and that they should not attain to the days of their fathers; and each of them had been appointed a prince in his days; Jakob our father, David the king, and Mosheh the prophet; for thus it is written: And the Lord said unto Mosheh, Behold, thy day approacheth when thou must die. Call Jehoshua, and stand both of you in the tabernacle of ordinance, that I may give him charge. And Mosheh and Jehoshua went, and stood in the tabernacle of ordinance. And the glorious Shekinah of the Lord revealed itself at the tabernacle in the pillar of the Cloud, and the pillar of the Cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle, and Mosheh and Jehoshua stood without. And the Lord said to Mosheh, Behold, thou wilt lie down in the dust with thy fathers, and thy soul shall be treasured in the treasury of eternal life with thy fathers: but this wicked people will rise up and go astray after the idols of the nations among whom they come, and will forsake My worship, and change My covenant which I have made with them. [JERUSALEM. They will forsake, and will profane the statutes I have confirmed with them.] Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I shall abhor them, and remove My Shekinah from them, and they will become a prey, and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they will say at that time, with adjuration, Is it not because the Shekinah of my God dwelleth not among me, that all these evils have befallen me? But I will indeed remove My Shekinah from them at that time, until they have dwindled away, to receive the punishment of their sins for all the evil they have wrought, because they turned themselves after the idols of the nations. And now, write you this hymn, and teach the children of Israel; put it upon their lips, that this hymn may be before them, for a witness against the children of Israel. For I will bring them into the land which I promised to their fathers, (a land) producing milk and honey, and they will eat and be satisfied: but (after that they have) waxen fat they will turn away to the idols of the Gentiles and worship them; so will they provoke Me to anger, and abolish My covenant. And when these many evils and troubles shall come upon them, then will this hymn bear witness to them for a testimony; for it is revealed before Me that it will not be forgotten on the lips of their children: for their evil disposition to which they are yielding today, even before I bring you into the promised land, is known to Me.

And Mosheh wrote this hymn, and taught the chil­dren of Israel. And He commanded Jehoshua bar Nun, saying: Be strong and of good courage; for thou art to bring the sons of Israel into the land I have pro­mised to them, and My Word shall be thy Helper. And when Mosheh had finished to write the words of this law upon parchment to complete them, [JERUSALEM. When Mosheh had completed to write the glo­rious words of this law until they were finished,] he com­manded the Levites who bare the ark of the Lord's covenant, saying: Take the book of this law, and put it into a chest on the right side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be for a testament to you. For your rebellion is revealed before me, and the obduracy of your neck. Behold, while I am yet alive among you today ye are rebellious before the Lord; but how much more when I am dead! [JERUSALEM. How much more when I am dead!] Gather together to me all the sages of your tribes and your officers, and I will speak all these words in their hearing, and will call heaven and earth to bear witness against them. For I know that after my death corrupting you will corrupt your works, and go astray from the way I have commanded you, and that evil will befall you in the end, because you will do what is wrong before the Lord in provoking Him to anger. And Mosheh spake in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this hymn until they were ended.

XXXII.
And when the last end of Mosheh the prophet was at hand, that he should be gathered from among the world, he said in his heart: I will not attest against this people with witnesses that taste of death in this world, behold, I attest against them with witnesses which do not taste of death in this world, and whose destination is to be renewed in the world to come. Isaiah the prophet, when he prophesied in the congregation of Israel, attributed hearing to the heavens, and attentiveness to the earth; because (in his case) earth was nearest and heaven more remote: but Mosheh the prophet, when he now prophesied in the congregation of Israel, attributed hearing to the earth, and attentiveness to the heavens; because (in his case) heaven was nearest and earth more remote; for so it is written, Attend, ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall smite the rebellious like heavy rain; but shall be enjoyed with pleasantness by those who receive instruction, as the dew: my words shall be like the downfalling rain of the wind that breathes upon the grass in the month of Marchesvan, and as the droppings of the latter rain which water the springing herbage of the earth in Nisan.

[JERUSALEM. When the end of Mosheh came that he should be removed from the world, he said: Behold, I testify in this world a thing which tasteth not of death; so will I attest against them the heavens and earth which taste not of death in this world, but whose end is to be consumed in the world that cometh. For so he explained, and said: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and consider the earth beneath; for the heavens shall dissolve like smoke, and the earth fade away as a garment; but I have prepared to create new heavens and a new earth. Isaiah the prophet, when he prophesied in the congregation of Israel, because he was remote from the heavens and nearest the earth, attributed hearing to the heavens, and attention to the earth: for so be explaineth, and saith: Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth; for the Word of the Lord hath spoken. Mosheh the prophet, &c. (as above.) The doctrine of my law shall be sweet to the children of Israel as the rain, the word Of my mouth will be received by them with pleasantness as the dew, as the wind which breathes upon the herb, and as the drops of the latter rain that descend and water the herbage of the ground in Nisan.]

Woe to the wicked who make memorial of the Holy Name with blasphemies. Wherefore Mosheh, who was the Doctor of Israel, would not permit himself to pronounce the Holy Name until he had dedicated his mouth at the beginning of his hymn with eighty and five letters, making twenty and one words, and afterwards be spake: In the Name of the Lord I invoke you, O house of Israel, to ascribe glory and greatness before our God. [JERUSALEM. Mosheh the prophet said: Woe to the wicked who make memorial of the Holy Name with blasphemies. For it is not possible even to one of the highest angels to utter that Name rightly until that they have said, Holy, Holy, Holy thrice. And from them did Mosheh learn not to utter that Name openly until he should have dedicated his mouth with twenty-one words which consist of eighty-five letters; and so explained he and said: Hear, ye heavens, and I will speak; for it is the Name of the Lord. Mosheh the prophet said: O people of Israel, I invoke you, in the Name of the Lord, to give glory, praise, and highest exaltation unto God.]

Mosheh the prophet said: When I ascended the mountain of Sinai, I beheld the Lord of all the worlds, the Lord, dividing the day into four portions; three hours employed in the law, three with judgment, three in making marriage bonds between man and woman, and appointing to elevate or to abase, arid three hours in the care of every created thing: for so it is written: The Mighty One whose works are perfect, for all His ways are judgment, a faithful God before whom no iniquity comes forth, pure and upright is He. [JERUSALEM. (The same words to) three hours, uniting the marriage yoke of the husband to the wife . . . . a faithful God and true; falsehood is not before Him; He is just and upright in judgment.]

The beloved children have corrupted their good works, a blemish is found upon them; a perverse generation which have altered their works; so shall the order of this world's judgment be altered upon them. [JERUSALEM. The children have corrupted their works, and not them only, but themselves also: they have so corrupted that the spot is upon them; a depraved and perverse generation which changeth its order of this world shall be changed upon it.]

Can you indeed so requite the Name of the Word of the Lord, O foolish people, and receive the law, yet not be made wise? Is He not your Father who bought you, who created you and established you? [JERUSAELM Do you return this before the Lord, O people foolish and unwise? Is He not your Father who is in heaven, who bought you? He created and founded you.] Remember the days of old; consider the years of every generation; read the books of the law, and they will teach you, and the books of the prophets, and they will tell you. [JERUSALEM Be mindful of the days, the days of old, consider the years of one generation and another; ask your fathers who are greater in the law than you, and they will teach you, the sages, and they will tell you.] When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations with whom is the revelation to oversee the city, even at that time He established the limits of the nations according to the sum of the number of the seventy souls of Israel who went down into Mizraim. [JER. When the Most High divided the nations by lot, and distinguished the languages of the children of men, He appointed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the tribes of the Beni Israel.]

And when the holy people fell to the lot of the Lord of all the world, Michael opened his lips and said: Let the good portion of the Name of the Lord's Word be with Him. Gabriel opened his lips with thanksgivings, and said, Let the house of Jakob be the lot of His inheritance. [JERUSALEM. Because the Lord's portion are His people, and the house of Jakob the lot of His inheritance.] He found them dwelling in the wilderness, in the solitude, the place of howling demons and thorns, the place of thirsting; He overspread them with His seven glorious clouds; He taught them His law; He kept them as the Shekinah keepeth the apple of His eye. [JERUSALEM He found them wandering in a desert land, in the solitude of a howling wilderness; He threw over them clouds of glory; His Shekinah taught them the Ten Words, watched over them, and kept them as the apple of His eye.] As an eagle stirreth up and careth for his nest, and hovereth over his young, so did His Shekinah stir up the tents of Israel, and the shadow of His Shekinah overspread them; and as an eagle outstretcheth his wings over his young ones, beareth them and carrieth them upon his wings, so bare He them and carried them, and made them dwell upon the strong places of the land of Israel. [JERUSALEM As an eagle stirreth up his nest, and carefully spreadeth out his wings, and taketh and beareth them with the strength of his wings.] The Word of the Lord made them to dwell in His land, nor suffered any among them to be the followers of strange worship. [JERUSALEM The Lord alone caused them to dwell, and none were among them who served with strange worship.] He made them to dwell in the strong places of the land of Israel, and gave them to eat of the goodly produce of His field, and nourished them with the honey of its fruits which grow even upon the rocks with the oil of its olive trees, and from branches (growing) out of the rocks. [JERUSALEM He made them ride upon the high places of the earth, and gave them to eat of royal delicacies, and nourished them with honey out of the rock, and with oil from their olives (growing) out of the flinty stone of the rock.] He gave them rich butter of kine from the spoil of their kings, and the fat of the firstlings of the sheep from the prey of their sultans, with the choice rams and goats of the flocks of Mathnan. Mosheh the prophet said: If the people of Israel will observe the precepts of the law, it is foretold that their wheat granary shall be like the kidneys of oxen, and that from one bunch of grapes shall come forth a kor of red wine. [JERUSALEM Tender oxen and choice flocks, goodly fatlings, rams bred in Batenaia, and goats, with the richest of the wheat. Mosheh the prophet said: If the children of Israel will observe the precepts of the law . . . . from one bunch they shall drink a cup of wine.]

But the house of Israel grew rich and wicked; they prospered muchand possessed wealth, and forsook the worship of Eloah who created them, and provoked Him to anger who redeemed them. They moved Him to jealousy with strange worship, by their abominations they made Him angry. They sacrificed to idols, resembling devils, in whom there is no profit, to idols which they had not known, new gods lately made, with which your fathers had nothing to do; But the adorable Strong One who created you have you forgotten; of the word of Eloha who strengthened you so often have you been forgetful. And when it was manifest before the Lord, He was wroth, provoked thereto by His beloved children who were called upon His Name son and daughters. [JERUSALEM But the house of Jeshuron ate and kicked; they became rich, and rebelled; they prospered, got wealth, and forsook the Word of God who had created them, and refused to worship the Almighty who had redeemed them. They provoked Him to anger with their idols, by their abominations they made Him wroth They sacrificed to demons in whom is no stability, idols which they had not known, lately formed, which your fathers remembered not. The Almighty who created you ye have forgotten, and have forsaken the Word of God who gave you to be, and made you so many refuges. And it was manifest before the Lord, and He was angry, because the beloved children had provoked Him, even they who were beloved by Him as sons and daughters.] And He said, I will take away from them the favour of My countenance; it will be seen what will be the end; for they are a perverse generation, children who have not faith. They have made Me jealous by that which is not God, they have angered Me by their vanities: I also will provoke them to jealousy by a people which hath not been a people, by the foolish Babylonian people will I provoke them. [JERUSALEM And He said, I will surely turn away the favour of My countenance from them; I will see what will be in their latter end; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved Me to jealousy by their idols in which there is nothing whatever, they have provoked Me by their abominations; but I also will move them to jealousy by a people which is not a people, by a foolish nation will I anger them.] For an east wind strong as fire shall go out before Me, and blaze in the might of My anger, and burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the land with its produce, and set the foundations of the mountains in flame. [JERUSALEM For a fire shall come forth in the hour of My wrath, and burn to the lowest hell, devouring the earth and its fulness, and setting in flame the foundations of the hills.] And when they dwell in Babel they will serve their idols; for I have spoken in My Word to array calamities against them, the plague-arrows of My vengeance to destroy them, I will make them go into captivity in Media and Elam, in the captivity of Babel, the house of Agag who are like demons gaping with famine, and to corpses devoured by birds, and to stricken evil spirits of the noon, to Lillin and to spirits big with evil. And the Javanaee (Greeks) who bite with their teeth like wild beasts will I send against them, and will shake them by the hand of the Syrians venomous as basilisks, the serpents of the dust. [JERUSALEM I have spoken in My Word to bring evil upon them, the arrows of My vengeance will I send among them: gaping with famine, devoured by unclean fowl, filled with evil spirits, even the teeth of the four kingdoms, which are like wild beasts, will I send among them, with the poison of serpents, the reptiles of the earth.] A people who will come from beyond the land of Israel shall consume them with the stroke of the sword, and those who are left in the land of Israel will I throw into the terror of death, in the chambers here and there where they sleep; their young men shall perish, their maidens, their suck­lings, with their men and their elders. [JERUSALEM In the street the sword will devour them; in the chambers where they sleep, the terrors of death; their young men and maidens, their infants and aged men.] I have spoken in My Word to withhold from them My Holy Spirit; I will make them weak; as a man who reaps his field leaveth but one upon the ground, so will I abolish their memory from the book of the genealogy of mankind; [JERUSALEM I have spoken in My Word to bring wrath upon them, and to cause their memorial to fail from among men;] but for the wrath of the enemy, and that their oppressors would glorify themselves against Me, and say, Our hand hath taken vengeance upon our adversaries, and all this hath not been decreed by the Lord; for they are a people lost to good counsel and void of understanding. O that they were intelligent in the law, and that they understood what they will become in their latter end! How will one foe pursue a thousand of them, and two put ten thousand of them to flight, unless He who is their strength deliver them, and the Lord avenge them! [JERUSALEM But that the wrath of the enemy would wax strong, that they could not prevail against their foes; and that they may not say, Our hand hath avenged us on our adversaries, and it hath not been done by the Lord; for this people perish by evil counsels, and they are void of understanding. If Israel were but wise, learning the law they would understand what shall be in their latter end. When Israel was diligent in the law, and observed the commandments, one of them chased a thousand, and two of them put ten thousand to flight; but because they have sinned and vexed the Almighty to anger, He hath left them to the hand of their enemies.]

For the idols of the Gentiles are not as He who is the Strength of Israel; for the Strength of Israel, when they have sinned, bringeth punishment upon them; but when they stretch forth their hands in prayer, He answereth and delivereth them. But, the idols of the peoples of strange worships are of no use: but because we have provoked Him, and have not returned to His service, our adversaries are our witnesses and our judges. [JERUSALEM For the confidence of the nations is not as our confidence; but because we have sinned and provoked Him to anger, our adversaries are made our judges.] For the works of this people are like the works of the people of Sedom, and their evil counsels like those of the people of Amorah; their wicked thoughts are as serpents heads; bitter therefore to them is their punishment which maketh desolate. Behold as the bitterness of serpents when they come forth from their wines, (?) so shall be the bitter cup of the curse which they are to drink in the day of their punishment, and cruel as the head of asps. [JERUSALEM For the works of this people are like those of the people of Sedom, and their thoughts like those of the people of Amorah: their evil works make them desolate, and become bitter to them. For the poison of this people is like that Of serpents what time they drink wine, and their malice like the head of asps and cruel reptiles.] Are not their secret works all known before Me? Sealed and laid up Are they in My treasury! Vengeance lies before Me, and I will recompense them at the time when their foot shall move to the captivity; for the day of their destruction is coming near, and the evil which is prepared for them maketh haste. [JERUSALEM Is not this the cup of punishment, mixed and ordained for the wicked, sealed in My treasuries for the day of the great judgment? Vengeance is mine: I am He who repayeth; in the time when the foot of the righteous is moved; for the day of destruction for the wicked is nigh the fire of Gehinam. is prepared for them, and their punishment girdeth itself to come upon them.]

For the Word of the Lord adjudgeth in His mercy the jundgement of His people Israel, and for the evil He hath appointed upon His servants there shall be repentance before Him; for He knoweth that in the time when they have sinned the stroke of their enemies will be heavy upon them, and help have passed away from their hands, and the faithful will have failed with their good works and be scattered and forsaken. And the enemy will say, Where is the fear of Israel, their Strength in whom they confided, who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations? Let Him now rise up and help you, let Him shield you by His Word. [JER. For the Lord Himself will adjudge the judgment of the people of the children of Israel, and comfort His righteous servants; for it is manifest before Him that the hand of the righteous will waver, and that they will be forsaken and cast down, with none to help or support them. For the Gentiles will say, Behold, the God of Israel is strong in whom they put their trust; they brought before Him the fat of their sacrifices, and the wine of their libations; let Him who (once) was over them as a shield rise up now and deliver them.]

When the Word of the Lord shall reveal Himself to redeem His people, He will say to all the nations: Behold now, that I am He who Am, and Was, and Will Be, and there is no other God beside Me: I, in My Word, kill and make alive; I smite the people of the Beth Israel, and I will heal them at the end of the days; and there will be none who can deliver them from My hand, Gog and his armies whom I have permitted to make war against them. [JER. See now that I in My Word am He, and there is no other God beside Me. I kill the living in this world, and make alive the dead in the world that cometh; I am He who smiteth, and I am He who healeth; and there is none who can deliver from My hand.] I have lifted My hand with an oath to heaven, and have said, As I exist, I will not abolish My oath for ever. If I whet my sword, as lightning it will prevail in the judgment of My hand. I will return retribution on them who afflict My people, and repay to their enemies the hire of their wickedness. I will make My arrows drunk with the blood of their slain, and the captivity of their hosts shall be the punishment of My people's foes. [JERUSALEM For I have uplifted My hand with an oath to heaven, and said, I live, and My Word subsisteth for ever: If I whet My sword as lightning, My right hand will prevail in judgment. I will render punishment upon the adversaries of My people, I will repay them for their evil deeds. I will make My arrows drunk with their blood, and My sword shall consume their flesh; with the blood of the destroyers of My people, their captives, and the chieftains of their hosts.]

Rejoice, ye nations, (and) ye people of Beth Israel; for the blood of His servants which was shed, He hath avenged. He hath kept (in mind) and returned just vengeance upon His adversaries, and by His Word will He make Atonement for His land, and for His people. [JERUSALEM Let the nations give praise before Him, let the people of Beth Israel glorify Him; for He bath made inquisition for the trouble of His righteous servants, and brought vengeance upon His enemies; for the sins of His people He smote the land; but He will make Atonement for the land, and for His people.]

And Mosheh came from the tabernacle of the house of instruction, and spake all the words of this hymn, in the hearing of the people, he and Jehoshua bar Nun. And Mosheh made an end of speaking all these words with all Israel, and said to them: Apply your heart to all the words with which I bear witness to you this day, that you may dictate them to your children, so that they may observe and do all the words of this law. For there is no vain word in the law, unless to them who transgress it; for it is your life, and by this word you will prolong days upon the land that you pass over Jordan to inherit. [JER. And Mosheh came and spake all the praise of the words of this hymn in the hearing of the people, be and Hoshea bar Nun. And Mosheh ended speaking all these words with all Israel, and said to them: Set your heart unto all the words with which I bear witness to you this day, and which you shall teach your children, that they may observe and do all the glorious words of this law. For it is not a vain word to you, because it is your life, and by this word you will multiply days upon the land that you pass over Jordan to inherit.]

And the Lord spake with Mosheh on the seventh of the month Adar, on the same day, saying, It was when the Word of the Lord had said to him, Go up to this mount Ibraee, the mountain of Nebo, and he thought in his heart, and said, Perhaps this up-going will be like that to Mount Sinai; and he said, I will go and sanctify the people; but the Word of the Lord said to him, Not so at all, but, Go thou up and view the land of Kenaan, which I have given to the children of Israel for an inheritance. And thou shalt sleep in the mountain to which thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people, even thou, as Aharon thy brother hath slept in the mountain of Omanos, and hath been gathered unto his people. Mosheh at once opened his mouth in prayer, and said, Lord of all the world, I entreat that I may not be as a man who had one only son, who being in captivity, he went and redeemed him with great price; he taught him wisdom and art, espoused him to a wife, planted for him a royal bower, builded him a marriage house, prepared for him the bed, invited his companions, baked his bread, slew his victims, and mixed his wine; yet, when the time came for his son to make glad with his wife, and the guests were about to consecrate the feast; then was that man required to go to the house of judgment, before the king and be Punished with the judgment of death; neither would the delay to execute his sentence that he might see the happiness of his son. So have I laboured for this people; I have led them by Thy Word out of Mizraim, and builded for this people; I have taught them Thy law builded for them the tabernacle to Thy Name; but now that the time hath come to pass the Jordan, I am punished with death! Let it please Thee to withhold fromme this sentence until I have passed the Jordan, to see the good of Israel before I die. The Lord of the world answered him, and said: Because thou didst prevaricate with My Word In the midst of the children of Israel, at the Waters of Contention at Rekem in the desert of Zin, and didst not sanctify Me among them; therefore thou mayest look over against it, but shalt not enter into the land that I give unto the children of Israel. [JERUSALEM Because you were rebellios towards the Name of My Word, among the Beni Israel, at the Waters of Contention in Rekem in the desert of Zin; forasmuch as you did not sanctify Me in the midst of them, therefore thou mayest look over against it, but shalt not enter into the land which I give to the children of Israel.]

XXXIII.
AND this is the order of the Benedictions wherewith Mosheh the Prophet blessed the children of Israel before he died. And he said:

The Lord was revealed at Sinai to give the law unto His people of Beth Israel, and the splendour of the glory of His Shekinah arose from Gebal to give itself to the sons of Esau: but they received it not. It shined forth in majesty and glory from mount Pharan, to give itself to the sons of Ishmael; but they received it not. It returned and revealed itself in holiness unto His people of Beth Israel, and with Him ten thousand times ten thousand holy angels. He wrote with His own right hand, and gave them His law and His commandments, out of the flaming fire. [JERUSALEM. This is the Benediction wherewith Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the children of Israel before be should be gathered, and he said: The Lord was revealed from Sinai to give the law unto His people of Beth Israel. He arose in His glory upon the mountain of Seir to give the law to the sons of Esau; but after they found that it was written therein, Thou shalt do no murder, they would not receive it. He revealed Himself in His glory oil the mountain of Gebala, to give the law to the sons of Ishmael; but when they found that it was written therein, Ye shall not be thieves, they would not receive it. Again did He reveal Himself upon Mount Sinai, and with Him ten thousands of holy angels; and the children of Israel said, All that the Word of the Lord hath spoken will we perform and obey. And He stretched forth His hand from the midst of the flaming fire, and gave the Law to His people.]

And whatever hath befallen to the nations (hath been done) because He loved His people of Beth Israel, and all of them He hath called to be saints, to stand in the place of His sanctuary. And when they observed the precepts of the law, they were conducted at the foot of Thy glorious Cloud, they rested and encamped according to the dictate of the Word. The sons of Israel said, Mosheh commanded us the law, and gave it for an heritage to the tribes of Jakob. And he was king in Israel: when the chiefs of the people were gathered together, the tribes of Israel were obedient to him. [JERUSALEM Is it not all manifest and known before Him, that neither the sons of Esau nor of Ishmael would receive the law? Nevertheless, because He loved His people of Beth Israel as myriads of the holy angels, though He brought upon them many corrections, they rested not, nor desisted from the doctrine of the law; and, behold, they were conducted and brought on at the foot of His Cloud, and went forward and encamped according to His Word. The sons of Israel said, Mosheh commanded us the law: he gave it for an inheritance and possession to the congregation of the house of Jakob. And a king shall arise from the house of Jakob, when the heads of the people are gathered together: unto Him shall the tribes of Israel be obedient.]

Let Reuben live in this world, nor die the second death which the wicked die in the world to come; and let his youths be numbered with the young men of his brethren of Beth Israel. [JERUSALEM Let Reuben live in this world, nor die the second death which the wicked the in the world to come; and let his youths be with the men in number.]

And this is the benediction of the tribe of Jehudah, conjoined with the portion and benediction of his brother Shemeon; and thus he spake: Receive, O Lord, the prayer of Jehudah when he goeth forth unto war, and bring Thou him back from war unto his people in peace. Let his hand take vengeance on his enemies, and be Thou his help and support against his foes. [JERUSALEM And this is the benediction with which Mosheh the prophet blessed the tribe of Jehudah, and he said: May the Word of the Lord hearken to the prayer of Jehudah, and bring him back to his people from battle. May his hand avenge him upon his enemies, and be Thou a help and a support against his foes.]

And Mosheh the prophet blessed the tribe of Levi and said, With Perfections and Lights hast Thou robed Aharon, the man whom Thou didst find devout before Thee, whom Thou didst try in the temptation, and he was sincere, and didst prove at the Contention Waters in Rekem, and he was found faithful. The tribe of Levi go forth to the service of the tabernacle, and separate themselves from their dwellings, saying of their fathers and mothers, I have not regarded them and of their brethren, Since we were of thirty years we have not known them or their children, for that they abide twenty years in their charge according to Thy Word, and keep the service of the holy covenant. Apt are they in teaching the orders of Thy judgments to them of Beth Jakob, and Thy law to them of Beth Israel. Their brethren the priests put incense on the censers to restrain the plague in the day of Thy wrath, and offer up the burnt sacrifice with acceptance at Thy altar. Bless Lord, the sacrifice of the house of Levi, who give the tenth of the tenth; and the oblation of the hand of Elijah the priest, which he will offer on Mount Karmela, receive Thou with acceptance: break the lons of Achab his enemy, and the neck of the false prophets who rise up against him, that the ene. mies of Johanan the high priest may not have a foot to stand. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet blessed the tribe of Levi, and said: With the Uraia and Tummaia hast thou clothed Aharon the saint, whom Thou didst try, and he was steadfast in the temptation, and whom Thou didst prove at the Waters of Contention in Rekem, and he was found faithful. For of the tribe of Levi it may be said, He respected not the face of his own father and mother in the judgment of Tamar, and knew not his brother in the matter of the (golden) calf, nor towards his own children was he moved with mercy, in the work of Zimri; for they have kept the word of Thy mouth, and have been ready (to fulfil) the decree of Thy law. Apt are they to teach the orders of Thy judgments to them of Beth Jakob, and the decree of Thy law to the congregation of the tribes of Israel. They put the goodly aromatic incense (on the censer) to restrain Thy anger, and offer the perfect sacrifice with acceptance at Thy altar. Bless, Lord, the substance of the tribe of Levi, and receive with favour the oblation of his hand; break Thou the loins of his enemies, that his adversaries may fall, and rise nomore.]

Mosheh the prophet blessed the tribe of Benjamin, and said: The beloved of the Lord shall abide in safety with Him, He will protect him all the days, and His Shekinah will dwell within his borders. [JERUSALEM Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Benjamin, and said: The beloved of the Lord shall abide with confidence by Him, He will protect him all the days, and within his borders will dwell the glory of the Shekinah of the Lord.]

And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Joseph, and said: The land of Joseph shall be blessed from before the Lord. From the bounty of the heavens shall it have goodly fruit, from the dew and the rain that come down from above, and from the bounty of the founts of the deep which rise up and flow and with good fruitage to water the herbage from beneath, age and produce that the earth maketh perfect by the aid (bringing out) of the sun, and with the bounty of the firstfruits of the trees which the ground yieldeth in the beginning of month after month, and with the good through the birthright ordained ness of the mountain tops, him at the beginning by the benediction of the fathers who resemble the mountains, and with the goodness of the hills whose produce faileth not, which was given him in heritage by the benedictions of the mothers of old, Who resemble the hills; and with the goodness of the excellent fruits of the earth and its fulness and the favour towards him of Eloah who revealed Himself to Mosheh at the bush in the glory of His Shekinah: let all these blessings be combined, and be made a diadem of grandeur for the head of Joseph, and for the brow of the man who was chief and ruler in the land of Mizraim, and was the glory and honour of his brethren. The birthright had belonged to Reuben, but was taken from him and given to Joseph at the beginning; from thence comes the splendour of his glory and praise. For as it may not be that a man should work the ground with the firstling of his herd, so are not the children of Joseph to be reduced to servitude among the kingdoms; and as the reema pusheth with his horns the beasts of the wilderness, so will the sons of Joseph predominate together among the peoples in all the ends of the earth. Myriads will be slain in Gulgela by Hoshea bar Nun who hath arisen from the house of Ephraim, and thousands of the Midyance by Gideon bar Yoash who will be of the tribe of Menasheh. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Joseph, and said: Blessed be the laud of Joseph, before the Lord, with the blessing of the dew and the rain that come down from the heavens above, with the blessings of the fountains of the deep which well up from the earth beneath. Bounteous produce will it yield from the good provision of the sun; and will ripen its first fruits at the beginning of month and month. It aboundeth in fruitfulness for the righteousness sake of Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, the holy fathers who are like the mountains, and for the merit of Sarah, Revekah, Rahel, and Leah, the four mothers who are like the hills. It bringeth forth richly from the excellence of the earth and its fulness, and by the good will of Him who caused the glory of His Shekinah to dwell in the bush. Let all these blessings come and be a crown upon the head of Joseph, and upon the brow of the man who ruled in the land of Mizraim, and was the brightness of his brothers glory. The birthright, king­dom, and honour are Joseph's: for as it may not be that one should work with the firstling among cattle, nor bring the horns of the reema into servitude; but as the ox and the reema push with their horns, so this people, the sons of the tribe of Joseph, going out to battle against their enemies, will slaughter kings and princes. Myriads of the Amoraah will be slain by Jehoshua bar Nun, who is of the tribe of the Beni Ephraim; thou­ sands of the Midyanee will be slain by Gideon bar Yoash, who is of the tribe of the Beni Menasheh.]

And Mosheh the prophet blessed the tribe of Zebulon, and said: Rejoice, O house of Zebulon, in your going forth for your commerce, and you, O house of Issakar, in the tabernacles of your schools. Many peoples shall pray at the mountain of the sanctuary, thither will they bring their oblations of truth: for they dwell by the side of the great sea, they are nourished with (its) dainties; and they take the shellfish and dye with its blood in purple the threads of their vestments; and from the sands make mirrors and vessels of glass; for the treasures of their coasts are discovered to them. [JERUSALEM Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Zebulon, and said: Rejoice, O ye of the house of Zebulon, when you go out upon your commerce; and ye of the house of Issakar, rejoice, when you come in unto your houses of learning. Behold, this people of the house of Zebulon will come up together to the mountain of the sanctuary to offer true oblations; for they eat the revenue of the seas, and the treasures hidden in the sands are disclosed unto them.]

Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Gad, and said: Blessed be He who hath made wide the border of Gad. He reposeth as a lion in his habitation; but when he goeth out to battle against his adversaries, he slayeth kings and rulers, and his slaughtered ones are known from all the slain, for he striketh off the arm with the crown (of the head). And he saw that the land was good, and took his portion among the first; for there was a place strown with precious stones and pearls; for there is the place where Mosheh the prophet is hidden, who, as he went in and out at the head of the people in this world, will go in and out in the world that cometh; because he wrought righteousness before the Lord, and taught the orders of the judgments to the house of Israel his people. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Gad, and said: Blessed is he who hath made wide the border of Gad. He reposeth and inhabiteth as a lion and a lioness; nor will there be any kingdom or people who can stand before him; and when he goeth forth in war against his enemies his slaughtered are known among the slain by the head being cut away unto the arm. And he saw at the beginning that a place had been prepared there for a sepulchre, a place strown with precious stones and pearls, where Mosheh the prophet, the scribe of Israel, was to be hidden, (who,) as he went in and out at the head of the people in this world, so will he go in and oat in the world to come; because he wrought righteousness before the Lord, and taught the orders of the judgments to the sons of Israel.]

And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Dan, and said: The tribe of Dan is like a lion's whelp, his land is watered by the streams that flow from Mathnan, and his border cometh unto Batania. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Dan, and said: The tribe of Dan is like a lion's whelp, and his land is watered from Batanea.]

And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Naphtali, and said: Naphtali is satisfied with favour, and hath delight in the fishes of the sea which falleth within his portion; and he will be replete with blessings in the fruits of the vale of Genesareth which hath been given him from the Lord; he shall inherit the water of Sopheni, and the sea of Tebaria. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Naphtali, and said: Naphtali shall be satisfied with favour, and be filled with blessings from the Lord; he will have possession to the west of the sea of Genesareth, and to the south.]

And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Asher, and said: Blessed is Asher of the sons of Jakob. He will be acceptable to his brethren, and will supply them with provender in the years of release: his border will produce many olives yielding oil, enough for him to bathe in it even his feet. The tribe of Asher be sound as iron, and their feet‑strong as brass in walking on the stony rocks; and as the days of their youth so shall they be strong in their age. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh the prophet of the Lord blessed the tribe of Asher, and said: Asher will be blessed of the children; he will be acceptable to his brethren, in the release of the land, for his ground shall produce oil like water. Behold, this people of Beth Asher are sound as iron and strong as brass; as the days of their youth so will be the days of their age.]

There is no God like the God of Israel, whose Shekinah and Chariot dwell in the heavens. He will be your helper. He sitteth on His glorious throne in His majesty, in the expanse of the heavens above. The habitation of Eloha is from eternity; by the arm of His power beneath the world is upborne. He will scatter your adversaries before you, and will say by His Word, Destroy them. And Isreal shall dwell safely asof old according to the benediction with which Jakob their father did bless them, for whose righteousness sake He will cause them to inherit the good land that yieldeth corn and wine; the heavens also above them will drop with the dews of blessing, and the rains of lovingkindness. Happy are you, 0 Israel: who of all the nations are like you, a people saved in the Name of the Word of the Lord? He is the shield of your help, and His sword, the strength of your excellency. And your enemies shall be found liars against you from terror, and you shall tread upon the necks of their kings. [JERUSALEM There is none like the God of Israel, whose glorious Shekinah dwelleth in the heavens, and His magnificence in the high expanse. In His abode hath His Shekinah dwelt before they were, and under His power He bringeth the world; and He driveth out your enemies before you, and saith in His word, Let them be destroyed. But Israel shall dwell safely by themselves according to the benediction with which Jakob did bless them, in the land yielding wine and oil, The heavens also above you are bidden to send down upon you the dew and the rain. O Israel, happy are you! Who is as you, a people saved before the Lord, the shield of your help, the guardian of your armies, and the trusty sword of your pre-eminence? Your enemies are to be scattered before you; but you, O Beth Israel, while you give diligence in the law, and keep the commandments, shall tread upon the necks of their kings.]

XXXIV.
And Mosheh went up from the plains of Moab to the mountain of Nebo, to the summit of the height which is over against Jericho; and the Word of the Lord showed him all the strong ones of the land, and the mighty acts which would be done by Jeptha of Gilead, and the victories of Shimeon bar Manoah of tribe of Dan; and the thousand princes of Beth Naphtali who would gather with Barak, and the kings who would be slain by Jehoshua bar Nun of the tribe of Ephraim, and the deeds of strength to be wrought by Gideon bar Yoash of the tribe of Menasheh, and all the kings of Israel, and of the kingdom of Beth Jehudah, who would have dominion in the land until the latter sanctuary should be destroyed. And the king of the south who will combine with the king of the north to destroy the inhabitants of the land and the Ammonites and Moabites, the dwellers in the plain, who will oppress Israel, and the captives of Elijah's disciples who will be dispersed from the plain of Jericho, and the captives of Elisha's disciples who will be dispersed from the city of palm trees by the hand of their brethren of Beth Israel, two hundred thousand men; and the affliction of generation after generation, and the punishment of Armalgos the wicked, and the battle of Gog, when in the time of that great tribulation Michael will rise up to deliver by his arm. [JERUSALEM And Mosheh went up from the plain of Moab to the mountain of Nebo, to the summit. of the height which is over against Jericho; and the Lord showed him the whole land of Gilead unto Dan of Kesavan, and the whole land of Naphtali and Ephraim and Manasheh, and all the land of Jehudah to. the outer sea, and the south, and the plain of the vale of Jericho, the city which cultivateth palms, which is Zeir.]

And the Lord said to him, This is the end of the word concerning the land, and this is the land which I covenanted unto Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it unto your children. I grant thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not pass over to it.

Mosheh, the Rabban of Israel, was born on the seventh day of the month Adar, and on the seventh day of Adar he was gathered from the world. A voice fell from heaven, and thus spake: Come, all ye who have entered into the world, and behold the grief of Mosheh, the Rabban of Israel, who hath laboured, but not to please himself, and who is ennobled with four goodly crowns: the crown of the Law is his, because he brought it from the heavens above, when there was revealed to him the Glory of the Lord's Shekinah, with two thousand myriads of angels, and forty and two thousand chariots of fire. The crown of the Priesthood bath been his in the seven days of the peace offerings. The crown of the kingdom they gave him in possession from heaven: he drew not the sword, nor prepared the war horse, nor gathered he the host. The crown of a good name he possesseth by good works and by his humility. Therefore is Mosheh, the servant of the Lord, gathered in the land of Moab, by the kiss of the Word of the Lord.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord of the world, who hath taught us His righteous way. He hath taught us to clothe the naked, as He clothed Adam and Hava; He hath taught us to unite the bridegroom and the bride in marriage, as He united Hava to Adam. He bath taught us to visit the sick, as He revealed Himself to Abraham when he was ill, from being circumcised; He hath taught us to console the mourners, as He revealed Himself again to Jakob when returning from Padan, in the place where his mother had died. He hath taught us to feed the poor, as He sent Israel bread from heaven; He hath taught us to bury the dead by (what He did for) Mosheh; for He revealed Himself in His Word, and with Him the companies of ministering angels. Michael and Gabriel spread forth the golden bed, fastened with chrysolites, gems, and beryls, adorned with hangings of purple silk, and satin, and white linens. Metatron, Jophiel, and Uriel, and Jephephya, the wise sages, laid him upon it, and by His Word He conducted him four miles, and buried him in the valley opposite Beth Peor; that Israel, as oft as they look up to Peor, may have the memory of their sin; and at sight of the burying place of Mosheh may be humbled: but no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day.

[JERUSALEM Spake Mosheh the prophet: The Word of the Lord said unto me, This is the land which I have sworn unto Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob, saying, Unto the children of thy children will I give it. Behold it with thine eyes, but thou, shalt not pass over unto it. And Mosheh, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of the Moabaee, according to the mouth of the decree of the Word of the Lord. And He buried him in a valley in the land of the Moabaee, opposite to the idol Peor; nor knoweth any one his sepulchre unto this day.] Mosheh was a son of a hundred and twenty years when be died; the orbs of his eyes were not darkened, nor had his teeth passed away. [JERUSALEM Mosheh was the son of a hundred and twenty years in the time that he died; his eyes were not darkened, nor had the brightness of his face faded away.]

And the children of Israel wept for Mosheh in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping in the mourning for Mosheh were completed on the eighth of the month of Nisan. And on the ninth of Nisan the people of Beth Israel prepared their vessels and set their cattle in order, and passed over the Jordan on the tenth of Nisan. And the manna ceased for them on the sixteenth of Nisan. They found manna to eat thirty-seven days after the death of Mosheh, for the sake of his righteousness. [JERUSALEM And the children of Israel wept for Mosheh in the plains of Moab thirty days; and so were fulfilled the days of weeping in mourning for Mosheh.]

But Jehoshua bar Nun was filled with the Spirit of wisdom; for Mosheh had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel received instruction from him, and did as the Lord had commanded (by) Mosheh.

But no prophet hath again risen in Israel like unto Mosheh, because the Word of the Lord had known him to speak with him word for word, in all the signs, and wonders, and manifestations which the Word of the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Mizraim upon Pharoh, and all his servants, and all the people of his land; and in all the strength of the Mighty Hand by which he bare the rod whose weight was forty savin and that divided the sea, and smote the rock; and in all the solemn things which Mosheh did when he received the two tables of sapphire stone, whose weight was forty savin, and carried both of them in his bands in the sight of all Israel. [JERUSALEM And Jehoshua bar Nun was filled with the Spirit of Wisdom: for Mosheh had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Word of the Lord had commanded Mosheh. But no prophet hath arisen yet in Israel as Mosheh, whom the Word of the Lord knew, (speaking with him word for word,) in all the miracles, and wonders, and distinguishing signs which the Word of the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Mizraim, on Pharoh, and all his servants, and all his land; and in all the Mighty Hand, and all the great manifestations which Mosheh did in the sight of all Israel.

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