meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Torah/Deuteronomy/English/The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein.txt"}
text: Deuteronomy
  דברים
  The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
  
  
  Deuteronomy
  
  
  
  
  
  	These are the words which Moses spoke [(Because they are words of reproof and he enumerated here all of the places where they angered the L-rd, he speaks only by way of allusion out of regard for the honor of Israel)] to all of Israel [(Had he spoken only to some of them, the others might have contended that were they there they could have countered the rebuke)] across the Jordan, concerning [their angering the L-rd in] the desert [(viz. Exodus 16:3)], concerning the plain [(their sinning through Ba'al Peor in Shittim, in the plains of Moav)], against Suf [i.e., concerning their rebelling against the L-rd at Suf (the Red Sea), (Exodus 14:11)], concerning [what they had done in the desert of] Paran [through the spies], and concerning [their] calumniating [the manna, saying that it was] white [i.e., "flimsy" (see Numbers 21:5)], and [concerning] Chatzeroth [the (encampment of the) Korach insurrection], and [concerning the golden calf that they made because of their] abundance of gold.
  	[There is no shorter route from Chorev to Kadesh Barnea than that by way of Mount Seir, it taking] eleven days from Chorev by way of Mount Seir until Kadesh Barnea [and the L-rd, in His desire to hasten your entry into Eretz Yisrael, caused you to traverse it in three days; but because of your backsliding He led you around Mount Seir for forty years.]
  	And it was, in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the L-rd commanded him concerning them, [Moses reproving them only shortly before his death (taking Jacob as his precedent, who reproved his sons only shortly before his death)],
  	[Moses reproving them only] after he had smitten Sichon, king of the Emori, [(reasoning that if he reproved them before entering (at least) part of the land they might regard the reproof as an excuse for his inability to take it)], who dwelt in Cheshbon ["a hard king living in a hard place" — in spite of which Moses defeated him!], and Og, the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth [lit., "hardness" (again, "a hard king in a hard place")], in Edrei [(the name of the kingdom)].
  	Across the Jordan, in the land of Moav, Moses began to explain this Torah [in seventy languages], saying:
  	The L-rd our G-d spoke to us in Chorev, saying: You have dwelt in this mountain long enough.
  	Turn and journey [the way to Arad and Charmah] and come to the mountain of the Emori and to all of its neighbors [Ammon, Moav, and Mount Seir], in the plain [the forest plain], in the mountain [the "King's Mountain" (see Gittin 57a)], in the lowland [of the south], in the south and by the seacoast [Ashkelon, Azzah, Caesarea, etc.], the land of the Canaani and the Levanon, until the Great River, the Euphrates [(called the "Great River" because of its being mentioned in conjunction with Eretz Yisrael)].
  	See, [with your own eyes], I have set the land before you. Come and possess the land [No one will contest your doing so; you will need no recourse to war (Had they not sent the spies, they would not have needed weapons)], which the L-rd swore to your fathers: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [(Each was worthy of it in himself)], to give to them and to their seed after them.
  	And I said to you at that time, saying [at the behest of the L-rd]: I shall not be able to bear you [i.e., to judge you] alone,
  	[For] the L-rd your G-d has elevated you [over your judges (making them accountable for the punishment they impose upon you)], and, behold, you are [like] the day, [i.e., enduring forever like the sun and the constellations], like the stars of the heavens in multitude.
  	May the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, add to you, such as you, a thousand times! [(At this point, Israel objects: "Would you limit our blessing when the L-rd has blessed us boundlessly (Genesis 13:16)!" Moses replies: "That was my blessing")], and let Him bless you [boundlessly] as He spoke to you!
  	How can I bear alone [see 9] your contentiousness, your heresy [against your judges], and your caviling!
  	Ready yourselves (to appoint) [upright, desirable] men: wise, understanding [one thing from another], and known [i.e., familiar to you] among your tribes, and I shall set them at your heads [to be honored, respected, and feared by you.]
  	And you answered me, and you said: Good is the thing that you have spoken to do [(for if we have many judges, we can use a gift to "get on the good side" of those who don't know us!) — this, instead of beseeching me to judge you!]
  	And I "took" [with words of suasion] the heads of your tribes, men, wise and known [(but I could not find "understanding" ones)], and I made them heads over you [that you honor them and give them precedence in all matters]: officers of thousands, [one for a thousand], officers of hundreds, [one for a hundred], officers of fifties, and officers of tens, and [I appointed] bailiffs [over you, to enforce the decisions of the judges] for your tribes.
  	And I charged your judges [to be deliberate in judgment (regardless of how many times an identical case comes up before them)] at that time, [impressing upon them that they were no longer "free agents," but subservient to the public]: Hear among your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother and his opponent.
  	Do not play favorites in judgment [i.e., in appointing judges]. You shall hear [i.e., you shall attach as much importance to] a small [case] as [to] a large one. Do not fear any man, for the judgment is G-d's [(You "burden" Him with returning what you take from one unlawfully in judgment.)] And the thing that is too difficult for you, you shall bring near to me and I shall hear it [(— for which "presumptuousness" the judgment in the instance of the daughters of Tzelafchad (Numbers 27:5) evaded Moses)].
  	And I charged you at that time with all the things that you shall do [(regarding the ten differences between monetary and capital litigations (see Sanhedrin 32a)].
  	And we journeyed from Chorev and we went through all the great and fearful desert [(containing gigantic snakes and scorpions)] that you saw, by way of the mountain of the Emori, as the L-rd our G-d commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea.
  	And I said to you: You have come to the mountain of the Emori, which the L-rd our G-d gives to us.
  	See, the L-rd your G-d has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear and do not be broken.
  	And all of you drew near to me ["promiscuously" (as opposed to (5:20): "And you approached me [deferentially], all the heads of your tribes and your elders, etc.")], and you said: Let us send out men before us and let them spy out the land for us. And let them return to us word [concerning the languages that they speak], the [straightest] way by which we should go up, and the cities to which we will come [first, to conquer].
  	And the thing was good in my eyes [i.e., I acceded to your request in the hope that my doing so would enhearten you to waive the sending of the spies — but it did not], and I took of you [(from the most select of you)] twelve men, one man to a tribe [(the tribe of Levi not being with them)].
  	And they turned and they went up to the mountain, and they came to the river-bed of Eshkol [so called by reason of the cluster (eshkol) of grapes they were to take from there], and they spied it out, [traversing its boundaries, length and width (see Numbers 13:21)].
  	And they took in their hand from the fruit of the land and they brought it down to us [(whence it is seen that Eretz Yisrael is higher than all of the other lands)], and they returned word to us, and they [Joshua and Calev] said: Good is the land that the L-rd our G-d gives us.
  	And you did not desire to go up, and you opposed the word of the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you caviled in your tents, and you said: In the L-rd's hatred of us [("As you are disposed to another, you think he is disposed to you!")] He took us out of the land of Egypt [(from a fertile land to an arid land)] to deliver us into the hands of the Emori to destroy us.
  	Whither are we going up? Our brothers have melted our hearts, saying: A people greater and higher than we; cities great and fortified in heaven [(Scripture speaks hyperbolically here)], and also giants did we see there.
  	And I said to them: Do not break and do not fear them.
  	The L-rd your G-d who goes before you — He will war for you, as all that He did with you in Egypt before your eyes.
  	And [as all that He did with you] in the desert, where you saw how the L-rd your G-d bore you, as a man bears his son [(see Exodus 14:19-20)], in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
  	And in this thing [that He promises to bring you to the land] you do not believe in the L-rd your G-d!
  	Who goes before you on the way, to seek out for you a place for your encampment — in fire by night to show you the way wherein you should go, and in cloud by day!
  	And the L-rd heard the voice of your words and He was wroth, and He swore, saying:
  	No man of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to their forefathers.
  	Except Calev the son of Yefuneh — he shall see it, and to him shall I give the land whereon he trod [i.e., Chevron (see Numbers 13:22)], and to his sons, because he filled [his heart to follow] after the L-rd.
  	Against me, too, was the L-rd wroth because of you, saying: You, too, shall not come there.
  	Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you — he shall come there; him shall you strengthen, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
  	And your little ones, of whom you said that they would fall spoil, and your sons, who do not know this day good and evil — they will come there and to them will I give it, and they will inherit it.
  	And you, turn you back, [instead of going directly north through the land of Edom as originally intended] and go through the desert in the direction of the Red Sea, [to the point of the exodus from Egypt, in the southwest corner (for the desert in which they were traveling was south of Mount Seir, between the Red Sea and Mount Seir. Now they were told to go back to the sea and to travel all around the south of Mount Seir from west to east.)]
  	And you answered and you said to me: We have sinned to the L-rd. We shall go up and do battle according to all that the L-rd our G-d commanded us, and you girded, each, his weapons of war, and you readied yourselves to go up to the mountain.
  	And the L-rd said to me: Say to them: Do not go up and do not do battle, for I am not in your midst, and do not be smitten before your foes.
  	And I spoke to you, but you did not hearken. And you opposed the word of the L-rd, and you ventured, and you went up to the mountain.
  	And the Emori went out, who dwelt in that mountain, against you, and they pursued you, as the bees do [(dying when they smote you, just as a bee dies when it stings)], and they smote you from Seir until Charmah.
  	And you turned back and you cried before the L-rd; but the L-rd [Yod-Keh-Vav-Keh, the attribute of mercy] did not heed your voice [(You transformed, as it were, His attribute of mercy to one of cruelty)], and He did not give ear to you.
  	And you abode in Kadesh many days (i.e., years), as the days that you abode [in all the other places (Israel wandering aimlessly in the desert for nineteen years before returning to Kadesh)].
  
  
  
  	And we turned back and we traveled through the desert in the direction of the Red Sea, as the L-rd had spoken to me. And we went around Mount Seir [the entire south side until the land of Moav], many days.
  	And the L-rd said to me:
  	You have gone around this mountain long enough — turn to the north [to the east of Moav].
  	And the people, charge, saying: You are to pass through the boundary of your brothers, the sons of Esav, who dwell in Seir. They shall fear you; and take great heed:
  	Do not incite them: For I shall not allow you [to pass through] their land [without their consent] as much as the space of a footstep, for as an inheritance to Esav have I given the mountain of Seir.
  	Food shall you buy of them with money, and you shall eat; and also water shall you buy of them with money, and you shall drink.
  	For the L-rd your G-d has blessed you in all the work of your hand [(Therefore, do not manifest ingratitude for His bounty by showing yourselves poor, but show yourselves rich)]. He knew (i.e., provided for) your going through this vast desert. These forty years the L-rd your G-d has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
  	And we passed from our brothers, the sons of Esav, who dwelt in Seir, by way of the plain, from Eilath and from Etzyon Gaver. And we turned [north] and we passed by the desert of Moav, [proceeding on the eastern side].
  	And the L-rd said to me: Do not besiege Moav and do not incite a war against them; for I shall not give to you of his land as an inheritance; for to the children of Lot have I given Ar [(the province)] as an inheritance.
  	The Eimim [so called because men were in dread (eimah) of them] had dwelt there formerly, a people, great, many, and lofty, like the Anakim, [but this is not the land of Refaim that I promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:20)],
  	For they, [the Eimim], too, are reckoned refaim [(giants) so called because the hands of all who see them are "weakened" (mithrapoth)], like the Anakim, [who are called "refaim"]; and the Moavites called them "Eimim." [And I drove out the Eimim-Refaim and placed the children of Lot in their place].
  	And, [likewise,] in Seir, the Chorim dwelt formerly, and the sons of Esav would drive them out and destroy them before them, and they dwelt in their place, as Israel did in the land of its inheritance, which the L-rd gave to them.
  	Now, arise and cross over the stream of Zared. And we crossed over the stream of Zared.
  	And the days which we went from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the stream of Zared were thirty-eight years, until the end of all the generation of the men of war from the midst of the camp, as the L-rd swore to them.
  	And the hand of the L-rd was against them, too, to [hasten to] confound them from the midst of the camp until their end [within the forty years, so that their children be detained no longer in the desert.]
  	And it was, when all the men of war [(those from the age of twenty)] had finished dying from amidst the people,
  	That the L-rd spoke (vayedaber) to me, [the L-rd not having spoken to me directly and affectionately (this being the connotation of "vayedaber") all those years from the sending of the spies until now], saying:
  	You are passing this day the border of Moav, Ar.
  	And you shall draw opposite the children of Ammon [(whence it is seen that Ammon is to the north of Moav)]. Do not besiege them and do not incite them [at all (not only to war, as in the instance of Moav (9), this in reward for the modesty of their progenitor (the younger daughter of Lot, who, (unlike her sister) in naming her child concealed the fact that she had begotten him from her father (see Genesis 19:37-38)]. For I shall not give you of the land of the children of Ammon as an inheritance. For to the children of Lot have I given it as an inheritance.
  	That, too, was reckoned a land of refaim, [for] refaim dwelt there formerly (and the Ammonites called them zamzumim) [but this is not the land of the Refaim that I promised to Abraham],
  	A people, great, many, and lofty, like the Anakim. And the L-rd destroyed them before them (the Ammonites), and they drove them out and dwelt in their place.
  	As He did for the sons of Esav, who dwell in Seir, destroying the Chori before them. And they [progressively] drove them out, and they dwell in their place until this day.
  	And the Avim [Philistines], who dwelt in Chatzerim as far as Azzah [— Although by Abraham's oath to Avimelech, king of the Philistines, (Genesis 21:24), it would not be permitted to take their land], Kaftorim, who came out of Kaftor destroyed them [the Avim] and dwelt in their place, [so that it is now permitted to take that land.]
  	Arise, journey, and cross the stream of Arnon. See, I have given in your hand Sichon, the king of Cheshbon, the Emori, and his land. Begin to drive (him) out, and incite a war against him.
  	This day I shall begin to place your awe and your fear upon the face of the peoples under all the heavens, who will hear of your renown, and who will tremble and shudder before you [(whence it is derived that the sun stood still for Moses in this battle and it became known "under all the heavens.")]
  	And I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth [Sinai] to Sichon, king of Moav, (with) words of peace [(Though I was not commanded to seek peace with Sichon, I learned from the Torah (given at Sinai), which preceded (kadmah) the world (hence "kedemoth") to pursue peace, the Holy One Blessed be He (in pursuit of peace) offering the Torah to all of the other nations, though He knew they would not accept it, before He gave it to Israel)], saying:
  	Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the (main) road; I will turn neither right nor left.
  	You shall sell me food for money and I shall eat; and water for money shall you give me and I shall drink. Only let me pass through on my feet.
  	As there did for me [re food and drink] the sons of Esav, who dwell in Seir, and the Moavites, who dwell in Ar, until I cross the Jordan to the land that the L-rd our G-d is giving us.
  	But Sichon the king of Cheshbon would not allow us to pass through him. For the L-rd your G-d hardened his spirit and fortified his heart, to deliver him into your hand as of this day.
  	And the L-rd said to me: See, I have begun to give before you Sichon and his land [(He lowered the tutelary angel of the Emorites beneath Moses' feet and had them tread on his neck)]. Begin to drive (him) out, to inherit his land.
  	And Sichon went out against us, [(not sending to Og for assistance, each being "self-sufficient")], he and all his people, to war, to Yahatz.
  	And the L-rd our G-d delivered him before us, and we smote him and his sons [(The written form is "son" — he had a son as mighty as he)], and all his people.
  	And we conquered all of his cities at that time. And we laid waste the entire city: men, women, and children; we left no remnant.
  	Only the beasts did we take for ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we conquered.
  	From Aroer, by the bank of the stream of Arnon and the city by the stream until Gilead. There was no city which was too formidable for us. All, the L-rd our G-d delivered before us.
  	Only to the land of the children of Ammon did you not come near. All [that is] alongside the stream of Yabbok and the cities of the mountain, and all that the L-rd our G-d commanded [not to conquer, we left alone.]
  
  
  
  	And we turned and we went up [northwards, in an ascent] by way of the Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out against us, he and all of his people, to war in Edrei.
  	And the L-rd said to me: Do not fear him [(Moses needing this reassurance in view of Og's having abetted Abraham (see Genesis 14:13 and Numbers 21:34)], for in your hand have I given him and all of his people and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sichon king of the Emori who dwelt in Cheshbon.
  	And the L-rd our G-d gave into our hands also Og the king of Bashan and all his people. And we smote him until there did not remain of him a remnant.
  	And we conquered all of his cities at that time. There was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, the entire province of the palace, [the province being named after the palace], the kingdom of Og in the Bashan.
  	All these, cities fortified with a high wall, doors, and bolt, aside from very many unwalled cities.
  	And we [progressively] laid them waste, as we did to Sichon king of Cheshbon, laying waste every city: men, women, and children.
  	And every beast and the spoil of the cities we scorned [to take] for ourselves, [being already sated with the plunder of Sichon (2:35)].
  	And we took at that time the land from the rule of the two kings of the Emori across the Jordan, from the stream of Arnon until Mount Chermon.
  	The Tziddonim called Chermon Siryon, and the Emori called it S'nir ["snow" (Chermon had four names, this betokening the excellence of Eretz Yisrael, each of the four kings desiring that it be associated with him)].
  	All the cities of the plain and all of the Gilead and all of the Bashan until Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in the Bashan.
  	For only Og king of Bashan remained from the rest of the Refaim, [whom Amrafel and his allies killed in Ashteroth Karnayim, Og alone escaping (Genesis 14:5 and 14)]. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not (to be seen) in Rabbath B'nei Ammon? Nine cubits ("forearms") its length and four cubits its breadth in the cubit of a man [i.e., Og].
  	And this land, [from the stream of Arnon until Mount Chermon (8)] we inherited at that time. From Aroer by the stream of Arnon and half the mountain of Gilead and its cities I gave to the Reuveni and the Gadi.
  	And the remainder of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Menasheh, the entire province of the palace (see 4), with all the Bashan. That is called the land of Refaim [which I promised to Abraham.]
  	Yair the son of Menasheh took the entire province of the palace until the boundary of the Geshuri and the Ma'achathi. And he called them by his name — Bashan Chavoth Yair — until this day.
  	And to Machir I gave the Gilead.
  	And to the Reuveni and the Gadi I gave from the Gilead until the stream of Arnon, the entire stream and more [land beyond the bank], and until the stream of Yabbok, the boundary of the children of Ammon.
  	And the plain and the [width of the] Jordan [opposite Gad, who were on the east side of the Jordan] and more [land], from the Kinnereth [on the western side of the Jordan], until the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, beneath Ashdoth Hapisgah to the east.
  	And I charged you [the sons of Reuven and the sons of Gad] at that time, saying: The L-rd your G-d has given you this land to inherit. Armed shall you pass over before your brothers, the children of Israel, all men of war [They were warriors, who humbled the foe (viz. Numbers 32:17)].
  	Only your wives, your little ones, and your cattle — (for) I know that you have much cattle — shall abide in your cities which I gave to you.
  	Until the L-rd gives repose to your brothers as to you, and they, too, inherit the land which the L-rd your G-d gives to you across the Jordan; and (then) you shall return, each to his inheritance that I have given you.
  	And Joshua I charged at that time, saying: Your eyes that have seen all that the L-rd your G-d did to these two kings — thus shall the L-rd do to all of the kingdoms whither you pass.
  	Do not fear them, for the L-rd your G-d — it is He who wars for you.
  	And I entreated (va'ethchanan) the L-rd [lit., I asked a "gratuitous" favor of Him. (I did not "pin" it on my desert)], at that time [(after I conquered the land of Sichon and Og, thinking that His vow (that I not enter "the land") might thereby have been annulled (the land of Sichon and Og also being reckoned "the land")], saying:
  	O L-rd (Yod-Keh-Vav-Keh), G-d (Elokim) [Merciful in Judgment], You began to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand [in the war of Sichon and Og]; for who is Almighty in the heavens and in the earth to do as Your deeds and as Your strength? [— therefore, show me the war of the thirty-one kings (of Canaan in the conquest of Eretz Yisrael proper)].
  	Let me pass over and see, I pray You, the good land across the Jordan, this good mountain [Jerusalem] and the Levanon [the Temple].
  	And the L-rd was wroth with me because of you, and He did not heed me. And the L-rd said to me: Enough for you! Presume to speak to Me no more about this thing [(so that they not say: "How intransigent the Teacher and how importunate the disciple!")]
  	Go up to the top of the height and lift your eyes west and north and south and east; and see with your eyes [(You asked to be shown only the good land (25) — I will show you all of it!)], for you shall not cross this Jordan.
  	And charge Joshua [concerning their contentiousness, their heresy, and their caviling (1:12)], and strengthen him and hearten him [with your words, that he not lose heart and say: Just as my master was punished because of them (and could not enter the land), so will it be with me], for [I warrant that] he will pass over before this people and he will cause them to inherit the land that you shall see [(If he passes over before them, they will inherit it; if he does not, they will not.)]
  	And we abode in the valley opposite Beth Peor [and you succumbed to idolatry — in spite of which (below): "And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes, etc." and all will be forgiven you, whereas I did not merit such forgiveness!]
  
  
  
  	And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you to do, so that you may live and come and inherit the land which the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, gives to you.
  	You shall not add to the thing that I command you [e.g., placing five sections (instead of four) in the tefillin], and you shall not diminish therefrom, to heed the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d, which I command you.
  	(For it is) your (own) eyes that have seen what the L-rd did with (the worshippers of) Ba'al Peor. For every man that went after Ba'al Peor — the L-rd your G-d destroyed him from your midst.
  	But you who cleaved to the L-rd your G-d are all alive this day.
  	See, I have taught you statutes and judgments as the L-rd my G-d commanded me, to do thus in the midst of the land whither you come to inherit it.
  	And you shall heed [This is mishnah (learning)], and you shall do [what you have learned]. For this is your wisdom and your understanding [i.e., You will thereby be accounted wise and understanding] in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and who will say: Surely, a wise and understanding people is this great nation.
  	For who is a great nation which has a G-d near to it as the L-rd our G-d in all of our calling to Him?
  	And who is a great nation which has righteous statutes and judgments as all of this Torah which I place before you this day?
  	Only take heed to yourself, and heed your soul exceedingly, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. [Only if you do not forget them and do them as prescribed will you be thought wise and understanding; but if you distort them through forgetfulness, you will be accounted foolish.] And you shall impart them to your sons and to the sons of your sons.
  	["Lest you forget the things (the sounds and the lightnings) which your eyes saw" on] the day when you stood before the L-rd your G-d in Chorev, when the L-rd said to me: Assemble the people unto Me, and I shall make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.
  	And you drew near and you stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned in fire until the heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and mist.
  	And the L-rd spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sounds of words, but you did not see a likeness, only a sound.
  	And He told you His covenant, which He commanded you to do, the ten commandments. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
  	And the L-rd commanded me at that time to teach you [the oral law], statutes and judgments, to do them in the land whither you are crossing to inherit it.
  	And you shall take great heed to your souls. For you did not see any likeness on the day that the L-rd spoke to you in Chorev from the midst of the fire.
  	Lest you corrupt yourselves and make for yourselves a graven image of the likeness of any form, the figure of male or female,
  	The figure of any beast that is on the earth, the figure of any winged bird which flies in the heaven,
  	The figure of any thing that creeps on the ground, the figure of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
  	And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens [to gaze upon the luminaries and to stray after them], and you see the sun and the moon and the stars — all the host of heaven — and you go astray and bow down to them and serve them, which the L-rd your G-d allotted to all the peoples under all of the heavens [to provide illumination for them].
  	And you did the L-rd take, and He brought you forth from the iron crucible, from Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance as of this day.
  	And the L-rd was wroth with me because of your deeds, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not come to the good land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you as an inheritance.
  	For I shall die in this land; I [i.e., even my bones] shall not cross the Jordan. And you shall cross and inherit this good land.
  	Take heed unto yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the L-rd your G-d that He made with you and you make for yourselves a graven image of the likeness of any [thing] that the L-rd your G-d has commanded you [not to make].
  	For the L-rd your G-d is a consuming fire, a jealous G-d ["jealous" in vengeance to exact punishment of idolators].
  	When you bear sons and sons of sons and grow old (venoshantem) in the land [(an intimation that they would be exiled at the end of 852 years (this being the gematria of "venoshantem"). But He exiled them two years before, so that they not be subject to "you will go utterly lost" (26)], and you corrupt yourselves and you make a graven image of the likeness of any [thing], and you do what is evil in the eyes of the L-rd your G-d to anger Him,
  	I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day [that I have warned you] that you will go utterly lost, quickly, from the land whither you are crossing the Jordan to inherit it. You will not prolong days upon it, for you will be utterly destroyed.
  	And the L-rd will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations whither the L-rd will lead you.
  	And you will serve gods there [(By serving their worshippers, it is as if you serve them)], the work of the hands of man, wood and stone, which do not see and do not hear and do not eat and do not smell.
  	And you will seek from there the L-rd your G-d, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
  	In your affliction, when all these things come upon you, in the end of days, then you shall return to the L-rd your G-d and you shall hearken to His voice.
  	For a G-d of mercy is the L-rd your G-d. He will not let go of you and He will not destroy you, and He will not forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.
  	For ask, now, concerning the first days which were before you, from the day G-d created man upon the earth, [and ask also of all the creations] from one end of the heavens to the other end: Has there ever been the like of this great thing or has its like ever been heard?
  	[the "great thing":] Has a people ever heard the voice of G-d speaking from the midst of the fire as you have and lived?
  	Or has a god ever done miracles to come and take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation with [self-imposed] trials, [by which He manifested His strength, e.g., (Exodus 8:5): "Presume to test me, etc." to see whether I can do so], with signs, [confirming Moses as G-d's messenger, e.g., (Ibid. 4:2): "What is this in your hand, etc."], and with wonders, [such as the "wondrous" plagues], and with war, [at the Red Sea, viz. (Ibid. 14:25): "For the L-rd wars for them"], and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terrors, as all that the L-rd your G-d did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
  	You have been shown to know that the L-rd, He is G-d; there is none beside Him. [When the Holy One Blessed be He gave the Torah, He opened the seven heavens and the lower regions, and they saw that He was One].
  	From the heavens He made you hear His voice to exhort you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and His words you heard from the midst of the fire.
  	And [all this] because He loved your fathers and He chose their seed after them; and He took you out before Him [as a father leads his son before him (see Exodus 14:19)] with His great strength from Egypt.
  	To drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you, to give to you their land as an inheritance as [you see] this day.
  	And you shall know this day, and you shall set it to your heart, that the L-rd, He is G-d, in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is none else.
  	And you shall keep His statutes and His mitzvoth which I command you this day, which will confer good upon you and your children after you, and so that you prolong days upon the land that the L-rd your G-d gives you all of the days.
  	Then Moses would set apart three cities [i.e., He resolved to set them apart (even though they would not serve as cities of refuge until those in the land of Canaan had been designated, Moses seizing upon the mitzvah that came to hand)], across the Jordan towards the rising of the sun [i.e., on the east of the Jordan].
  	To flee there a slayer who slays his neighbor unwittingly, not having hated him heretofore; and he shall flee to one of these cities and he shall live.
  	Betzer in the desert in the land of the plain for the Reuveni, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gileadi, and Golan in Bashan for the Menashi.
  	And this [(that which follows)] is the Torah which Moses placed before the children of Israel.
  	These [which follow] are the [same] testimonies and statutes and judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they went out of Egypt.
  	[He repeated them in the plains of Moav] across the Jordan [on the east], in the valley, opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sichon king of the Emori, who dwelt in Cheshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote when they went out of Egypt.
  	And they inherited his land and the land of Og the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Emori, who were across the Jordan on the east.
  	From Aroer, which is by the bank of the stream of Arnon, until Mount Sion, which is Chermon.
  	And the entire plain across the Jordan to the east until the sea of the plain beneath Ashdoth Hapisgah.
  
  
  
  	And Moses called to all of Israel and he said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your ears this day, and learn and observe them to do them.
  	The L-rd our G-d made a covenant with us in Chorev.
  	Not with our fathers [alone] did the L-rd make this covenant, but with us — we — these who are here today, all of us living.
  	Face to face [and not through an intermediary (whom you might accuse of dissimulation)] did the L-rd speak with you in the mountain from the midst of the fire.
  	I stood between the L-rd and you at that time to relate to you the word of the L-rd, for you were awed before the fire and you did not ascend the mountain. [(4): "…did the L-rd speak with you"], saying:
  	[see Exodus 20:1-14] I am the L-rd your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
  	There shall not be unto you gods of others before My presence [i.e., wherever I am — the entire world].
  	You shall not make for yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything which is in the heavens above or in the earth below, or in the waters beneath the earth.
  	You shall not bow down to them and you shall not serve them, for I am the L-rd your G-d, a jealous G-d, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, and for the third and the fourth generations to those who hate Me,
  	And doing lovingkindness for thousands, for My lovers and the keepers of My mitzvoth.
  	You shall not take the name of the L-rd your G-d in vain, for the L-rd will not absolve him who takes His name in vain.
  	Keep the Sabbath day to set it apart ["Remember" (Exodus 20:8) and "Keep" were stated in one pronouncement, spoken in one word, and heard in one hearing)], as the L-rd your G-d commanded you [before the giving of the Torah, in Marah].
  	Six days shall you work, and you shall do all of your labor.
  	And the seventh day is Sabbath to the L-rd your G-d. You shall not perform any labor: you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and your ox, and your ass, and all of your beasts, and your sojourner in your gates, so that your man-servant and your maid-servant rest like you.
  	And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the L-rd your G-d took you out of there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm [so that you would be His servants and keep His mitzvoth]; therefore, the L-rd your G-d commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
  	Honor your father and your mother, as the L-rd your G-d commanded you [in Marah (see Exodus 15:25)], so that your days be prolonged and so that it be good for you on the land which the L-rd your G-d gives to you.
  	You shall not kill. And you shall not commit adultery. And you shall not steal. And you shall not testify against your neighbor false testimony.
  	And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, and his man-servant, and his maid-servant, his ox, and his ass, and all that belongs to your neighbor.
  	These things the L-rd spoke to all of your congregation on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness — a great voice, and it did not cease, [His voice being strong and everlasting]. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and He gave them to me.
  	And it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, and the mountain burning in fire, that you drew near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
  	And you said: Behold, the L-rd our G-d has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we heard His voice from the midst of the fire. This day we saw that G-d may speak with a man and he live!
  	And now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we continue hearing the voice of the L-rd our G-d we shall die.
  	For who is there of all flesh who heard the voice of the living G-d speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?
  	You draw near and hear all that the L-rd our G-d says, and you ["at," the feminine form (Moses saying: You rendered me weak (as a woman) by saying this. Were it not better to draw near to Him in love and hear it from Him rather than from me!)], speak to us all that the L-rd our G-d will speak to you, and we shall hear and we shall do.
  	And the L-rd heard the voice of your words in speaking to me. And the L-rd said to me: I have heard the voice of the words of this people that they spoke to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.
  	Would that this heart of theirs were in them to fear Me and to keep all of My mitzvoth all of the days so that it be good for them and for their children forever!
  	Go, say to them: Return you to your tents.
  	And you, stand here with Me, and I shall speak to you all the mitzvah and the statutes and the judgments that you shall teach them and that they shall do in the land that I give them to inherit.
  	And you shall observe to do as the L-rd your G-d commanded you; you shall not turn right or left.
  	In all the way that the L-rd your G-d commanded you shall you go, so that you live and it be good for you, and you prolong days in the land that you shall inherit.
  
  
  
  	And this is the mitzvah, the statutes and the judgments that the L-rd your G-d commanded to teach you to do in the land whither you are crossing over to inherit it —
  	So that you fear the L-rd your G-d to keep all of His statutes and His mitzvoth that I command you — you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days are prolonged.
  	And you shall hear, Israel, and you shall observe to do, so that it be good for you and so that you increase greatly, as the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, spoke to you — ("to inherit it":) a land flowing milk and honey.
  	Hear, O Israel, the L-rd [who is] our G-d [now, and not the G-d of the peoples — He is destined to be] the one L-rd.
  	And you shall love the L-rd your G-d [(Do His mitzvoth out of love)], with all your heart [(with both of your inclinations)] and with all your soul [(even if He takes your soul)] and with all your might [(with all your wealth — this, for one whose wealth is more beloved of him than his soul)].
  	["And you shall love, etc." What is this love?] And these things that I command you this day [(They should be like a "new edict" to you)] shall be upon your heart [(for you thereby come to know the Holy One Blessed be He and to cleave to His ways)].
  	And you shall teach them (veshinantam) to your sons [lit., "and they (words of Torah) shall be sharp" (in your mouth), so that if one questions you concerning them you will not stammer but answer him forthwith ("sons" here are disciples, and teachers are called "fathers")]. And you shall speak [primarily] in them [words of Torah] in your sitting in your house and in your walking upon the way and in your lying down [i.e., the time of lying down] and in your rising [i.e., the time of rising].
  	And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand [(the arm phylactery)], and they shall be frontlets (totafoth) [denoting "four" (Scriptural sections)] between your eyes [(the head phylactery)].
  	And you shall write them on the doorposts (mezuzoth) of your house ["mezuzoth" is written defective (without the vav after the first zayin), indicating that only one mezuzah (per doorpost) is needed], and on your gates [(including the gates of courtyards, provinces, and cities)].
  	And it shall be, when the L-rd your G-d brings you to the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you, great and good cities that you did not build,
  	And houses full of all good that you did not fill, hewn cisterns [(the ground being rocky)], which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive groves, which you did not plant, and you shall eat and be sated —
  	Take heed unto yourselves lest you forget the L-rd, who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
  	The L-rd your G-d shall you fear, and Him shall you serve, and [only then (if you fear and serve Him)] in His name may you swear [(for you will then be circumspect in your oath; but otherwise, do not swear in His name)].
  	Do not follow after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are around you [i.e., Be especially heedful of the latter in that their proximity presents an immediate danger.]
  	For a jealous G-d is the L-rd your G-d in your midst. Lest the wrath of the L-rd your G-d burn against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the ground.
  	Do not try the L-rd your G-d as you tried Him in Massah [when they went out of Egypt and they tried Him with water (Exodus 17:7)].
  	Heed diligently the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d, and His testimonies and statutes which He commanded you.
  	And you shall do what is just and what is good in the eyes of the L-rd [i.e., compromise, beyond the strict letter of the law], so that He do good to you, and you come and inherit the good land that the L-rd swore to your forefathers.
  	To thrust out all of your foes before you, as the L-rd spoke [(Exodus 23:27): "And I shall confound all the people, etc."]
  	If your son ask you in time to come, saying: What are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the L-rd our G-d commanded you?
  	Then you shall say to your son: We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the L-rd took us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
  	And the L-rd wrought signs and wonders, great and sore, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against his whole household, before our eyes.
  	And he took us thence in order to bring us to give to us the land that He swore to our fathers.
  	And the L-rd commanded us to do all of these statutes to fear the L-rd our G-d so that it be good for us all of the days, to keep us in life, as this day.
  	And it shall be [accounted] righteousness to us if we observe to do all of this mitzvah before the L-rd our G-d as He commanded us.
  
  
  
  	When the L-rd your G-d brings you to the land whither you come to inherit it, and He casts out many nations before you: the Chitti, the Girgashi, the Emori, the Canaani, the Perizi, the Chivi, and the Yevussi — seven nations more numerous and mightier than you.
  	And the L-rd your G-d delivers them before you and you smite them — lay them waste. You shall not make a covenant with them and you shall not grant them grace [(It is forbidden to say: "How beautiful is this heathen!")].
  	And you shall not intermarry with them: Your daughter you shall not give to his son, and his daughter you shall not take for your son.
  	For he [your heathen son-in-law] will turn your son [i.e., your grandson] away from Me, [(whence it is seen that your daughter's son by a gentile is called your son (but not your son's son born to a gentile woman, it not being written "For she will turn, etc.")], and they will serve other gods, and the wrath of the L-rd will burn in you, and He will destroy you quickly.
  	But thus shall you do to them: Their [built-up] altars shall you destroy, and their monuments [of one stone] shall you break, and their asheirah trees, [which they worship] shall you cut down, and their graven images shall you burn with fire.
  	For a holy nation are you to the L-rd your G-d. In you has the L-rd your G-d chosen to be unto Him a select people of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
  	Not because you are more numerous than all the peoples did the L-rd desire you and choose you, for you are the smallest of all the peoples.
  	But out of the L-rd's love for you and in keeping with His oath that He swore to your fathers did the L-rd take you out with a strong hand, and He redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
  	And you shall know that the L-rd your G-d is the god, the faithful G-d, guarding the covenant and the lovingkindness for His lovers [those who do the mitzvoth out of love], and for the keepers of His mitzvoth [out of fear] for a thousand generations, [(but for "His lovers," for "thousands" (5:10)].
  	And He pays His haters to his face [He pays him the recompense for his good, in his lifetime] to make him go lost [from the world to come]. He shall not delay to [pay] His hater; to his face shall He pay him.
  	And you shall keep the mitzvah and the statutes and the judgments which I command you today to do them; [and, tomorrow, in the world to come, you will receive their reward.]
  	And it shall be, if (ekev) you hearken to these judgments, and heed them and do them [i.e., if you observe the relatively slight mitzvoth, which men are wont to tread under their heel (ekev)], then the L-rd your G-d will keep for you [His oath re] the covenant and the lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.
  	And He will love you and bless you and multiply you, and He will bless the fruit of your belly and the fruit of your earth: your corn and your wine and your oil, your kine sprung [from the womb] and your choice ones of the flock on the earth which He swore to your fathers to give to you.
  	Blessed shall you be of all the peoples. There shall not be among you a barren male or female, or among your beasts.
  	And the L-rd shall remove from you every ill. And all the sore travails of Egypt which you knew, He shall not place in you, but He shall place them in all of your haters.
  	And you shall devour all the peoples that the L-rd your G-d delivers unto you. Let your eye have no mercy upon them and do not serve their gods; for it is a snare unto you.
  	Lest you say in your heart: (Many) more are these nations than I — How will I be able to drive them out!
  	— You shall not fear them. Remember well what the L-rd your G-d did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt.
  	The great trials that your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders (see 4:34), and the strong hand [the (plague of) pestilence], and the outstretched arm [the "sword" of the plague of the first-born] wherewith the L-rd your G-d took you out. Thus shall the L-rd your G-d do to all of the peoples whom you fear.
  	And also the tzirah [a kind of flying insect, which poisoned them, and castrated them, and blinded their eyes wherever they were hiding] will the L-rd your G-d send against them, until there shall perish the remnant and the hidden from before you.
  	Do not break before them, for the L-rd your G-d is in your midst, a great and awesome G-d.
  	And the L-rd your G-d will cast out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to consume them quickly, lest there increase against you the animals of the field.
  	And the L-rd your G-d shall deliver them before you. And He shall confound them with a great confusion until they are destroyed.
  	And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall cause their name to go lost from under the heavens. A man will not stand up against you until you have destroyed them.
  	The graven images of their gods shall you burn in fire. You shall not covet the silver and the gold upon them and take it to you lest you be ensnared by it. For it is the abomination of the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be rejected as it is. Despise shall you despise it and abominate shall you abominate it; for it is rejected.
  
  
  
  	Every mitzvah which I command to you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live and multiply, and come and inherit the land that the L-rd your G-d swore to your fathers.
  	And you shall remember all the way in which the L-rd your G-d led you this forty years in the desert, to afflict you to test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvoth [without trying Him or "bethinking yourself" of Him], or not.
  	And He afflicted you, and He made you hunger, and He fed you the manna, which you did not know, and which your fathers did not know, to make it known to you that not through bread alone shall a man live, but by all that issues from the mouth of the L-rd shall a man live.
  	Your raiment did not wear out from upon you [The clouds of glory would rub their clothing clean, and the garments of children would grow to match their growth], and your feet did not swell [like dough (as occurs with those who go barefoot)] this forty years.
  	And you shall know within your heart that as a man afflicts his son, so does the L-rd your G-d afflict you.
  	And you shall keep the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d, to walk in His ways and fear Him.
  	For the L-rd your G-d is bringing you to a good land, a land of streams of water, fountains and depths, issuing forth in valleys and in mountains.
  	A land of wheat, barley, grapevine, fig, and pomegranate; a land of olive-oil and honey.
  	A land where not in constraint shall you eat bread. You shall lack nothing in it; a land whose stones are iron and from whose mountains you shall hew copper.
  	And you shall eat, and you shall be sated, and you shall bless the L-rd your G-d for the good land that He has given you.
  	Take heed unto yourself lest you forget the L-rd your G-d, not to keep His mitzvoth and His judgments and His statutes that I command you this day.
  	Lest you eat and be sated, and you build and inhabit good houses,
  	And your herds and your flocks increase, and silver and gold increase for you, and whatever you have increase,
  	And your heart be lifted and you forget the L-rd your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage,
  	Who led you in the great, awesome desert of snake, serpent, scorpion and waterless drought, who brought forth water for you from the rock of flint,
  	Who fed you manna in the desert, which your fathers did not know, in order to afflict you and in order to try you, to benefit you in your latter end,
  	And you say in your heart: My strength and the might of my hand have wrought this wealth for me —
  	Then you shall remember the L-rd your G-d. For it is He who gives you strength to prosper, to establish His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as of this day.
  	And it shall be, if you forget the L-rd your G-d and walk after other gods and serve them and bow down to them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely go lost.
  	As the nations which the L-rd causes to go lost from before you, so will you go lost, for you did not hearken to the voice of the L-rd your G-d.
  
  
  
  	Hear, O Israel, you are crossing over the Jordan today to come to inherit nations who are greater and mightier than you [(You are mighty, but they are mightier than you)], great cities, and fortified in the heavens.
  	A people great and lofty, the sons of Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard (saying): Who can stand up against the sons of Anak!
  	And you shall know this day that the L-rd your G-d — He crosses over before you, a consuming fire. He shall destroy them and He shall humble them before you. And you shall drive them out, and you shall cause them to go lost quickly, as the L-rd has spoken to you.
  	Do not say in your heart, when the L-rd your G-d thrusts them from before you: In my righteousness did the L-rd bring me to inherit this land, and that because of the wickedness of these nations [together with your righteousness] the L-rd drives them out before you.
  	Not in your righteousness and in the uprightness of your heart do you come to inherit their land, but in the wickedness of these nations does the L-rd your G-d drive them out before you, and to establish the thing that the L-rd swore to your fathers: to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
  	And you shall know that it is not in your righteousness that the L-rd your G-d gives you this good land to inherit it, for you are a stiff-necked people.
  	Remember, do not forget, your having angered the L-rd your G-d in the desert. From the day you left the land of Egypt until your coming to this place, you have been rebellious against the L-rd.
  	And in Chorev you angered the L-rd, and the L-rd was wroth with you to destroy you.
  	When I went up to the mountain to take the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the L-rd made with you. And I was kept in the mountain forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat, and water I did not drink.
  	And the L-rd gave me the two tablets of stone, [(both were alike)], written with the finger of G-d; and on them as all the things that the L-rd spoke with you in the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
  	And it was at the end of forty days and forty nights that the L-rd gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
  	And the L-rd said to me: Arise, descend quickly hence. For the people that you took out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made a molten image.
  	And the L-rd said to me: I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
  	Quit Me and I shall destroy them, and I shall erase their name from beneath the heavens, and I shall make you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.
  	And I turned, and I went down from the mountain. And the mountain burned in fire, and the two tablets of stone on my two hands.
  	And I saw, and, behold, you had sinned against the L-rd your G-d; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned quickly from the way that the L-rd had commanded you.
  	And I took hold of the two tablets and I cast them from my two hands, and I broke them before your eyes.
  	And I prostrated myself before the L-rd as at first (see Exodus 33:30), forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat, and water I did not drink, because of all your sins wherein you had sinned, to do the evil in the eyes of the L-rd to anger Him.
  	For I was affrighted before the anger and the wrath wherein the L-rd was wroth against you to destroy you. And the L-rd hearkened to me at that time too.
  	And against Aaron was the L-rd extremely wroth, [(for having heeded them)], to destroy him [(This connotes the killing of his children)], and I prayed also on Aaron's behalf at that time [(and my prayer availed to atone for half, two of his sons remaining alive)].
  	And your sin that you wrought — the calf — I took it and I burnt it in fire, and I crushed it, grinding it down, until it was thin as dust. And I cast its dust into the stream that ran down from the mountain.
  	And in Taveirah and in Massah and in Kivroth Hata'avah you roused the ire of the L-rd.
  	And when the L-rd sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying: Go up and possess the land that I have given you, you rebelled against the word of the L-rd your G-d, and you did not believe Him, and you did not hearken to His voice.
  	You were rebellious against the L-rd from the day I knew you!
  	And I prostrated myself before the L-rd the forty days and the forty nights that I did, for the L-rd had spoken to destroy you.
  	And I prayed to the L-rd and I said: O L-rd G-d, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance that You redeemed in Your greatness, that You took out of Egypt with a strong hand.
  	Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not turn to the hardness of this people, and to its wickedness, and to its sin.
  	Lest they [the people of] the land whence you brought us forth say: Because the L-rd was not able to bring them to the land whereof He spoke to them, and in His hatred of them, He took them out to put them to death in the desert —
  	And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You took out in Your great strength and with Your outstretched arm.
  
  
  
  	At that time [(at the end of forty days)] the L-rd said to me: Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and ascend to Me to the mountain and make for yourself an ark of wood [(This was not the ark which Bezalel made, but a different one, which went out with them to war.)]
  	And I shall write upon the tablets the words which were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall place them in the ark.
  	And I made an ark of acacia wood [(before hewing the tablets so that it would be ready to receive them)], and I hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and I ascended the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
  	And He wrote on the tablets like the first writing, the ten commandments which the L-rd spoke to you from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly, and the L-rd gave them to me.
  	And I turned and I descended the mountain, and I placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, and they were (contained) there, as the L-rd had commanded me.
  	And the children of Israel journeyed from Be'eroth B'nai Ya'akan to Moserah. [This, too, is part of the reproof, viz.: This, too, did you do. When Aaron died in Hor Hahar at the end of forty days and the clouds of glory departed, you feared war with the king of Arad and you turned to go back to Egypt. You retraced eight journeys until B'nai Ya'akan, and thence to Moserah, where the sons of Levi warred with you (many being killed on both sides), until they forced you to retrace your retreat.] There [in Moserah] Aaron died [i.e., You made great mourning over Aaron, whose death had led to all this, so that it seemed to you as if he had died there,] and he was buried there [see Numbers 21:4]. And Elazar his son was Cohein in his place. [(This reproof is juxtaposed with that of the breaking of the tablets by way of showing that the death of the righteous is as grievous to the Holy One Blessed be He as the day of the breaking of the tablets, and that their saying "Let us make a head, etc." to abandon Him (see Numbers 14:4) is as grievous as the day on which they made the golden calf.)]
  	From there they journeyed [i.e., they returned] to Gudgodah [the same as Chor Hagidgad (Numbers 33:32)], and from Gudgodah to Yatvathah, a land of streams of water.
  	At that time [(a reversion to the beginning, i.e., In the first year of the exodus from Egypt, when you sinned with the golden calf, and the tribe of Levi did not sin)], the L-rd set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the L-rd [(This is juxtaposed with the retreat to B'nai Ya'akan to show that there, too, the tribe of Levi did not waver but were staunch in their faith)], to stand before the L-rd [(This refers to the Cohanim)] to minister unto Him and to bless His name [(the priestly blessing)] until this day.
  	Therefore, [because they were set apart for the service of the altar and are not free to plow and to sow], Levi did not have a portion and an inheritance with his brothers; the L-rd is his inheritance [i.e., he has a "steady stipend" from the king's house], as the L-rd your G-d spoke to him.
  	And I stood on the mountain [to receive the second tablets] as (I did) the first days, [those of receiving the first tablets], forty days and forty nights [(Just as they were days of favor, so were these; but the intervening ones, when I stood there to pray on your behalf, were days of anger.)] And the L-rd hearkened unto me at that time, too: the L-rd did not want to destroy you.
  	And the L-rd said to me: Arise, go to journey before the people [(Though you had turned away from Him and made the golden calf, He said to me (Exodus 32:34): "Go, lead the people, etc.")], so that they come and inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.
  	And now, O Israel, [even though you have done all this, His compassion and love are still with you; and — with all of your sins against Him —] what does the L-rd your G-d ask of you but to fear the L-rd your G-d, to walk in all of His ways, to love Him, and to serve the L-rd your G-d with all of your heart and with all of your soul,
  	To keep the mitzvoth of the L-rd and His statutes that I command you this day [— and even that, not without recompense, but] for your good [i.e., to receive reward].
  	Behold, to the L-rd your G-d are the heavens and the heavens of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, [in spite of which, of all the creations],
  	Only your fathers did the L-rd desire to love them; and He chose their seed after them — you, [as you see yourselves desired of all peoples], as of this day.
  	And you shall circumcise the foreskin [i.e., the closure] of your hearts, and your necks shall you stiffen no more.
  	For the L-rd your G-d — He is the G-d of gods and the L-rd of lords [No lord can rescue you from His hand], the great, mighty, awesome G-d, who will not forgive [if you cast off His yoke] and who will not take graft [i.e., He cannot be conciliated with money].
  	He does the judgment of orphan and widow ["Where you find His might, you find His humility"], and He loves the stranger, to give him bread and clothing, [the very essence of Jacob's supplication to the L-rd (Genesis 28:20)].
  	And you shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt [Do not ascribe your own blemish to others.]
  	The L-rd your G-d shall you fear, Him shall you serve, and to Him shall you cleave, and [only then,] in His name may you swear [see 6:13].
  	He is your glory and He is your G-d, who did with you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.
  	With seventy souls did your fathers go down to Egypt, and now, the L-rd your G-d has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.
  
  
  
  	And you shall love the L-rd your G-d, and you shall keep His keeping and His statutes and His judgments and His mitzvoth all of the days.
  	And you shall know this day [Give heart to know and to understand and to accept my reproof], for it is not [with] your children [that I speak now], who did not know and who did not see the chastisement of the L-rd your G-d, His greatness, His strong hand, and His outstretched arm,
  	And His signs and His deeds which He wrought in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land,
  	And what He wrought to the host of Egypt, to his horses and to his chariots, flooding the waters of the Red Sea over their faces when they pursued you (and the L-rd caused them to go lost until this day),
  	And what He wrought for you in the desert until you came to this place,
  	And what He wrought against Dathan and Aviram the sons of Eliav the son of Reuven, the earth opening its mouth and swallowing them and their houses, and their tents, and all of the wealth at their feet in the midst of all of Israel [Wherever one of them would flee, the earth would split beneath him and swallow him] —
  	("It is not with your children, who did not know, etc." (2), with whom I speak now,) but [with you,] whose eyes have seen the entire great deed of the L-rd, that He has wrought.
  	And you shall keep the entire mitzvah that I command you this day, so that you be strengthened and come and inherit the land whither you are crossing to inherit it.
  	And so that you prolong days on the land that the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing milk and honey.
  	For [(as they were assured when they left Egypt)] the land whither you are coming to inherit it is not like the land of Egypt [Ramses, the very best of the land of Egypt], from which you went forth, [but it is superior even to Ramses], where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot [i.e., You had to go by foot to bring water from the Nile to water your land], as [it is necessary to do with] a garden of herbs, [rain alone not sufficing for it],
  	But the land whither you are crossing to inherit it is a land of mountains and plains, [(yet you may sleep soundly there. For unlike Egypt, where you had to carry water from the low places to the high, in Eretz Yisrael the Holy One Blessed be He waters everything, high and low, seen and unseen, alike)] — From the rain of the heavens you will drink water.
  	A land which the L-rd your G-d inquires after, [(the allotment for other lands depending upon this "inquiry")]. Always, the eyes of the L-rd your G-d are in it [for the ascertainment of its needs and for the making of decrees (sometimes for the good, sometimes otherwise)], from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. [On Rosh Hashanah the land is judged for what is to transpire in it until the end of the year.]
  	And it shall be [i.e., "From the rain of the heavens you will drink water" (11)] if you hearken, hearken [(i.e., If you hearken to the old, you will "hear" the new)] to My mitzvoth which I command you this day [(They should be "new" to you, as if you had heard them "this day")], to love the L-rd your G-d [(Do not study in order to be rich or honored or rewarded; but do all out of love, and the rest is bound to come)], and to serve Him with all your [(plural)] heart ["service of the heart," i.e., prayer], and with all your [(plural)] soul [(an exhortation to the community; verse 6:5 is an exhortation to the individual)],
  	Then I shall give the rain of your land [(You, doing what is yours, I shall do what is Mine)] in its (proper) time [(at night, so as not to incommode you)], the yoreh, [the rain which falls after sowing, which "saturates" (marveh) the ground], and the malkosh, [the "latter" rain, which falls before the harvest to ripen the grain], and you [and not your foes] will gather in your corn, and your wine and your oil.
  	And I shall give grass in your field to your beasts [(You will not need to lead them to other fields)]; and you will eat and you will be sated [(Your bread will be "blessed" in your stomach.)]
  	Take heed unto yourselves lest [eating and being sated] your hearts be enticed, [one rebelling against the L-rd only out of satiety (see 8:12-14)], and you go astray, [separating yourselves from the Torah], and [as a result] you [come to] serve other gods, ["others," i.e., "strangers," to those who serve them — being cried out to and not answering], and you bow down to them.
  	And the wrath of the L-rd will burn against you, and He will hold back the heavens and there will not be rain, and the ground will not yield [even] yevulah [what you bring (movil) to it], and [in addition to all of the other afflictions], you will go lost quickly [into exile] from the good land that the L-rd gives you, [the fatness of the land having caused you to sin. ("quickly"): unlike the generation of the flood, which was given a grace period; for you had from whom to learn, whereas they did not.]
  	And you shall place these, My words, upon your heart and upon your souls [(Even after you are exiled, be distinctive with mitzvoth: Put on tefillin, affix mezuzoth, so that they not be new to you when you return)]. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they shall be frontlets between your eyes.
  	And you shall teach them to your sons to speak through them [(As soon as your son is ready to speak, teach him (33:4): "Torah did Moses command us" to initiate him into speaking)], in your sitting in your house, and in your walking upon the way, and in your lying down, and in your arising.
  	And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.
  	So that your days be prolonged and the days of your children [(But if not, they will not be prolonged)], on the land that the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to them [(a Scriptural allusion to the resurrection)], as the days of heaven upon the earth.
  	For if you keep, keep, all of this mitzvah that I command you to do [(an exhortation to many "keepings," that one take care not to forget his learning)], to love the L-rd your G-d, to walk in all His ways [i.e., As He is merciful, so you be merciful, etc.], and to cleave to Him [(Cleaving to Torah scholars is accounted cleaving to the L-rd)],
  	Then the L-rd will drive out all these nations from before you [(You, doing what is yours, I shall do what is Mine)], and you will inherit nations greater and mightier than you [(You are mighty, but they are mightier than you)].
  	Every place where the soles of your feet tread shall be yours. From the desert and the Levanon, from the river, the river Perath, until the western sea shall be your border.
  	No man [— even one like Og, the king of Bashan —] will stand up against you. Fear of you [(on the part of those near you)] and dread of you [(on the part of those distant)] shall the L-rd G-d place on the face of all the land where you will tread, as He spoke to you [viz. Exodus 23:27].
  	Behold, I set before you this day blessing and curse, [those (to be) pronounced in Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival].
  	The blessing, so that you hearken to the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d, which I command you this day.
  	And the curse, if you do not hearken to the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d and you turn away from the way that I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you did not know, [whence it is derived that serving idolatry is tantamount to denying the entire Torah ("the way")].
  	And it shall be, when the L-rd your G-d brings you to the land whither you come to inherit it, that you shall set the blessers towards Mount Gerizim and the cursers towards Mount Eival. [The blessers face Mount Gerizim and recite: "Blessed is the man who does not make a graven or a molten image," and then they turn to Mount Eival and recite the corresponding curse, viz. (27:15): "Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molten image," etc.]
  	Are they [the mountains] not beyond the passage of the Jordan towards the setting of the sun [the west], in the land of the Canaani, who dwells in the plain, distant from Gilgal, near Eilonei Moreh [Shchem]?
  	When you cross the Jordan to come to inherit the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you, [the miracles that you experience then will be a sign to you that] you will inherit it and you will dwell in it.
  	And you shall observe to do all of the statutes and the judgments that I set before you this day.
  
  
  
  	These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall observe to do in the land which the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, gave to you to inherit, all the days that you live upon the earth.
  	Destroy shall you destroy [(whence it is derived that in destroying idolatry one must uproot it entirely)], from all of the places where the nations which you are inheriting worshipped, their gods [which are] on the high mountains and on the hills and under every leafy tree.
  	And you shall raze their altars [of many stones] and you shall break their monuments [of one stone], and their asheiroth [trees that they worship] shall you burn in fire, and the graven images of their gods shall you cut down, and you shall cause their name to go lost from that place [by giving it a new, demeaning name].
  	You shall not do thus [to offer sacrifices in all places] to the L-rd your G-d.
  	But to the place that the L-rd your G-d will choose from all your tribes to place His name there; His dwelling [the sanctuary of Shiloh] shall you inquire after, and you shall come there.
  	And you shall bring there your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices [obligatory peace-offerings] and your tithes [the beast-tithe and ma'aser sheni], and the offering of your hands [first-fruits], and your vows and your gifts, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks [to give them to the Cohein to be sacrificed there].
  	And you shall eat there before the L-rd your G-d, and you shall rejoice in all to which you put your hand; you and your households. [Bring offerings in accordance with the blessing] wherewith the L-rd your G-d has blessed you.
  	[(11:31): "When you cross the Jordan, etc." and you are permitted to sacrifice on bamoth (temporary altars) all the fourteen years of conquest and apportionment of the land], you shall not do [i.e., you shall not sacrifice upon the bamoth] according to all that we do here today [in the tabernacle (mishkan) that is with you and which is anointed and fit for sin-offerings, guilt-offerings, and vow and gift-offerings, but] a man [may offer on the bamoth, only] all that is fitting in his eyes [i.e., vow and gift-offerings].
  	For you will not yet have come [all those fourteen years] to the rest [Shiloh] and to the inheritance [Jerusalem] that the L-rd your G-d gives you.
  	And you will cross the Jordan, and you will dwell in the land that the L-rd your G-d causes you to inherit. [After you apportion it and each one knows his portion and (that of) his tribe], and He gives you rest from all of your foes roundabout [which He left there to test you], and you dwell secure [(This did not transpire until the days of David)] —
  	[Only then] the place the L-rd your G-d shall choose to repose His name therein — [(build the Temple in Jerusalem. All of this occurred as stated (see II Samuel 7:1-1)] — there [in Jerusalem (After the destruction of Shiloh, bamoth were permitted at intervals until they came to Jerusalem)] shall you bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering of your hands, and all your choice vows [(One should bring only of the choicest)] that you vow to the L-rd.
  	And you shall rejoice before the L-rd your G-d: you, your sons, your daughters, your men-servants, your maid-servants, and the Levite in your gates; for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
  	Take heed unto yourselves [A negative commandment is superadded to the positive (11)] lest you offer up your burnt-offerings in every place that you see [fit (but you may do so at the behest of a prophet, viz. Eliyahu on Mount Carmel)].
  	But only in the place that the L-rd shall choose, in (the portion of) one of your tribes [Benjamin] — there shall you offer up your burnt-offerings, and there shall you do all that I command you.
  	Only [(This excludes from redemption consecrated animals with passing blemishes)], with all the desire of your soul may you slaughter [after redemption, consecrated animals which have sustained a (permanent) blemish], and you may eat [in any place] flesh, [(but you may not use their fleece and their milk)], according to the blessing of the L-rd your G-d that He has given you in all of your gates. The unclean one and the clean one may eat of it [from the same plate (even though it was once consecrated)], as the deer and as the hart [from which a sacrifice is never brought; and, like them, too, in that they are exempt from the priestly gift (shoulder, cheeks, and maw)].
  	Only the blood shall you not eat, [even though it is not to be sprinkled on the altar]; on the earth shall you spill it as water [It does not require covering].
  	You shall not be able to eat in your gates [A negative commandment is superadded to the positive (11)] the tithe of your corn and your wine and your oil and the first-born of your herd or your flocks [(this, being an exhortation to the Cohanim)], and all your vows which you vow, and your gifts, and the offering of your hands [bikkurim].
  	But only before the L-rd your G-d [within the wall] shall you eat it, in the place that the L-rd your G-d chooses — you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your maid-servant, and the Levite who is in your gates [(If you cannot give him of his portion, the first tithe, give him second tithe; if you have no second tithe, invite him to partake with you of your peace-offerings)], and you shall rejoice before the L-rd your G-d in all to which you put your hand.
  	Take heed unto yourself lest you forsake the Levite all of your days upon your land [(But in the exile, you are not exhorted more towards him than towards any of the poor of Israel.)]
  	When the L-rd your G-d broadens your boundary as He spoke to you, and you say I shall eat flesh, for your soul shall desire to eat flesh [(The Torah hereby teaches proper conduct, that one should desire to eat flesh only out of "expansiveness" and wealth)], then with all the desire of your soul shall you eat flesh [(But in the desert, mundane (non-consecrated) flesh (chullin) was not permitted to them until the animal was consecrated and sacrificed as peace-offerings)].
  	If the place be distant from you in which the L-rd your G-d shall choose to place His name, [and you will not be able to come and bring peace-offerings every day, as you can now that the mishkan travels with you], then you shall slaughter of your herd and of your flock that the L-rd has given you, as He commanded you [(whence it is seen that there is a command as to the proper procedure for slaughtering, these being the laws of shechitah as stated to Moses on Sinai)], and you shall eat in your gates with all the desire of your soul.
  	Only [(This excludes permission to eat fats of a beast of chullin, though it is permitted to eat those of an animal, viz., deer and hart.)] as the deer and hart are eaten [i.e., even in a state of uncleanliness], so shall you eat it; the unclean one and the clean one together may eat it.
  	Only strengthen yourself not to eat the blood [(whence it is seen that they were drawn to the eating of blood)]. For the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh [(an exhortation against (eating) ever min hechai (a limb torn from a living animal)].
  	You shall not eat it [an exhortation against (eating) dam hatamtzith (the residue of the blood flow)]; on the earth shall you spill it as water.
  	You shall not eat it [an exhortation against (eating) the blood of the organs], so that it be good for you and your children after you for doing what is just in the eyes of the L-rd.
  	Only your consecrated things which shall be to you, and your vows, shall you bear and you shall come to the place that the L-rd shall choose. [i.e., Though you are permitted to slaughter chullin, I did not permit you to slaughter consecrated animals and to eat them in your gates without offering them up; but bring them to the Temple.]
  	And you shall offer your burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the L-rd your G-d [i.e., If they are burnt-offerings, place the flesh and the blood on the altar], and [if they are peace-offerings] the blood of your sacrifices shall be spilled on the altar of the L-rd your G-d [first], and [then] the flesh shall you eat.
  	Keep [mishnah (i.e., learning) within you] so that you will heed all of these things that I command you, [i.e., so that a "light" mitzvah be as beloved by you as a "weighty" one], so that it be good for you and for your children after you forever for doing what is good [in the eyes of Heaven] and just [in the eyes of man] in the eyes of the L-rd your G-d.
  	When the L-rd your G-d will cut off the nations whither you come to inherit them, from before you, and you inherit them and dwell in their land,
  	Take heed unto yourselves lest you are drawn in after them after [i.e., in spite of having witnessed] their destruction before you [for their perverse deeds], and lest you inquire after their gods, saying: How did these nations serve their gods that I may do the same? [(We are hereby apprised that if the service of a particular god is not a conventional one, the one who serves him thus is nonetheless liable.)]
  	You shall not do thus to the L-rd your G-d. For every abomination of the L-rd, which He hates, did they do unto their gods. For even [(including their fathers and mothers)] their sons and their daughters did they burn in fire to their gods.
  
  
  
  	The entire thing that I command you ["light" as well as "weighty"], shall you take heed to do [A negative commandment is hereby superadded to each of the positive commandments mentioned above (but stripes do not obtain here, there being no stripes for the "take heed" of a positive commandment)]. You shall not add to it and you shall not diminish therefrom [See 4:2]
  	If there arise in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he give to you a sign [in the heavens] or a wonder [on earth],
  	And there shall materialize the sign and the wonder which he spoke to you, saying: Let us go after other gods, that you did not know, and let us serve them,
  	Do not pay heed to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the L-rd your G-d is trying you to know whether you love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.
  	After the L-rd your G-d shall you go, and Him shall you fear, and His mitzvoth [the Torah of Moses], shall you keep, and His voice [the voice of the prophets] shall you heed, and Him shall you serve [in His Temple], and to Him [i.e., to His ways] shall you cleave [(Be kind, bury the dead, visit the sick, as He did)].
  	And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. For of what is "removed" [from the world, it never having been created, and His never having been commanded by Me to speak thus] has he spoken of the L-rd your G-d — who took you out of the land of Egypt, and who redeemed you from the house of bondage. [Had He done only that, it should have been sufficient!] — to turn you from the way on which the L-rd your G-d commanded you to go. And you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  	If there incite you your brother [from your father] or the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your soul [i.e., your father (Scripture adduces those who are most beloved by you, how much more so others (who incite you thus!), in secret [(this being the common mode for such incitement)], saying: Let us go and serve other gods, which you did not know, neither you nor your fathers [(Even the heathens do not forsake what their fathers have bequeathed them — and this one bids you to do so!)]
  	Of the gods of the peoples around you, who are near to you or who are far from you [(Just as there is (manifestly) nothing to those near you, so there is nothing to those distant from you)], from one end of the earth [the sun, the moon, and the hosts of heaven (which go from one end of the world)] until the other —
  	You shall feel no affection for him, and you shall not hearken to him [when he pleads for his life], and your eye shall not be compassionate towards him, and you shall not pity [i.e., You shall not seek an "out" for him], and you shall not cover up for him [if you know something against him].
  	But kill shall you kill him [If he has left beth-din acquitted, return him for conviction; if he has left beth-din convicted, do not return him for acquittal.] Your hand shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterwards. [It is a mitzvah for the one incited to put him to death; if he does not die by his hand, he is to die by the hand of others.]
  	And you shall stone him with stones and he shall die; for he sought to turn you from the L-rd your G-d, who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
  	And all of Israel shall hear and see, and they shall not do again according to this evil thing in your midst.
  	If you hear in one of your cities which the L-rd your G-d gives you to dwell there [(This excludes Jerusalem, which was not intended as a dwelling (for a particular tribe)], saying:
  	There have gone out men [(Women are excluded)], who have cast off the yoke [of Heaven] from your midst, and they have turned astray the dwellers of their city [(but not the dwellers of a different city)], saying: Let us go and serve other gods that you did not know,
  	Then you shall inquire, and you shall search out, and you shall ask well, and, behold, true and correct is the thing; this abomination has been done in your midst,
  	Smite shall you smite [(If you cannot administer the prescribed death, administer another)] the inhabitants of that city by the sword. Lay it waste, and all that is in it, and its beasts, by the sword.
  	And all of its spoil shall you gather into the midst of its square, and you shall burn with fire the city and all its spoil, entire, to the L-rd your G-d [i.e., in His name and for His sake]. And it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.
  	And let naught from the spoil adhere to your hand, so that the L-rd turn from the burning of His wrath [(For so long as idolatry is in the world, burning wrath is in the world)] and He will grant you mercy and He will be merciful to you and He will multiply you as He swore to your fathers,
  	When you hearken to the voice of the L-rd your G-d to keep all of His mitzvoth that I command you this day, to do what is just in the eyes of the L-rd your G-d.
  
  
  
  	Children are you to the L-rd your G-d. Do not lacerate yourselves [as the Emorites do (for you are children of the L-rd, and it befits you to be comely and not lacerated and bald)], and do not make baldness between your eyes [opposite the forehead (see Leviticus 21:5)] for the dead.
  	For you are a holy people to the L-rd your G-d [by virtue of your fathers], and in you [in your own right] has the L-rd chosen to be unto Him a chosen people from all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.
  	You shall not eat any abomination [i.e., anything that I rendered an abomination to you, e.g., cooking milk and meat together. (If you have performed this abomination, you may not eat it)].
  	This is the beast that you may eat: the ox, the lamb of sheep, and the kid of goats.
  	The hart, the gazelle, and the fallow deer [(whence it is derived that an animal is in the category of "beast" (4), and, also, that the unclean beasts and animals are more numerous than the clean, the lesser number always being specified)], and the wild goat, and the dyshon, and the wild ox, and the chamois.
  	And every beast that has split hooves, entirely cloven in two [(for there are those whose hooves are split but not entirely cloven)], and which chews the cud in the beast [(The implication is that what is found in the beast after slaughtering, i.e., a fetus, may be eaten without slaughtering)] — it shall you eat, [(but not an unclean beast (a positive commandment being superadded to the negative, in which instance the transgressor is liable for violation of both a positive and a negative commandment (See 20)].
  	Only this may you not eat of those which chew the cud and of those which have cloven hooves: the shesuah [a creature with two backs and two spines], the camel, the hare, and the coney, for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves. They are unclean to you. [The enumeration is repeated though given previously (Leviticus 11) — the beasts, because of the shesuah; and the birds, because of the ra'ah (13), both of which are not mentioned there.]
  	And the swine, for its hooves are cloven, but it does not chew the cud. It is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcass you shall not touch [(on the festival, one being obliged to cleanse himself on a festival)].
  	This may you eat of all that is in the water: all that have fins and scales may you eat.
  	And whatever does not have fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you.
  	Every clean bird you may eat [including that sent out by the leper (Leviticus 14:7)].
  	And this is what you may not eat of them [(including the slaughtered bird of the leper)]: the great vulture, the bearded vulture, and the osprey.
  	And the ra'ah, and the ayah, and the dayah after its kind. [Ra'ah, ayah, and dayah are one and the same. It is called "ra'ah," for it "sees" (roeh) very clearly. All of its names are given so as not to provide an opening for "objectors," one who forbids it calling it "ra'ah," and one who wishes to permit it calling it "dayah" or "ayah," saying that Scripture did not interdict the latter. (The unclean birds are enumerated, being fewer than the clean. See 5)]
  	And every raven after its kind.
  	And the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind.
  	The little owl, and the great owl, and the tinshameth.
  	And the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant.
  	And the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
  	And every creeping thing (sheretz) of the bird, [which moves on the ground, e.g., flies, hornets, and unclean hoppers] is unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.
  	All clean birds may you eat, [but not the unclean — a positive commandment superadded to the negative, in which instance the transgressor is liable for violation of both a positive and a negative commandment (see 6)].
  	You shall not eat any carcass. To the stranger in your gates, [a ger toshav (a "resident stranger"), one who has taken it upon himself not to serve idolatry, but who eats carcass] shall you give it, and he shall eat it; or sell it to the gentile. For you are a holy people to the L-rd your G-d [(Things which are permitted to you, and which others forbid to themselves, you are forbidden to permit in their presence.)] You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk. [This is stated three times (here, Exodus 23:19, and 34:26), ("a kid"): excluding animals, birds, and unclean beasts)].
  	Tithe shall you tithe all the produce of your seed which goes forth from the field year by year [(whence it is derived that tithe is not taken from the new crop for the old)] [Re the juxtaposition with verse 21: The Holy One Blessed be He says, as it were, to Israel: If you do not give the tithe as prescribed, when it is close to ripening, you shall compel Me to blast the "kids" (i.e., the kernels) of the grain while they are yet in their mother's womb (i.e., the husks)].
  	And you shall eat [the second tithe (ma'aser sheni)] before the L-rd your G-d, in the place that He shall choose to repose His name there, the tithe of your corn, your wine, and your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and your flock, so that you learn to fear the L-rd your G-d all of the days.
  	And if the way be too long for you, so that you not be able to carry it, for the place be too far from you that the L-rd your G-d will choose to repose His name there, for the L-rd your G-d will bless you [that the produce be too much to carry] —
  	Then you shall change it to money, and you shall bind the money in your hand, and you shall go to the place that the L-rd your G-d chooses.
  	And you shall give the money for all that your soul desires ["general"], of herd, flock, wine, and strong drink ["particular"], and for all that your soul asks ["reversion to the general" — general-particular-general. The rule is in accordance with the particular, viz.: Just as the particular is: one fruit from another, originating from the earth (including animals, which derive their sustenance from the earth), so, everything of this nature (is purchasable with ma'aser money (Eruvin 27b)]. And you shall eat there before the L-rd your G-d, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
  	And the Levite who is in your gate, you shall not forsake him [by not giving him first tithe (ma'aser rishon)], for he does not have a portion and an inheritance with you [(This excludes from the tithe: leket, shikchah, peah (see Leviticus 19) and hefker (ownerless produce); for he has a portion in them just as you do.)]
  	From the end of three years you shall remove all the tithe of your produce in that year, and you shall place it in your gates. [If one delayed giving his tithes of the first and second years of the shemitah period, he must remove them from the house in the third year.]
  	And the Levite shall come [and take ma'aser rishon], for he has no portion and inheritance with you, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your gates [They take the second tithe, which reverts to the poor in that year], and they shall eat and be sated [Give them as much as they need to be sated (and you go to Jerusalem with the tithe of the first and second years that you delayed and make confession: "I have removed the holy thing from the house" (Deuteronomy 26:13)], so that the L-rd your G-d bless you in all to which you put your hand.
  
  
  
  	From the end of seven years [of the reckoning of the shemitah period], you shall make shemitah (a release).
  	And this is the word of the shemitah: Every creditor shall release his claim against his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor and of his brother because it has been declared shemitah to the L-rd.
  	Of the gentile shall you exact [(This is a positive commandment)], but what you have with your brother your hand shall release.
  	But there shall not be in you a pauper, [lacking everything. (If you do the will of the L-rd, the paupers shall be in others but not in you; and if not, they shall be in you)]. For the L-rd will bless you in the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance to inherit it.
  	[But there shall be no paupers in you] only if you hearken, hearken [(If you hearken somewhat, you will be enabled to hearken greatly)] to the voice of the L-rd your G-d, to observe to do this entire mitzvah that I command you this day.
  	For the L-rd your G-d has blessed you, as He spoke to you [viz. 28:3-12]. And you will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow [from one nation to pay the other], and you will rule many nations, and they [other nations] will not rule you.
  	If there be in you a pauper [(the neediest takes precedence)], of one of your brothers [(Your paternal brother takes precedence to your maternal brother)], in one of your gates [(The poor of your city take precedence to those of another)], in your land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you, do not harden your heart [in irresolution], and do not close your hand [after stretching it forth], to your brother the pauper [(If you do not give, in the end you will be a brother to the pauper)].
  	But open shall you open your hand to him [even many times], and lend shall you lend him [(If he refuses a gift, give it to him as a loan)] what suffices for his needs [(but you are not required to enrich him)] that are lacking [(even a horse to ride upon and a servant to run before him)] unto him [(even) a wife].
  	Take heed unto yourself lest there be in your heart a thing of wantonness, to say: The seventh year has drawn near, the year of shemitah, and your eye be evil against your brother the pauper, and you not give him, and he cry out against you to the L-rd [(G-d makes haste to exact payment when he "cries out")], there will be in you a sin [(even if he does not cry out)].
  	Give shall you give [(even a hundred times)] to him [privately], and let your heart not take it ill in giving to him, for because of this word [(Even if you say that you will give, you receive reward for saying along with that for giving)], the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all your deeds and in all to which you put your hand.
  	For a pauper will not cease from the midst of the land, wherefore I charge you [in good counsel, for your benefit]: Open shall you open your hand to your brother — your poor one and your pauper in your land.
  	If there be sold to you [(by beth-din, for his theft)], your brother, the Hebrew man, or [(if there be sold to you by her father, when she is a minor)] the Hebrew woman, then he shall serve you for six years; and on the seventh year you shall send him free from you [(and if the woman's six years expire before she shows pubertal signs, she leaves at that time)].
  	And when you send him free from you, do not send him empty-handed.
  	Bestow shall you bestow upon him [so that your "bestowal" is clearly visible], of your flock, of your threshing floor, and of your winepress — [Of all] that the L-rd your G-d has blessed you with shall you give him [Just as these ("flock, etc.") are characterized by "blessing" (i.e., fruitfulness), so (bestow upon him) all that are thus characterized — excluding mules (which are sterile)].
  	And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-rd your G-d redeemed you [and "bestowed" upon you, twice — from the spoils of Egypt and from the spoils of the sea]. Therefore, I command you in respect to this thing [(to bestow, likewise,)] this day.
  	And it shall be, if he say to you: I shall not leave you, because he loves you and your household, because it is good for him with you.
  	Then you shall take the awl and place it in his ear and in the door, and he shall be unto you a servant forever [i.e., until the Jubilee year]. And to your maid-servant, too, shall you do this [i.e., you shall "bestow" unto her (but she cannot become a servant forever)].
  	Let it not be difficult in your eyes when you send him away free from you, for double the hire of a hired man [day and night] has he served you for six years [(Aside from his day labor, his master gives him a Canaanite maid-servant to bear slaves for him)]. And the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all that you do.
  	Every firstling which is born in your herd and in your flock, the male, you shall consecrate to the L-rd your G-d [It is a mitzvah to say: "You are sanctified for the bechorah" (the mitzvah of the first-born)]. You shall not work with the firstling of your bullock and you shall not shear the firstling of your flock [(The converse is also forbidden, but the common instance is given)].
  	Before the L-rd your G-d shall you [the Cohein] eat it, year in year [It is a mitzvah to sacrifice and eat it in its first year. Also, if it were slaughtered at the end of the year, it may be eaten that day and one day of the next (whence it is derived that it may be eaten for two days and one night)], in the place that the L-rd shall choose, you and your household.
  	And if there be in it a blemish ["general"], lame or blind ["particular"], any sore blemish ["reversion to the general" — Just as the particular specifies a visible blemish which never passes, so (all animals with) visible blemishes that never pass (are unfit for sacrifice)], you shall not sacrifice it to the L-rd your G-d.
  	In your gates may you eat it, the unclean and the clean together, as the deer and as the hart.
  	But its blood you shall not eat [(Even though it was originally forbidden and is now permitted, its blood remains forbidden)]; on the earth shall you spill it as water.
  
  
  
  	Observe the month of aviv [(Before its coming, observe that it be fit for aviv (spring), so that the omer meal-offering may be brought upon it; and if not, intercalate the year)], and make Pesach to the L-rd your G-d. For in the month of aviv the L-rd your G-d took you out of Egypt, [Pharaoh having acceded] at night [to your going].
  	And you shall sacrifice a Pesach offering to the L-rd your G-d, sheep [viz. (Exodus 12:5)] and cattle [shall you slaughter as a festival offering (chagigah), so that if a very large company is numbered over the (eating of the) pesach, a chagigah is brought so that it (the pesach) may be eaten in satiety)], in the place where the L-rd shall choose to repose His name.
  	You shall not eat upon it chametz; seven days shall you eat upon it matzoth, the bread [which reminds you] of [the] affliction [that you underwent in Egypt], for in haste [the haste of the Egyptians] did you leave the land of Egypt, [and the dough had not time to leaven, and this (the matzoh) will serve as a reminder], so that you remember [by eating the pesach and the matzoh] the day of your leaving the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
  	And there shall not be seen unto you leaven in all of your border for seven days, and there shall not remain of the flesh [of the Pesach offering] that you sacrifice towards evening on the first day [the fourteenth of Nissan] until the morning.
  	You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in one of your gates that the L-rd your G-d gives to you.
  	But in the place where the L-rd your G-d chooses to repose His name, there shall you sacrifice the Pesach offering in the evening [from the sixth hour on]; as the sun sets [shall you eat it, and] at the time of your going out of Egypt (i.e., in the morning) [if there is any flesh left over, you shall burn it (i.e., take it to the burning site for burning after the festival)].
  	And you shall cook [i.e., roast it] and eat it in the place that the L-rd your G-d has chosen, and you shall betake yourselves in the morning [of the second day (whence it is seen that they must spend the night there)], and you shall go to your tents.
  	Six days shall you eat matzoth [i.e., You may eat matzoth of the new grain (after the omer offering on the second day) and you may eat it seven days from the old grain], and on the seventh day is a holding back [from labor] for the L-rd your G-d; you shall do no work.
  	Seven weeks shall you count for yourself; from the beginning of the sickle in the standing corn [i.e., from the cutting of the omer, which is the beginning of the harvest] shall you begin to count seven weeks.
  	And you shall make a festival of weeks (shavuoth) to the L-rd your G-d, the sufficiency of the offering of your hand, which you shall give as the L-rd your G-d shall bless you [i.e., In accordance with the amplitude of His blessing, bring peace-offerings of joy and invite guests for the repast.]
  	And you shall rejoice before the L-rd your G-d: you — your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your maid-servant — the Levite that is in your gates, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your midst [(If you cause My four to rejoice, I shall cause your four to rejoice)], in the place where the L-rd your G-d shall choose to repose His name.
  	And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall keep and observe these statutes [i.e., it is to this end that I redeemed you].
  	The festival of succoth (booths) shall you make for yourself, seven days, when [i.e., at the time that] you gather in [to your house the summer fruits] from your threshing floor and from your winepress.
  	And you shall rejoice in your festival: you — your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your maid-servant — the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your gates.
  	Seven days shall you rejoice before the L-rd your G-d in the place that the L-rd chooses. For the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all of your produce and in all to which you put your hand, and you will be only happy.
  	Three times a year shall appear each of your males in the presence of the L-rd your G-d in the place that He chooses: on the festival of matzoth, and on the festival of Shavuoth, and on the festival of Succoth. And he shall not appear in the presence of the L-rd empty-handed, [but he shall bring burnt-offerings of "appearance" and the peace-offerings of the festival].
  	Each according to the gift of his hand [(If one has much food and much property, he brings many burnt-offerings and peace-offerings)], according to the blessing of the L-rd your G-d that He has given you.
  	Judges and officers, [who enforce the rulings of the judges with "rod and strap"] shall you appoint for yourselves in all of your gates [i.e., in every city] that the L-rd your G-d gives you for your tribes [(Judges are appointed for each tribe and in each city)], and they shall judge the people a righteous judgment [i.e., Appoint expert, righteous judges, who will judge righteously.]
  	You shall not pervert judgment, and you shall not play favorites, [even during the pleading — an exhortation to the judge not to be firm with one and lenient with the other, e.g., making one stand and allowing the other to sit], and you shall not take a bribe [even to judge righteously]; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the sages [(Once the judge takes a bribe from someone it is impossible for him not to seek arguments in his favor)], and it distorts righteous words [i.e., true judgments].
  	Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue [Seek out the finest beth-din], so that you live and inherit the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you. [The appointment of fit judges serves to sustain Israel and to settle them in their land.]
  	You shall not plant for yourself an asheirah (a tree devoted to idolatry) [(One is liable from the time of planting)], any tree near the altar of the L-rd your G-d that you shall make for yourself [(an exhortation against planting a tree or building a house on the Temple Mount)].
  	And you shall not raise up for yourself a monument [one stone, on which to sacrifice (even to the L-rd)], which the L-rd your G-d hates, [it having become an institution of idolatry].
  
  
  
  	You shall not sacrifice to the L-rd your G-d an ox or a lamb in which there is a blemish, any evil thing [(davar ra) an exhortation against invalidating sacrifices through evil speech (dibbur ra, see Leviticus 7:18)], for it is the abomination of the L-rd your G-d.
  	If there be found in your midst, in one of your cities which the L-rd your G-d gives you, a man or a woman who would do what is evil in the eyes of the L-rd your G-d to transgress His covenant [that He made with you — not to serve idolatry],
  	And he go and serve other gods and he bow down to them, or to the sun, or to the moon, or to the whole host of heaven, which I did not command [(that they be served)],
  	And it be told to you, and you hear, and you search it out well, and, behold, the thing is true and correct [i.e., the testimony bears it out] — this abomination has been done in Israel,
  	Then you shall take out that man or that woman, who did this evil thing, to your cities [where they committed the act], the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones and they shall die.
  	By the word of two witnesses or three witnesses shall the dead one be put to death [(Just as two constitute one testimony, so do three, and they do not become "scheming witnesses" (eidim zomemim) until all are shown to be so.)] He shall not be put to death by the word of one witness.
  	The hand of the witnesses shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterwards, and you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  	If there be hidden from you a thing of judgment — between blood [that is unclean] and blood [that is clean], between ruling [of acquittal] and ruling [of liability], between plague-spot [that is unclean] and plague-spot [that is clean], words of contention in your gates, [the sages of the city disagreeing with each other], then you shall arise and go up to the place that the L-rd your G-d shall choose [(whence it is seen that the Temple is the highest of all the places)].
  	And you shall come to the Cohanim, the Levites [i.e., from the tribe of Levi], and to the judge that shall be in those days [(Even if he is inferior to his predecessors, you must abide by his ruling)], and you shall inquire, and they shall tell you the word of the judgment.
  	And you shall do according to the word that they shall tell you from that place which the L-rd shall choose, and you shall observe to do according to all that they teach you.
  	According to the Torah that they teach you and the judgment that they tell you shall you do. You shall not turn aside from the thing that they tell you, right or left [(even if they tell you that right is left and left is right.)]
  	And the man who shall do wilfully, not to listen to the Cohein who stands there to serve the L-rd your G-d, or to the judge, that man shall die; and you shall remove the evil from Israel.
  	And all the people shall hear and fear [— whence it is derived that they wait for him (i.e., they wait to execute the rebellious elder) until the (next) festival, and they execute him during the (period of the) festival], and they shall not act wilfully again.]
  	When you come to the land which the L-rd your G-d gives to you and you inherit it and inhabit it, and you say: I shall place over myself a king, as all the nations that are around me,
  	Place shall you place over yourself a king whom the L-rd your G-d shall choose; from the midst of your brothers shall you place over yourself a king. You shall not be able to place over yourself a strange man, who is not your brother.
  	Only, he shall not multiply for himself horses, [but only what he needs for his chariots], so that he not return the people to Egypt [the center of horses], to add a horse, the L-rd having said to you: You shall not venture to return upon this way anymore.
  	And he shall not multiply for himself wives [(beyond eighteen)], that his heart not turn astray, and silver and gold he shall not multiply for himself overmuch, [but only as much as he needs to maintain his army].
  	And it shall be, when, [as a reward for fulfilling the above,] he sits [secure] on his throne of kingdom, then he shall write for himself a double of this Torah [i.e., two Torah scrolls: one to be reposited in his treasury, and one to accompany him constantly] on a scroll from before the Cohanim, the Levites.
  	And it shall be with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he learn to fear the L-rd his G-d, to heed all the words of this Torah and these statutes to do them.
  	So that his heart not rise above his brothers, and so that he not depart from the mitzvah, [even a "light" mitzvah of a prophet], right or left, so that he prolong days in his kingdom [(But "departing," he shall not prolong days, e.g., I Samuel 10:8, 13:8 and 13-14)], he and his sons, in the midst of Israel [(If his son is fit to rule, he takes precedence to others.)]
  
  
  
  	There shall not be to the Cohanim, the Levites, the entire tribe of Levi, [both the unblemished and the blemished], a portion [in the spoils] and an inheritance [in the land] with Israel. The fire-offerings of the L-rd [the Temple offerings] and His inheritance [the boundary offerings, i.e., terumoth and ma'asroth] shall they eat,
  	But he shall not have an [absolute] inheritance in the midst of his brothers; the L-rd is his inheritance, as He spoke to him [(Numbers 18:20)].
  	And this shall be the judgment for the Cohanim from the people, [but not from the Cohanim (who slaughter for themselves)]. From the slaughterers of the slaughtering, whether ox or sheep [Animals (as opposed to beasts) are excluded], he shall give to the Cohein the shoulder [(from the knee-joint to the shoulder blade)], the cheeks [with the tongue], and the maw.
  	The first [i.e., terumah] of your corn, your wine, and your oil, and the first of the [annual] shearing of your flock shall you give to him.
  	For in him did the L-rd your G-d choose from all of your tribes to stand and minister [(whence it is derived that the ministrant must stand)] in the name of the L-rd, he and his sons all of the days.
  	And if the Levite [i.e., a Cohein] come from one of your cities, from all of Israel, wherein he lives, and he come in all the desire of his soul [to sacrifice his gift or obligatory offerings] to the place that the L-rd shall choose,
  	then, [even if his watch is not officiating], he shall minister in the name of the L-rd his G-d, as all of his brothers, the Levites, [i.e., the Cohanim] who stand there before the L-rd.
  	Portion [of the hides (of the burnt-offerings) and the flesh of the he-goat sin-offerings] as portion shall they eat [along with the Cohanim of the watch], except for the sale of the fathers [i.e., those sacrifices offered not by virtue of the festival, e.g., the temidin, the mussafin of Shabbath, and gift and vow offerings, the rights to which were sold by their fathers in the days of David and Samuel, when the rotation of priestly watches was instituted].
  	When you come to the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you, do not learn to do as the abominations of those nations [(but you may learn to understand the falsity of their ways and to teach your children, by identifying them as heathen practices, not to emulate them.)]
  	There shall not be found among you one who passes his son or daughter through fire [This is the service of the Molech (see Leviticus 18:21)], a diviner of divinations [one who "divines" by holding his stick, whether to go or not to go], a me'onein [one who assigns an auspicious "time" (onah) for a particular undertaking], a necromancer [one who interprets natural happenings as signs and portents], and a sorcerer.
  	A chover chaver [one who "congregates" snakes or scorpions and the like into one spot], a shoel ov [one who raises the spirit of the dead, which speaks from his arm-pit], a yidoni [(see Leviticus 19:31)], and one who inquires of the dead [e.g., via a skull].
  	For the abomination of the L-rd are all who do [(even one of)] these, and because of these abominations the L-rd your G-d drives them out before you.
  	Whole shall you be with the L-rd your G-d [i.e., If you repose all of your trust in Him, without probing the future, but accepting wholeheartedly all that befalls you, then you shall be "with the L-rd your G-d," and His portion.]
  	For these nations that you inherit hearken to me'onenim (see 10) and to diviners; but you, not thus [to hearken to them] did the L-rd your G-d relegate you, [for He reposed His shechinah on the prophets and the urim vethumim.]
  	A prophet from your midst, from your brothers, such as I [i.e., just as I am from your midst and from your brothers] shall the L-rd your G-d raise up for you [in my place, and so, from prophet to prophet]; to him shall you hearken.
  	As all that you asked from the L-rd your G-d in Chorev, on the day of the assembly, saying: I shall not continue hearing the voice of the L-rd my G-d, and this great fire I shall see no more, that I not die.
  	And the L-rd said to me: They have done well in speaking as they did.
  	A prophet shall I raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, such as you, and I shall place My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
  	And it shall be, the man who will not heed My words, which he shall speak in My name, I shall require it of him. [One who suppresses his prophecy, one who transgresses the words of a prophet, and a prophet who transgresses his own words incur death at the hands of Heaven.]
  	But the prophet who shall presume to speak a thing in My name which I did not command him to speak [(but which I commanded his fellow prophet)], and one who speaks in the name of other gods, [even if he is in agreement with the halachah, forbidding what is forbidden, and permitting what is permitted], that prophet shall be put to death [by strangulation. Three incur death by strangulation: one who prophesies what he did not hear, one who prophesies what was told to his fellow, and one who prophesies in the name of idolatry.]
  	And when you say in your heart, [as you will in the incident of Chananiah ben Azur and Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 27:16, 19-22)]: How shall we know the thing which the L-rd has not spoken?
  	What the prophet shall speak in the name of the L-rd [i.e., "This and this shall happen to you"] and the thing not be and not come to pass, that is the thing which the L-rd has not spoken, [and put him to death. (For an instance in which he says: "The L-rd has told me to tell you to do thus and thus," see 13:9 and 15 above)]. In presumption has the prophet spoken it; do not hold back from [incriminating] him [and do not fear incurring punishment because of him].
  
  
  
  	When the L-rd your G-d cuts off the nations whose land the L-rd your G-d gives to you, and you inherit them and you dwell in their cities and in their houses,
  	Three cities shall you set aside for yourself in the midst of your land which the L-rd your G-d gives you to inherit.
  	Prepare for yourself the way [("Refuge" signs were posted on the crossroads)], and "third" the border of your land that the L-rd your G-d will cause you to inherit, [so that there be equal distances from the beginning of the border to the first city of refuge, from there to the second city, from there to the third city, and from there to the second border of Eretz Yisrael], that every slayer may flee there.
  	And this is the matter of the slayer who shall flee there and live: one who smites his neighbor unwittingly, not having hated him in the past,
  	And one who comes with his neighbor in the forest to chop wood, and his hand swing the axe to cut the tree, and the blade slip from the haft [or, "and the blade chip (aught) of the tree"], and it (the blade or the chip) find his neighbor and he die — he shall flee to one of these cities, and he shall live.
  	[I tell you to prepare the way (3) and numerous cities of refuge] lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer, his heart being hot, and he overtake him, the way being long, and he smite him mortally, and he (the slayer) not deserve to die, not having hated him (the victim) in the past.
  	Therefore, I command you, saying: Three cities shall you set aside for yourself.
  	And if the L-rd your G-d broaden your borders, as He swore to your forefathers [to give you the land of the Keini, the Kenizi, and the Kadmoni (Genesis 15:9)], and He give you all the land that He said to give to your forefathers,
  	If you keep all of this mitzvah to do it, that I command you this day, to love the L-rd your G-d and to walk in His ways all of the days — then you shall add for yourself another three cities to these three [— nine in all: three across the Jordan, three in the land of Canaan, and three in time to come].
  	And innocent blood shall not be shed in the midst of your land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you as an inheritance, and there be blood upon you.
  	And if a man hate his neighbor, [(transgressing Leviticus 19:17)], and he lie in wait for him [(transgression of a "light" commandment leading to transgression of a grave one)], and he rise up against him, and he smite him mortally, and he die, and he flees to one of these cities,
  	Then the elders of his city shall send, and they shall take him from there, and they shall put him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall die.
  	Let your eye not pity him [(Do not say: One has already been killed — why kill two Jews?], and remove the innocent blood from Israel, and it shall be good for you.
  	You shall not move back [(into his land, thus broadening your own)], the boundary marker of your neighbor [(If you do so, you violate two negative commandments — this and (Leviticus 19:13): "You shall not rob")], which the first ones bounded, in your inheritance which you shall inherit in the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you to inherit. [(Outside of Eretz Yisrael one is in violation only of "You shall not rob")].
  	One witness shall not arise against a man for every transgression and for every sin, in any sin that one commit. By the mouth of two witnesses, [and not by sending written testimony to beth-din, and not by interposing an interpreter between the witnesses and the judges], or by the mouth of three witnesses shall a thing be established.
  	If there arise a false witness [i.e., a false set of witnesses] against a man to testify against him, removed, [i.e., when they were completely removed from having witnessed the incident (as when other witnesses challenge them: But were you not with us at this and this place at that time!)],
  	Then the two men [the witnesses] shall stand [(Witnesses must be men and they must testify standing)], (and those men) who have the contention (must stand) before the L-rd [(It should be in their eyes as if they are standing "before the L-rd")], before the Cohanim and the judges who shall be in those days [("Yiftach in his generation is like Samuel in his generation.")]
  	And the judges shall inquire well [by cross-examining those who come to discredit the witnesses], and, behold, a false witness is the witness [("witness" always connotes two)] — falsely did he testify against his brother,
  	Then you shall do to him as he schemed to do [(but not "as he did")] to his brother, [but not to his sister (in an instance of their testifying that the married daughter of a Cohein was adulterous, in which instance they receive not the adulteress's penalty (burning), but the adulterer's (strangulation)], and you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  	And the rest shall hear and fear, and they shall not venture to do again as this evil thing in your midst. [Scheming witnesses require "proclamation," viz.: "These men were executed for having been found 'scheming witnesses' in beth-din."]
  	And let your eyes not pity. A soul for a soul, an eye for an eye [i.e., monetary compensation (and so with what follows)], a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.
  
  
  
  	When you go out to war [(the rationale of the juxtaposition: one lacking a limb does not go out to war)], against your foes [(Let them be as foes in your eyes: Do not pity them, for they will not pity you)], and you see horse and chariot [(In My eyes they are all like one horse)], a nation greater 'from you' [i.e., from your vantage point, not from Mine], do not fear them; for the L-rd your G-d is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
  	And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle [soon after leaving the boundary of your land], that the Cohein [the Cohein "anointed for war"] shall come forward, and he shall speak to the people [in the holy tongue].
  	And he shall say to them: Hear, (Shema) O Israel [(Even if you had no other merit but that of reciting the Shema, it would suffice for your salvation)], you are drawing near today to do battle with your foes, [and not with your brethren, who would treat you with compassion (see II Chronicles 28:15)]. Let your hearts not faint [at the whinnying of the foes' horses], do not fear [the clashing of their shields], do not tremble [at the blaring of their trumpets], and do not break before them [i.e., before their battle cries].
  	For it is the L-rd your G-d [(They come with the triumph of flesh and blood, and you come with the triumph of the L-rd)] which [viz., the encampment of the ark] goes with you to war for you with your foes, to save you.
  	Then [the Cohanim shall say to the officers and] the officers shall speak to the people, saying: Who is the man that has built a new house and has not inhabited it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man inhabit it [and the thought of this happening cause him distress].
  	And who is the man that has planted a vineyard and not redeemed it [in the fourth year (the fruits to be eaten in Jerusalem or redeemed for money to be spent for eating in Jerusalem)]? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man redeem it.
  	And who is the man who has betrothed a woman and not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war [(If he does not heed the Cohein, he deserves to die)], and another man take her.
  	Then the officers shall add [to the words of the Cohanim] to speak to the people, and they shall say: Who is the man that fears [According to one view, fear of combat; according to another, fear of (dying in battle because of) one's transgressions], and that is faint of heart? Let him go and return to his house and not melt the heart of his brothers as his own heart.
  	And it shall be, when the officers finish speaking to the people, that they shall post sentinels at the head of the people, [before and behind, with iron staves in their hands, and empowered to "cripple" all who would flee, for the beginning of defeat is flight.]
  	If [in an optional war (as opposed to a war of mitzvah)] you draw near to a city to do battle with it, then you shall call out to it for peace.
  	And it shall be, if it answers you for peace and opens itself to you, then all the people found in it [even those of the seven nations, whom you are (otherwise) commanded to destroy] shall be tribute to you and they shall serve you [They must accede to both.]
  	But if it does not make peace with you, and it makes war with you [(If it does not make peace with you and you let it be, in the end it will make war with you)], then you shall besiege it, [even to cause famine, thirst, and mortal disease],
  	And the L-rd your G-d will deliver it into your hands [if you do as you have been charged], and you shall smite all of its [adult] males by the sword.
  	But the women, and the little ones, and the beasts, and all that is in the city, all of its spoil, shall you take for yourself, and you shall eat the spoil of your foes, which the L-rd your G-d has given you.
  	So shall you do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
  	But from the cities of these people which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance you shall not allow any soul to live.
  	But you shall utterly destroy them: the Chitti, the Emori, the Canaani, the Perizi, the Chivi, and the Yevussi, as the L-rd your G-d commanded you [(The Girgashi is hereby included)].
  	So that they not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they performed unto their gods and you sin to the L-rd your G-d [(but if they repent and convert, you may accept them)].
  	If you besiege a city [(in an optional war)] many days [("days" = two; "many days" = three — whence it is derived that gentile cities are not besieged fewer than three days before the Sabbath and that the peace overture is repeated for two or three days)], to make war upon it, to capture it, do not destroy its tree by wielding an axe against it. For from it shall you eat, but it shall you not cut down. For is the tree of the field a man, to come before you into the siege, [there to be afflicted with hunger and thirst like the people of the city? Why should you destroy it?]
  	Only a tree that you know not to be a food tree, it may you destroy and cut down and build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued.
  
  
  
  	If there be found a slain body on the land that the L-rd your G-d gives you to inherit, fallen in the field, it not being known who killed him,
  	Then there shall go out your elders [the Great Sanhedrin] and your judges, and they shall measure [from the body] to the cities that are around the body [to determine which is closest].
  	And it shall be, the city closest to the body — the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has not been worked, that has not drawn under the yoke,
  	And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a hard [unworked] river-bed, which shall not be worked and which shall not be sown, and they shall break there [with a hatchet] the neck of the heifer in the river-bed. [The Holy One Blessed be He says: Let a one-year-old heifer, which has produced no fruits, come and be broken in a place which produces no fruits to atone for the slaying of this one, who was not permitted to produce fruits.]
  	Then there shall draw near, the Cohanim, the sons of Levi; for them did the L-rd your G-d choose to serve Him and to pronounce the benediction in the name of the L-rd; and by their word shall every contention and every plague-spot be (ruled upon).
  	And all the elders of that city who are near to the slain one shall wash their hands over the heifer of the broken neck in the river-bed.
  	And they shall raise their voices and say: Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes did not see [i.e., We did not see him and let him go without food and without escort].
  	[And the Cohanim say:] Atone for Your people, Israel, which You have redeemed, O L-rd, and do not place innocent blood in the midst of Your people, Israel; and the blood will be atoned unto them [i.e., If they do as prescribed, the sin will be atoned.]
  	And you shall remove the innocent blood from your midst by doing what is just in the eyes of the L-rd. [If the slayer is found after the heifer's neck is broken, he is to be put to death, this being "what is just in the eyes of the L-rd."]
  	If you go out to war [an optional war (as opposed to a war of mitzvah)] against your enemy, and the L-rd your G-d delivers him into your hand and you capture its captivity, [including Canaanites in their midst, even if they be of the seven nations],
  	And you see in the captivity a woman [(even a married woman)] of beautiful form, and you desire her, then you may take her for yourself as a wife [(Scripture here speaks vis-à-vis the evil inclination. If the L-rd did not permit her, he would marry her illicitly. (But if he does marry her, he is destined to hate her and to beget of her a rebellious son (see 14-18), for which reason these sections are juxtaposed)].
  	And you shall bring her inside your house, and she shall shave her head and she shall do her nails. [She shall let them grow long so that she becomes unsightly.]
  	And she shall remove the garment of her captivity from her, [(the gentile women adorning themselves in war to lure others to live with them)], and she shall sit in your house, [the house that he frequents, so that he see her constantly in her weeping and in her unsightliness and she become repulsive to him], and she shall mourn her father and her mother a month of days [All this, so that a Jewess appear happy to him, and this one, sad; a Jewess, attractive, and this one, repulsive]. And afterwards, you may come to her and cohabit with her, and she shall be to you as a wife.
  	And it shall be, when you do not desire her [(Scripture indicates that he is destined to hate her)], that you shall release her. But you shall not sell her for money. You may not exploit her after you have afflicted her.
  	If there be to a man two wives, one, beloved; the other, hated, and they bear him sons, the loved one and the hated one, and the first-born son be the hated one's,
  	Then it shall be, on the day that he causes his sons to inherit what there shall be to him, he shall not be able to grant primogeniture to the son of the beloved one over the son of the hated one, the first-born.
  	But the first-born, the son of the hated one, shall he recognize, to give him a double portion [i.e., the portion of two brothers] of all that shall be found with him [at the time of his death (and not what is destined to come to him after his death)]. For he is the first of his strength; his is the judgment of the first-born.
  	If there be to a man a son who turns aside [from the right path], and is recalcitrant, not heeding the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they chastise him [i.e., they warn him before three, and he receives stripes], and he not heed them,
  	Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and they shall take him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.
  	And they shall say to the elders of his city: This son of ours turns aside and is recalcitrant, not heeding our voice, a glutton and a guzzler,
  	Then all the people of his city shall stone him with stones and he shall die, and you shall remove the evil from your midst [(The Torah "probed to the end of the mind" of the rebellious son. In the end he would exhaust his father's money. Lacking his accustomed fare, he would become a highway man and would rob (and kill). The Torah says: Let him die unincriminated rather than incriminated)], and all of Israel shall hear and fear. [Proclamation is required, viz.: "This man was stoned for being a rebellious son!"]
  	And if there be in a man a sin whose judgment is death [(the rationale of the juxtaposition: If the rebellious son is pitied by his parents, in the end he will become corrupt and commit transgressions for which he will be sentenced to death by beth-din)], then he shall be put to death, and you shall hang him [i.e., his body, after stoning] on a tree.
  	You shall not leave his body overnight on the tree, but you shall bury it that day, for the demeaning of G-d is [his remaining] hanging, [man being G-d's image, and the children of Israel, His sons], and you shall not make unclean your land, which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance.
  
  
  
  	You shall not see the ox of your brother or his lamb straying and ignore them; but you shall return them to your brother.
  	And if your brother is not near to you, and you do not know him, then you shall gather it into the midst of your house, and it shall be with you until you make inquiry of your brother concerning it [when he comes to claim it, to ascertain that his claims are legitimate], and you shall return it to him [(It must constitute a "return"; do not feed it as much as it is worth and then claim that amount from the owner. But if its work can compensate for its food, then let it work; if not, sell it and give that money to the owner.)]
  	And so shall you do with his ass, and so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with every lost object of your brother which shall go lost from him and you find it; you shall not be able to ignore it.
  	You shall not see the ass of your brother or his ox fallen on the way and ignore them; raise shall you raise [the animal's fallen load] with him [the owner. (If he himself does not care to do so, you are exempt.)]
  	A man's garment shall not be upon a woman, [making her appear like a man, so that she can mix with them, this being a ploy for promiscuity], and a man shall not wear a woman's garment [in order to mix with them], for the abomination of the L-rd your G-d are all who do these [(The Torah forbade only a garment which leads to "abomination.")]
  	If there chance before you a bird's nest on the way [(This excludes what is already at hand (i.e., domesticated fowl)] on any tree or on the ground, fledglings or eggs, the mother bird lying upon the fledglings or upon the eggs — you shall not take the mother bird while she is yet on the young.
  	Send shall you send away the mother bird and the young shall you take for yourself, so that it shall be good for you and you prolong days [(a fortiori, the granting of reward for the observance of more onerous mitzvoth)].
  	[The rationale of the juxtaposition of the verses that follow: If you fulfill the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, in the end, you will build a new house and fulfill the mitzvah of making a railing, (for one mitzvah brings another in its train), and you will attain to a vineyard, and a field, and beautiful garments.] If you build a new house, you shall make a railing for your roof, and you shall not place blood in your house when the faller falls from it. [He deserves to fall (in terms of G-d's judgment) notwithstanding which, let his falling not be occasioned by you, (merit being occasioned by the meritorious one, and liability by him who is liable)].
  	You shall not sow your vineyard with mixed seed [wheat, barley, and grain kernels with one hand-throw], lest there be rejected the fullness [i.e., the growth] of the seed which you shall sow and the produce of the vineyard.
  	You shall not plow [(The same applies to leading them tied together in the carrying of any load)] with an ox and an ass together [(The same applies to any two different kinds of animals)]
  	You shall not wear sha'atnez [a mixture], wool and linen together.
  	Fringes shall you make for yourself [(even from sha'atnez — hence the juxtaposition)] on the four corners of your garment wherewith you cover yourself.
  	If a man take a wife, and he come upon her, and he hate her,
  	And he libel her and give out about her an evil name [(Transgression brings transgression in its wake — If he transgresses (Leviticus 19:17): "You shall not hate," in the end he comes to slander)], and he says: This woman [(whence it is derived that the charge must be made in the presence of the defendant)], I took, and I drew near to her, and I did not find in her, virginity,
  	Then the father of the maiden and her mother shall take [("Let the rearers of the evil sprout be shamed by it" (Had she been completely virtuous she would not have been suspected)], and they shall bring out the virgin signs of the maiden to the elders of the city to the gate.
  	And the father of the maiden shall say to the elders [(whence it is seen that a woman is not permitted to speak up when her husband is present (to do so)]: My daughter did I give to this man as a wife, and he hated her.
  	And, behold, he has uttered a libel, saying: I did not find your daughter to be a virgin — and these are the virgin signs of my daughter. And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city [i.e., They shall make her innocence of the accusation as manifest as a spread-out garment.]
  	Then the elders of he city shall take the man and chastise him [with stripes].
  	And they shall fine him a hundred (shekels of) silver, and they shall give it to the father of the maiden, for he has given out an evil name about a virgin of Israel; and to him shall she be as a wife. He shall not be able to send her away all of his days.
  	And if the matter were true, [(witnesses and prior warning obtaining that she had been adulterous after betrothal)] — if virginity were not found in the maiden,
  	Then they shall take out the maiden to the door of her father's house [("See the sprout that you have reared!")], and the men of her city shall stone her with stones [i.e., she shall be stoned in the presence of all the men of the city], and she shall die, for she has done a vile thing in Israel, to harlotize [while in] her father's house; and you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  	If there be found a man lying with a woman who had been cohabited with by a husband, then there shall be put to death, also both of them [("both of them") excluding an act of (self-) arousal (by the man), from which she derives no gratification, and ("also") including those who come (and cohabit with them) after they had been sentenced)], the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; and you shall remove the evil from Israel.
  	If there be a maiden, a virgin, betrothed to a man, and a man find her in the city and lie with her [("The breach calls to the thief" — If she remained at home, this would not happen)] —
  	Then you shall take out both of them to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die — the maiden, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he afflicted his neighbor's wife; and you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  And if in the field the man find the betrothed maiden, and the man seize her and lie with her, then the man who lay with her, alone, shall be put to death.
  	But to the maiden shall you not do a thing; the maiden does not have a sin of death. For as a man would rise up against his neighbor and slay him, so is this thing [i.e., she was forced and is, therefore, guiltless].
  	For in the field did he find her. The betrothed maiden called out and no one could save her.
  	If a man find a maiden, a virgin, who was not betrothed, and he seize her and lie with her, and they are found,
  	Then the man who lies with her shall give to the father of the maiden fifty (shekels of) silver, and to him shall she be as a wife because he afflicted her; he shall not be able to send her away all of his days.
  
  
  
  
  	A man shall not take his father's wife [(Marriage does not "take" in her)], and he shall not uncover his father's lap [i.e., a woman who awaits his father for levirate marriage (shomereth yavam). One who lies with his father's shomereth yavam is hereby made subject to two negative commandments — this and Leviticus 18:14. And the juxtaposition with verse 3 indicates that only the issue of kareth relationships (like that of a shomereth yavam) is a mamzer — a fortiori, the issue of those relationships punishable by death, all such relationships being punishable by kareth (in the absence of warning)].
  	A petzua dakkah [one whose testicles have been maimed or crushed] and a keruth shafchah [one whose membrum is cut, so that the sperm is not ejected but drips, obviating conception] shall not come into the congregation of the L-rd.
  	A mamzer (see 1) shall not come into the congregation of the L-rd [i.e., he may not marry an Israelite woman]. Even the tenth generation shall not come for him into the congregation of the L-rd.
  	An Ammonite and a Moavite shall not come into the congregation of the L-rd [i.e., they may not marry Israelite women]. Even the tenth generation shall not come for them into the congregation of the L-rd, forever.
  	Because of the word [i.e., the counsel which they gave to entice you into sin, and] because they did not go out before you with bread and water [when you were spent] on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because he hired against you Bilam the son of Beor from Pethor, Aram Naharayim, to curse you.
  	And the L-rd your G-d did not desire to heed Bilam, and the L-rd your G-d turned the curse into a blessing for you, for the L-rd your G-d loved you.
  	You shall not seek their peace and their good all of your days, forever [(as opposed to 17 below)].
  	You shall not [entirely] abominate an Edomi [even though he came out with a sword against you (Numbers 20:18-20)], for he is your brother. You shall not [entirely] abominate an Egyptian, [even though they cast your males into the Nile], for you were a stranger in his land [and they were your hosts in your extremity].
  	Children which will be born to them, the third generation, shall come for them into the congregation of the L-rd, [and the other nations are permitted immediately — whence it is seen that one who causes a Jew to sin (4) is worse than one who kills him, the latter killing him only in this world, but the former removing him from both worlds.]
  	When you go out as an encampment against your enemies, then you shall guard yourself against every evil thing, [the Satan "prosecuting" in time of danger.]
  	If there be among you a man who shall not be clean because of a nocturnal accident [(Scripture speaks of the common instance)], then he shall go outside the camp [(a positive commandment)]; he shall not come into the midst of the camp [(a negative commandment. He may not enter the camp of the Levites — a fortiori, the camp of the Shechinah.]
  	And it shall be towards evening that he shall bathe in water [(He should immerse himself close to sunset, for he is not clean until sunset)], and when the sun sets, he may come into the midst of the camp.
  	And a place shall there be for you outside the camp [outside of the cloud of glory], and you shall go out there, outside.
  	And you shall have a spade, aside from your other implements, and it shall be, when you sit outside, that you shall dig with it, and you shall turn back and cover your excrement.
  	For the L-rd your G-d walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to deliver your foes before you. And let your camp be holy, that He not see in you a thing of nakedness and turn away from you.
  	You shall not hand over a slave [of the nations] to his master, who escaped to you from his master.
  	With you shall he dwell, in your midst, in the place that he chooses, in one of your gates where it is good for him; you shall not oppress him.
  	There shall be no harlot from the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no harlot [for sodomy] from the sons of Israel.
  	You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute [(If one gave her a lamb as her hire, it is unfit for sacrifice)] and the exchange of a dog [i.e., a lamb exchanged for a dog] into the house of the L-rd your G-d for every vow; for the abomination of the L-rd your G-d are also both (shneihem). [Shinuyeihem ("their changes," e.g., wheat converted into flour) are also included as forbidden.]
  	You shall not give interest to your brother [(an exhortation to the borrower not to give interest to the lender (and see Leviticus 25:37)]: interest of money, interest of food, interest of any thing that can be (construed as) interest.
  	To the stranger shall you give interest [and not to your brother (a negative commandment inferred from a positive commandment, hence, a positive commandment — making him liable, in sum, for transgression of two negative commandments, (what follows and 20 above) and a positive commandment)]; but to your brother shall you not give interest, so that the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all to which you put your hand on the land whither you are coming to inherit it.
  	If you make a vow to the L-rd your G-d, you shall not delay [beyond the space of three festivals] to pay it; for the L-rd your G-d will require it of you and it will be a sin in you.
  	But if you forbear to vow, it will not be a sin in you.
  	What issues from your lips shall you observe and you shall do, as you vowed to the L-rd your G-d, the pledge that you spoke with your mouth.
  	If you [a worker] come into the vineyard of your neighbor, you may eat grapes as [much as] you desire, to satiety [but not overmuch], but into your (own) vessel you shall not place (any). [Scripture is speaking of harvest time, when the worker places (grapes) into the owner's vessel.]
  	If you [a worker] come into the standing corn of your neighbor, then you may pluck ears with your hand; but you shall not lift a sickle upon your neighbor's standing corn.
  
  
  
  	If a man take a woman, and he cohabit with her, then it shall be, if she does not find favor in his eyes, his having found in her a thing of nakedness, he shall write her a scroll of divorce [(it is a mitzvah for him to do so)], and he shall place it into her hand, and he shall send her from his house.
  	And she shall go out of his house, and she shall go and be (a wife) to another man [i.e., he is different from the first, who cast a wicked woman from his house].
  	And the second man shall hate her [(This is a prognostication)], and he shall write her a scroll of divorce and place it into her hand, and he shall send her from his house. And if [(as will happen if he does not divorce her)] the second man die, who had taken her for himself as a wife,
  	Her first husband who had sent her away shall not be able to return to take her to be to him as a wife after she has been defiled [(This includes a sotah who had secreted herself)], for she is an abomination before the L-rd. And you shall not make sinful the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance.
  	If a man take a new wife [one who is new to him, even a widow; but not a returned divorcée, he shall not go out in the army, and it (the army) shall not impose on him for any thing [needed by the army, such as supplying food and water and repairing roads (as opposed to those who are released by mandate of the Cohein, 20:5-7)]. Free shall he be [also] for his house [i.e., If he built a house and dedicated it or planted a vineyard and redeemed it, he does not stir thence because of army exigencies] for one year. And he shall rejoice his wife whom he has taken.
  	One shall not take as a pledge [for a debt, in beth-din, something essential to the debtor's livelihood], a nether millstone nor an upper millstone; for it is a soul that he takes in pledge.
  	If there be found a man [(where there are witnesses and warning)] who steals a soul of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he exploits him [(He is not liable until he makes use of him)], and he sells him, then that thief shall die, and you shall remove the evil from your midst.
  	Be heedful of the plague-spot of leprosy to take great care [not to pluck out the signs of uncleanliness and not to cut the bahereth (see Leviticus 13:2)], and to do according to all that the Cohanim, the Levites, teach you, [whether to quarantine, to confirm, or to declare clean]. As I have commanded them, so shall you observe to do.
  	Remember what the L-rd your G-d did to Miriam on the way when you went out of Egypt, [i.e., His striking her with leprosy for slandering Moses (— If you would avoid leprosy, avoid slander)].
  	When you claim from your neighbor any kind of debt, do not enter his house to claim his pledge.
  	Outside shall you stand, and the man who is indebted to you shall take out the pledge to you outside.
  	And if he is a poor man, you shall not lie down with his pledge [in your possession].
  	Return shall you return to him the pledge when the sun goes down [if it is a night garment (and see Exodus 22:25)], so that he may sleep in his garment, and he shall bless you; and [even if he does not bless you], it shall be (accounted) righteousness for you before the L-rd your G-d.
  	You shall not oppress a hired laborer who is poor and needy, of your brothers [(One who does so transgresses two negative commandments, this and Leviticus 19:13)], or of your stranger [a righteous convert] that is in your land [(Withholding the hire of animals and utensils is hereby included)], in your gates [(a resident stranger, one who eats carrion)].
  	In his day shall you give his wage, and the sun shall not go down upon it; for he is poor and to it [his wage] he bears his soul [risking death in his work] — that he not call against you to the L-rd; and there will be in you a sin, [in any event, even if he does not call, (but calling hastens punishment)].
  	Fathers shall not be put to death by [the testimony of] sons; and sons shall not be put to death by [the testimony of] fathers. Every man for his own sin shall be put to death [(But a child, one who is not yet "a man," (sometimes) dies by the hands of Heaven for his father's sin.)]
  	You shall not pervert the judgment of a stranger and an orphan [One who does so transgresses two negative commandments, this and 16:19 (the interdict being repeated here in that it is "easier" to pervert the judgment of the poor)], and you shall not take as a pledge [(not at the time of the loan)] the garment of a widow.
  	And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the L-rd your G-d redeemed you from there [to observe His statutes (even if doing so involves monetary loss)]; therefore, I command you to do this thing.
  	When you reap your harvest in your field, if you forget a sheaf, [but not a stack (a relatively large amount — whence it is derived that a sheaf containing two sa'ah is not considered shikchah ("forgetting")], in the field [including standing grain, part of which he forgot to cut], do not return to take it [(What is behind him is considered shikchah; what is before him, not.)] To the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow shall it be, so that the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all the work of your hands, [though the shikchah comes to them without specific intent. How much more so will He bless you where there is specific intent!]
  	When you beat your olive tree, you shall not cut off [its fruit (whence it is derived that peah is left from a tree)] after you. [This alludes to shikchah.] To the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow shall it be.
  	When you cut your vineyard, do not glean it after you [i.e., Do not take the tender grapes, those which have neither "arm" nor "dripping."] To the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow shall it be.
  	And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this thing.
  
  
  
  	If there be a quarrel among men, and they draw near to judgment, [as, in the end, they will be constrained to do, peace not resulting from a quarrel], and they judge them, and they vindicate the righteous one, and they incriminate the wicked one,
  	Then it shall be, if the wicked one is liable to stripes [(as he is when he is in violation of a negative commandment which is unlinked to a (remedial) positive commandment, (like 4)], that the judge shall bend him down [(he receives stripes neither standing nor sitting, but bent over)] and he shall smite him on his front according to his (one) wickedness [i.e., one third of thirty-nine (and, on his back, two thirds)] in number (leading to)
  	forty [i.e., thirty-nine] shall he smite him, and not more [(an exhortation against striking one's neighbor)]; lest he smite him more than these, a great blow, and your brother be demeaned before your eyes. [All the day he is called "wicked"; once he has been smitten, he is called "your brother."]
  	You shall not muzzle an ox [or any other beast, animal, or bird being worked where food obtains. (A man is not included in the interdict against muzzling)] in its threshing [(All like "threshing" is included, thus excluding foods which do not grow from the ground, etc.)]
  	When brothers dwell together [i.e., when they had dwelt concurrently in the world (This excludes from yibum (levirate marriage) the wife of one's brother who had never been "in his world"). They must also be "together" vis-à-vis inheritance (This excludes from yibum the wife of one's maternal brother)], and one of them dies, and he has no son [or daughter, or son of a son or daughter of a son, or son of a daughter or daughter of a daughter], then the wife of the dead one shall not be outside to a strange man. Her levir (her husband's brother) shall come upon her and take her for himself as a wife, and he shall have her in levirate marriage.
  	And it shall be, the first-born [i.e., the eldest of the brothers] (in an instance) where she can bear [(a woman who cannot bear is excluded from yibum)], he shall be invested in the name of his dead brother [with the latter's inheritance in his father's property], and his name shall not be wiped out of Israel. [(This excludes from yibum the wife of a saris (one who is impotent), whose name is already "wiped out.")
  	And if the man does not desire to take his yevamah, then his yevamah shall go up to the gate [of beth-din] to the elders, and she shall say: My yavam does not desire to invest for his brother a name in Israel; he does not desire to have me in yibum.
  	Then the elders of his city shall call to him and they shall speak to him; and he shall stand up and say [in the holy tongue]: I did not desire to take her.
  	Then his yevamah shall draw near to him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit before his face [on the ground], and she shall answer and say [in the holy tongue]: Thus shall it be done with the man who will not build [(he may not perform yibum at a later date)] the house of his brother.
  	And his name shall be called in Israel: "the house (of him) chalutz hana'al" ("whose shoe was removed"). [It is a mitzvah for all who are standing there to say: "chalutz hana'al."]
  	If men strive together, a man and his brother, and the wife of one draw near to rescue her husband from his assailant [(They are bound to come to blows — peace does not result from strife)], and she send forth her hand and seize his privy parts,
  	Then you shall "cut off her hand" [(monetary compensation (relative to the one shaming and the one shamed)]; you shall not have pity.
  	You shall not have [(If you have false weights, "you shall not have" anything!)] in your bag a stone and a stone [i.e., weights], a large and a small, [the large "contradicting" the small (buying with the large and selling with the small)].
  	You shall not have in your house a measure and a measure, large and small.
  	[If you have] a whole and just stone, you shall have [much]; a whole and just measure, you shall have, so that your days be prolonged on the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you.
  	For the abomination of the L-rd your G-d are all who do these, all who do wrong.
  	Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you went out of Egypt [(If you falsify weights and measures, apprehend the onset of the foe.)]
  	Who chanced upon you on the way and cut off [the membrums] from you [and cast them heavenwards], (of) all who were faint [from sin] behind you, [the clouds of glory having rejected them], and you were faint [from thirst] and weary [with traveling], and he [Amalek] did not fear G-d [to desist from attacking you].
  	And it shall be, when the L-rd your G-d gives you repose from all your enemies roundabout in the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you as an inheritance to inherit it, that you shall wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens, [(so that not even a beast remain of them of which it might be said: "This belonged to Amalek.")] You shall not forget.
  
  
  
  	And it shall be, when you come to the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you as an inheritance, and you inherit it and dwell in it [(The mitzvah of bikkurim did not obtain until they had conquered and apportioned the land)],
  	Then you shall take of the first [(tying a band around the first fruit to ripen and designating it as bikkurim)] of all the fruits of the earth [the seven distinctive species of Eretz Yisrael] that you bring from your land that the L-rd your G-d gives unto you, and you shall put them in a basket and go to the place wherein the L-rd your G-d chooses to repose His name.
  	And you shall come to the Cohein who shall be in those days [(whoever he may be)], and you shall say to him [(that you are not remiss in gratitude)]: I have professed this day [(Bikkurim are offered once a year, not twice)] to the L-rd your G-d that I have come to the land which the L-rd swore to our forefathers to give us.
  	And the Cohein shall take the basket from your hand [to wave it (The Cohein places his hand under that of the owner and waves it)], and he shall place it before the altar of the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you shall lift your voice and say before the L-rd your G-d: An Aramean [Lavan] destroyed my father [(Lavan intended to root out the entire nation in pursuing Jacob, and the evil intent of the gentiles is accounted as the act)], and, [after Lavan, others sought to destroy us; for after this] he went down to Egypt. And he lived there in scant number, [seventy souls], and he became there a great, mighty, and populous nation.
  	And Egypt wrought evil unto us, and they afflicted us, and they placed us under hard labor.
  	And we cried out to the L-rd, the G-d of our fathers. And the L-rd heard our voices, and He saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
  	And the L-rd took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great fear, and with signs and with wonders.
  	And He brought us to this place [the Temple], and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
  	And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which You, O L-rd, have given to me. Then you shall place it before the L-rd your G-d, [(the bearer having taken it after the Cohein's waving and having held it in his hand during his declaration, after which it was again waved)], and you shall bow down before the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you shall rejoice in all the good that the L-rd your G-d has given you and your household [(The bikkurim declaration is recited only in a time of rejoicing — from Shavuoth until Succoth — when one gathers his grain, his fruits, his wine and his oil. From Succoth on, he brings the bikkurim but does not recite the declaration)], you and the Levite [(from what was planted in their cities)], and the stranger in your midst. [He brings bikkurim, but does not recite the declaration, ("to our forefathers" (3), not applying in this instance.)]
  	When you finish tithing [(by Pesach of the fourth year)] all the tithe of your produce of the third year, the year of the tithe [i.e., when there obtains only one tithe (ma'aser rishon) of the two tithes (ma'aser rishon and ma'aser sheni) of the two preceding years, (ma'aser ani replacing ma'aser sheni in the third year)], and you have given [ma'aser rishon] to the Levite, and [ma'aser ani ("the poor tithe")] to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that they shall eat in your gates and be sated [(Give them enough for "satiety")],
  	Then you shall say before the L-rd your G-d [(Declare that you have given your tithes)]: I have removed the holy thing [ma'aser sheni and neta revai (see Leviticus 27:30 and 19:24)] from the house [If he delayed bringing his tithes of the first two years to Jerusalem, he must do so now], and I have also [(Terumah and bikkurim are hereby included)] given it [ma'aser rishon] to the Levite, and [ma'aser ani] to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, according to all of Your mitzvah that You commanded me [(I gave all of the tithes in their proper order)]. I did not depart from Your mitzvoth [(I did not tithe from one species for another or from the new for the old)], and I did not forget [to bless You at the tithing].
  	I did not eat in my mourning of it, [it being forbidden to a mourner], and I did not remove of it in uncleanliness, [whether I were unclean, and it (the tithe) clean; or, I, clean, and it, unclean], and I did not give of it for the dead [for the making of casket and shrouds]. I have hearkened to the voice of the L-rd my G-d [(I have brought it to the Temple)]. I have done according to all that You commanded me [(I rejoiced, and I rejoiced others therewith)].
  	Look down from Your holy abode, from the heavens, and bless Your people, Israel, and the land which You have given us [We have done (with respect to the tithes) what You decreed upon us — You do what You have promised us (viz. Leviticus 26:3-4)] — just as You swore unto our fathers a land flowing with milk and honey [and You fulfilled what You promised them].
  	This day the L-rd your G-d commands you to do these statutes and the judgments [(Let them always be new in your eyes, as if He is commanding you "this day.")] [A heavenly voice blesses the bringer of bikkurim, viz.]: And [as you have brought bikkurim this day], may you [merit to] keep and do them [the following year] with all your heart and with all your soul.
  	The L-rd did single you out this day to be to you as a G-d, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His mitzvoth, and His judgments, and to heed His voice.
  	And the L-rd did single you out this day to be to Him as a chosen people, as He spoke to you [Exodus 19:5], and to keep all of His mitzvoth.
  	And to exalt you above all of the nations that He made — for praise, name, and glory — and so that you be a holy people to the L-rd your G-d, as He spoke [Exodus 20:26].
  
  
  
  	And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying: Keep [always] the entire mitzvah that I command you this day.
  	And it shall be, on the day that you cross the Jordan to the land that the L-rd your G-d gives you, that you shall set up [in the Jordan] great stones, and you shall paint them with lime.
  	And you shall write upon them all the words of this Torah when you pass over, so that you come to the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, spoke to you.
  	And it shall be, when you cross the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Eival, and you shall paint them with lime.
  	And you shall build there an altar to the L-rd your G-d, an altar of stones. You shall not lift iron over them.
  	Of whole stones shall you build the altar of the L-rd your G-d, and you shall offer upon it burnt-offerings to the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you shall sacrifice peace-offerings and you shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you shall write on the stones all the words of this Torah, well explained [in seventy languages].
  	And Moses and the Cohanim, the Levites, spoke to all of Israel, saying: Listen and hear, O Israel: This day you have become a people to the L-rd your G-d [(Let it be in your eyes as if you have entered into the covenant with Him this day.)]
  	And you shall heed the voice of the L-rd your G-d, and you shall do His mitzvoth and His statutes which I command you this day.
  	And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying:
  	These shall stand for the blessing of the people on Mount Gerizim when you cross over the Jordan: Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, Yissachar, Yosef, and Binyamin [Six tribes went up to the top of Mount Gerizim and six to the top of Mount Eival, the Cohanim and the Levites standing with the ark, below, in the middle. The Levites turned their faces towards Mount Gerizim and opened with blessing, viz.: "Blessed is the man who does not make a graven image or a molten image," and all (on both mountains) answered Amen. Then they turned to Mount Eival and recited the corresponding curse, viz. (15): "Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molten image, etc.", and so with all, until (26): "Cursed is he who does not fulfill, etc." (see 11:29)]
  	And these shall stand for the curse on Mount Eival: Reuven, Gad, and Asher, and Zevulun, Dan, and Naftali.
  	And the Levites shall lift their voices, and they shall say to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:
  	Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molten image, the abomination of the L-rd, the work of the hands of an artisan, and places it in secret. And all the people shall answer and say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who demeans his father and his mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who moves back the boundary marker of his neighbor, [thus stealing his land]. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who misleads the blind man on the way [i.e., one who gives the unknowing bad advice]. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who perverts the judgment of the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife, for he has uncovered his father's lap. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who lies with any beast. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who smites his neighbor [i.e., who slanders him] in secret. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who takes graft to smite a soul of innocent blood. And all the people shall say: Amen.
  	Cursed is he who does not fulfill the words of this Torah to do them. And all the people shall say: Amen. [The entire Torah is herein included, and they accepted it under imprecation and oath.]
  
  
  
  	And it shall be, if you heed the voice of the L-rd your G-d to observe to do all of His mitzvoth that I command you today, then the L-rd your G-d shall exalt you above all the nations of the earth.
  	And there shall come upon you all of these blessings and they shall cleave unto you, if you heed the voice of the L-rd your G-d.
  	Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
  	Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your beasts, the offspring of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep.
  	Blessed shall be your fruits and your remainder [i.e., what is dry and does not ooze out of the vessel].
  	Blessed shall you be in your coming in and blessed shall you be in your going out [You will leave the world without sin, as when you entered it.]
  	The L-rd shall render your foes, who rise up against you, smitten before you. By one way shall they go forth against you, and by seven ways [in the manner of the panic-stricken] shall they flee before you.
  	The L-rd shall command unto you the blessing in your store-houses and in all to which you put your hand, and He shall bless you in the land that the L-rd your G-d gives to you.
  	The L-rd shall raise you as a holy people unto Him, as He swore to you, if you heed the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d and you walk in His ways.
  	And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the L-rd is called upon you, and they shall fear you.
  	And the L-rd shall cause you to remain for the good — in the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your beasts, and the fruit of your land — on the land that the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to you.
  	The L-rd shall open for you His goodly treasure trove, the heavens, to give to you the rain of your land in its time and to bless all to which you put your hand, and you shall lend many nations, and you shall not borrow.
  	And the L-rd shall make you a head and not a tail. And you will be only above, and you will not be below — if you heed the mitzvoth of the L-rd your G-d that I command you this day, to keep and to do.
  	And you shall not deviate from all of the things that I command you this day, right and left, to go after other gods to serve them.
  	And it shall be, if you do not heed the voice of the L-rd your G-d to observe to do all of His mitzvoth and His statutes that I command you this day, then there shall come upon you all of these curses and they will cleave unto you.
  	Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the field.
  	Cursed will be your fruits and your remainder.
  	Cursed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, the offspring of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.
  	Cursed will you be in your coming in and cursed will you be in your going out.
  	The L-rd will send in you the blight, the mehumah [a terrifying sound], and the blast, in all to which you put your hand, until He destroys you, and until you go lost quickly because of the evil of your deeds in having left Me.
  	The L-rd shall cause to cleave to you the pestilence, until it consumes you from off the land whither you come to inherit it.
  	The L-rd will smite you with shachefeth [swelling and blowing up of the flesh], and with kadachath [a fever], and with daleketh [hotter than kadachath], and with charchur [internal fever and constant thirst], and with the sword, and with [field blights]: shidafon [the east wind] and yerakon [dryness (the grain turning pale)], and they shall pursue you until you go lost.
  	And your skies over your head shall be as brass, and your earth under you, as iron [as opposed to (Leviticus 26:19): "And I shall make your skies as iron and your earth as brass," these being stated by the L-rd Himself, and being more severe, in that iron does not "sweat" (implying that the skies will provide no moisture whatsoever) and brass does "sweat" implying that the fruit will rot), whereas the curses here are stated by Moses, who attenuated them.]
  	The L-rd will render the rain of your land dust and sand [through a wind following the rain, which will blow the dust onto the wet plants, creating a sticky layer which shall desiccate and rot them]. From heaven shall it descend upon you until it destroys you.
  	The L-rd will render you smitten before your foes. By one way shall you go forth against him, and by seven ways shall you flee before him, and you will become a(n) [emblem of] horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
  	And your carcass shall be food for all the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten (them off).
  	The L-rd will smite you with the boils of Egypt [(a pernicious variety) moist on the outside and dry on the inside], and with swellings, and garav [moist boils], and charess [boils dry as shard], of which you will not be able to be healed.
  	The L-rd will smite you with madness and blindness and closure of heart.
  	And you shall grope in mid-day, as the blind man gropes in pitch darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be but thwarted and despoiled all of your days with no one to save (you).
  	A wife shall you betroth, but a different man shall possess her. A house shall you build, but you shall not dwell therein. A vineyard shall you plant, but you shall not redeem it [in the fourth year to eat its fruits].
  	Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat thereof. Your ass will be stolen before you and will not return to you. Your flock will be given to your foes with none to save them for you.
  	Your sons and your daughters will be given to a different people, and your eyes will see and fail for them [to return] the entire day, but you shall remain powerless.
  	The fruit of your ground and all of your toil will be eaten by a people that you know not, and you will be but thwarted and broken all of the days.
  	And you will be maddened by the sight of your eyes that you see.
  	The L-rd will smite you with sore boils on the knees and on the thighs, which you will not be able to heal, from the sole of your foot until your crown.
  	The L-rd will lead you and your king that you set over you to a nation that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. And you will serve there other gods, wood and stone.
  	And you will be [a source of] astonishment, parable, and simile [("This is exactly like what happened to…!")], and [a subject of] converse in all of the peoples whither the L-rd leads you.
  	Much seed shall you take out to the field, but little shall you gather in, for the locust will consume it.
  	Vineyards will you plant and work, but wine will you not drink or store, for the worm shall consume it.
  	Olive trees will you have in all of your borders, but with oil shall you not anoint yourself, for your olive tree will cast off [its fruits].
  	Sons and daughters will you beget, but they shall not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
  	All of your trees and the fruit of your land will be impoverished by the locust.
  	The stranger in your midst will rise ever higher above you, and you will descend lower and lower.
  	He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
  	And all of these curses will come upon you, and pursue you, and cleave unto you, until you are destroyed, (this) for not having heeded the voice of the L-rd your G-d, to keep His mitzvoth and His statutes that He commanded you.
  	And they will be in you for a sign and a wonder and in your seed forever.
  	Because you did not serve the L-rd your G-d with joy and with goodness of heart when you had an abundance of all.
  	And you shall serve your foes whom the L-rd shall send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in want of all; and He shall place a yoke of iron upon your neck until He destroys you.
  	The L-rd shall raise up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle soars, [with suddenness and swiftness], a nation whose tongue you will not know.
  	A nation of brazen mien, who will not defer to the old and will not spare the young.
  	And he will eat the fruits of your beasts and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed, (a nation) that will not leave over for you corn, wine, or oil, the offspring of your cattle or the flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.
  	And he will oppress you in all of your gates until the conquest of your high and fortified walls in which you trust in all your land. And he will oppress you in all of your gates in all your land which the L-rd your G-d gives to you.
  	And you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters that the L-rd your G-d has given you, because of the siege and the [consequent] extremity [of famine] wherewith your foe will oppress you.
  	The man of extreme delicacy among you [who would normally recoil from anything offensive] — his eye will be grudging to his brother and the wife of his bosom and the rest of his sons whom he shall leave,
  	Not to give to one of them of the flesh of his sons that he will eat, nothing being left to him in the siege and in the extremity wherewith your foe will oppress you in all of your gates.
  	The woman of extreme delicacy among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground in the exquisiteness of her delicacy — her eye shall be grudging to the husband of her bosom, and to her [older] son and daughter,
  	And to her young who issue from between her legs, and to her children whom she will beget; for she will eat them in want of all, in secret, [and she will not share them with her remaining children], in the siege and in the extremity wherewith your foes will oppress you in your gates.
  	If you do not observe to do all the words of this Torah that are written in this scroll to fear this honored, awesome Name, the L-rd your G-d.
  	Then the L-rd will make distinctive [from all other plagues] your plagues, and the plagues of your seed, plagues great and trusted ["to fulfill their embassy"], and sore, trusty illnesses.
  	And the L-rd will send against you all the afflictions [i.e., the plagues] of Egypt, which you feared [would come upon you], and they will cleave to you.
  	Also, every sickness and every plague which is not written in the scroll of this Torah, the L-rd will bring them up against you until you are destroyed.
  	And you will remain but few in number instead of being like the stars of heaven in multitude, for not having heeded the voice of the L-rd your G-d.
  	And it shall be that just as the L-rd rejoiced over you to do good to you and to increase you, so will the L-rd rejoice [others] over you to destroy you and to annihilate you, and you will be uprooted from the land whither you are coming to inherit it.
  	And the L-rd will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth until the other, and you will serve there [(by paying tribute and poll-tax to the priests of idolatry)] other gods, that you did not know, you and your fathers, wood and stone.
  	And among those nations you shall not find ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; and the L-rd shall give you there a quaking heart, and failing of eyes [aspiring to the salvation that does not come], and despair of soul.
  	And your life shall be hanging [in doubt] before you [in your constant apprehension of death], and you will fear night and day, and you will not believe in your life.
  	In the morning you will say: Would that it were evening [of the preceding day], and in the evening you will say: Would that it were [the preceding] morning [(your suffering increasing progressively)], from the fear of your heart that you shall fear, and from the sight of your eyes that you shall see.
  	And the L-rd will return you to Egypt in boats [in captivity] by the way, of which I said to you: You shall not venture to see it again; and you shall [desire to] be sold there to your foes [as bondsmen and bondswomen] — but there shall be no buyer, [for death and destruction shall be decreed upon you.]
  	These are the words of the covenant that the L-rd commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel, [that they take the Torah upon themselves under imprecation and oath] in the land of Moav, aside from the covenant which He made with them in Chorev [i.e., aside from the curses in Leviticus stated at Sinai.]
  
  
  
  	And Moses called to all of Israel and he said to them: You saw all that the L-rd did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land.
  	The great trials which your eyes witnessed, the signs, and those great wonders [see 4:34].
  	And the L-rd did not give you a heart to know [the lovingkindness of the L-rd and to cleave to Him], and eyes to see and ears to hear until this day. [On the day the L-rd gave the Torah scroll to the sons of Levi (31:9), the other tribes remonstrated at its not having been given to them, too. Moses was gratified at this and said (27:9): "This day you have become a people to the L-rd, etc."]
  	And I led you forty years in the desert. Your clothes have not worn from off you, and your shoes have not worn from off your feet.
  	Bread you have not eaten, and wine and strong drink you have not drunk, so that you should know that I am the L-rd your G-d.
  	And you have come to this place [(Now you see yourselves in greatness and glory. Do not "kick" against the L-rd, and let your hearts not give way to pride, (8): "And you shall heed, etc.")], and Sichon the king of Cheshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us in war and we smote them.
  	And we took their land, and we gave it as an inheritance to the Reuveni and to the Gadi and to the half tribe of Menasheh.
  	And you shall heed the words of this covenant, and you shall do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.
  	You are standing this day, all of you, before the L-rd your G-d [(Moses assembled them before the Holy One Blessed be He on the day of his death to bring them into the covenant)], your heads of your tribes, your elders and your officers, [in order of prominence, followed by] all the men of Israel.
  	Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in the midst of your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water [(These were Canaanites who came by stratagem to convert in the days of Moses, as the Giveonites did in the days of Joshua (see Joshua 9:4)].
  	So that you pass into the covenant [(The makers of a covenant would make a partition on both sides, through which they would pass)] of the L-rd your G-d and into His oath, which the L-rd your G-d makes with you this day.
  	[He is doing all this] in order to confirm you this day unto Him as a people, and Himself to you as a G-d, as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [not to exchange you for another nation, for which reason He binds you with these oaths, so that you not provoke Him.]
  	And not with you alone do I contract this covenant and this oath,
  	But with whoever is present here with us standing this day before the L-rd our G-d and with whoever is not here with us this day, [even the future generations].
  	For you have known our dwelling in the land of Egypt and our passing in the midst of the nations wherein you passed [and which some of you might be tempted to join],
  	And you saw their abominations and their offal, [idols of] wood and stone [which were open to view], and [idols of] silver and gold which [they kept] with them [in secret, fearing that they would be stolen],
  	Lest there be among you a man or a woman, a family or a tribe, whose heart turns this day from the L-rd our G-d to go and serve the gods of those nations — Lest there be among you a root sprouting gall and wormwood [i.e., generating evil in your midst],
  	And it be, when he hears the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart, saying: [These curses will not come upon me, but] "All will be well with me, for as my heart sees fit shall I do," so that the unwitting (sin) is added (for punishment) to the willful,
  	The L-rd will not wish to forgive him, for then the wrath of the L-rd and His vengeance will burn against that man, and there shall descend upon him the entire curse that is written in this scroll, and the L-rd will erase his name from under the heavens.
  	And the L-rd will set him aside for evil from all of the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this scroll of the Torah.
  	And the latter generation will say, your children who arise after you, and the stranger who comes from a far-off land, and who see the plagues of that land and the ills which the L-rd has inflicted upon it,
  	Brimstone and salt, a conflagration of the entire land — not being sown, and not sprouting, and not bringing forth any herb — like the overthrow of Sodom and Amorah, Admah and Tzvoyim, which the L-rd overturned in His wrath and His fury.
  	And all the nations will say: Why did the L-rd do thus to this land? What means the burning of this great wrath?
  	Then they will say: It is because they forsook the covenant of the L-rd, the G-d of their fathers, that He made with them when He brought them forth from the land of Egypt.
  	And they went and they served other gods and they bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know [to be potent] and whom He did not confer upon them.
  	And the wrath of the L-rd burned against that land to bring upon it the entire curse written in this scroll.
  	And the L-rd drove them off from their land in wrath and fury and great rage, and He cast them into a different land as this day.
  	[And if you ask: What can we do if we are punished for the hidden thoughts of one man" (see 17) — know that] the hidden things [of the individual] are for the L-rd our G-d [to punish], but the revealed ones are for us and our children [(who become subject to the oath after crossing the Jordan) to extirpate from our midst] forever, to do according to all the words of this Torah, [failing which, we are subject to punishment.]
  
  
  
  	And it shall be, when there are come upon you all of these things, the blessing and the curse that I have placed before you, and you return unto your hearts among all the nations whereunto the L-rd your G-d has driven you,
  	And you return to the L-rd your G-d and you heed His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,
  	Then the L-rd your G-d will return with your captivity, [the Shechinah, as it were, having shared with Israel the suffering of the exile], and He shall have mercy upon you, and He shall return and gather you from all the peoples whereunto the L-rd your G-d has dispersed you.
  	If your cast-off ones be in the end of the heavens, from there the L-rd your G-d will gather you and from there He will take you.
  	And the L-rd your G-d will bring you to the land which your forefathers inherited, and you will inherit it. And He shall do good unto you, and He shall increase you even more than your fathers.
  	And the L-rd your G-d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you live.
  	And the L-rd your G-d will place all these curses on your foes and on your haters, who pursued you.
  	And you will return and you will hearken to the voice of the L-rd, and you will do all of His mitzvoth that I command you this day.
  	And the L-rd your G-d will increase you in all the work of your hands, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your beasts, and in the fruit of your land for the good. For the L-rd will return to rejoice over you for the good as He rejoiced over your fathers.
  	If you heed the voice of the L-rd your G-d to keep His mitzvoth and His statutes which are written in this Torah scroll, if you return to the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.
  	For this mitzvah which I command you this day is not concealed from you and it is not far off.
  	It is not in the heavens [(If it were, you would have to go up after it to study it)], that one would say: Who will go up for us to heaven and take it for us and make us hear it that we might do it?
  	And it is not across the seas, that one would say: Who will cross the seas for us and take it for us and make us hear it that we might do it?
  	For the thing is very near to you [(the Torah having been given in writing and by word of mouth)], in your mouth and in your heart to do it.
  	See, I have set before you this day, the life and the good [(The first is contingent upon the second)], and the death and the evil, [viz.:]
  	What I command you this day, to love the L-rd your G-d, to walk in His ways, and to keep His mitzvoth, and His statutes, and His judgments [(This is "the good")], and you will live, and you will multiply [(This is "the life")], and the L-rd your G-d will bless you in the land whither you come to inherit it.
  	And if your heart turns, and you do not hearken, and you are drawn away, and you bow down to other gods and you serve them [(This is "the evil")],
  	I tell you this day that you will go lost [(This is "the death")]; you will not prolong days on the land whither you cross over the Jordan to come there to inherit it.
  	I call as witness upon you this day heaven and earth [(They endure forever, and if evil befall you, they will testify that I forewarned you of all this.)] The life and the death have I set before you, the blessing and the curse, and [I urge you to] choose the life, so that you live, you and your seed.
  	To love the L-rd your G-d, to heed His voice, and to cleave to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days to dwell on the land that the L-rd swore to your forefathers — to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob — to give to them.
  
  
  
  	And Moses went and he spoke these words to all of Israel.
  	And he said to them: I am one hundred and twenty years old this day [(On this day I was born, and on this day I shall die)]. I shall no longer be able to go out and to come in, [(the warrant to do so having been taken from him and accorded Joshua)], for the L-rd has said to me: You shall not cross over this Jordan.
  	The L-rd your G-d — He crosses over before you. He will destroy these nations before you and you will inherit them. Joshua — he crosses over before you, as the L-rd has spoken.
  	And the L-rd shall do to them as He did to Sichon and to Og, the kings of the Emori and to their land, having destroyed them.
  	And the L-rd will deliver them before you, and you shall do to them according to all of the mitzvah that I have commanded you.
  	Be strong and firm. Do not fear and do not break before them. For the L-rd your G-d — It is He that goes before you; He will not let go of you, and He will not forsake you.
  	And Moses called to Joshua and he said to him before the eyes of all of Israel: Be strong and firm, for you will come with this people [(The elders of the generation shall be with you — all will be according to their judgment and counsel)] to the land that the L-rd swore to their fathers to give to them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.
  	And the L-rd — It is He who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not let go of you and He will not forsake you. Do not fear and do not break.
  	And Moses wrote this Torah, and [when he finished writing all of it], he gave it to [his tribe], the Cohanim, the sons of Levi, who carry the ark of the covenant of the L-rd, and to all the elders of Israel.
  	And Moses commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years [in the first year of (the new) shemitah (period), i.e., in the eighth year)], at the time of the year of the shemitah, [(the laws of shemitah still obtaining for the produce of the seventh year harvested in the eighth)], in the festival of Succoth,
  	When all of Israel come to appear before the L-rd your G-d in the place that He shall choose, you shall read this Torah before all of Israel, in their ears [(The king would read from the beginning of Deuteronomy on a wooden platform that they set up in the azarah.)]
  	Assemble the people: the men [to learn], the women [to hear], and the little ones, [to confer reward on those who bring them], and the stranger in your gates, so that they hear and so that they learn and fear the L-rd your G-d and observe to do all the words of this Torah.
  	And their sons who did not know shall hear and learn to fear the L-rd your G-d all of the days that you live upon the land whither you cross the Jordan to inherit it.
  	And the L-rd said to Moses: Behold, your days have drawn near to die. Call Joshua and stand in the tent of meeting and I will charge him. And Moses and Joshua went and they stood in the tent of meeting.
  	And the L-rd appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tent.
  	And the L-rd said to Moses: Behold, you shall lie down with your fathers, and this people shall arise and stray after the gods of the nations of the land into whose midst it is coming; and it will forsake Me and break the covenant that I made with it.
  	And My wrath shall burn against them on that day, and I shall forsake them, and I shall hide My face from them [as if I do not see their suffering], and they shall be prey, and many ills and afflictions shall befall them. And it (Israel) shall say on that day: Is it not because my G-d is not in my midst that these ills have befallen me?
  	And I shall utterly hide My face on that day because of all the evil that it did, because it turned to other gods.
  	And now, write for yourselves this song [32:1-43] and teach it to the children of Israel. Place it in their mouths, so that this song be a witness for Me with the children of Israel.
  	For I shall bring them to the land that I have sworn to their fathers, flowing milk and honey, and they shall eat and be sated and grow fat, and they shall turn to other gods and serve them, and they shall spurn Me and break My covenant.
  	And it shall be, when many ills and afflictions befall them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness [that I forewarned them in it (the song) of all that would befall them], for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their seed [(an assurance to Israel that the Torah will never be entirely forgotten by their seed)]. For I have known its inclination, what it does today, before I bring it to the land that I have sworn.
  	And Moses wrote this song on that day, and he taught it to the children of Israel.
  	And He charged Joshua the son of Nun, saying: Be strong and firm, for you will bring the children of Israel to the land that I swore to them, and I shall be with you.
  	And it was, when Moses had finished writing the words of this Torah on a scroll until their end,
  	That Moses commanded the Levites, the bearers of the ark of the covenant of the L-rd, saying:
  	Take the scroll of this Torah and place it at the side of the ark of the covenant of the L-rd your G-d [(according to one view, on a board projecting outside the ark; according to another, alongside the tablets within the ark)], and it shall be there for witness in you.
  	For I have known your rebellion and your stiff neck. If until the time I have been living with you this day, you have been rebellious against the L-rd, how much more so after my death!
  	Assemble unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers and I will speak in their ears these words, and I will call upon heaven and earth to be witness in them [(In 30:19, he spoke to Israel; now he will speak to heaven and earth.)]
  	For I know that after my death [i.e., after the death of Joshua, whom Moses considered like himself] you will corrupt yourselves and you will turn from the way that I commanded unto you, and the evil will befall you in the end of days, for you will do the evil in the eyes of the L-rd to anger Him with the deeds of your hands.
  	And Moses spoke in the ears of the entire assembly of Israel the words of this song until their end:
  
  
  
  	Listen, O heavens, and I shall speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth [wherewith I am forewarning Israel, and be witnesses to the fact that I told them you would be my witnesses (see 30:19). (If they are meritorious, the heavens and the earth will give them their bounty; if not, they will withhold it.)]
  	[This is what you shall testify, that I say before you that the Torah that I gave to Israel is life to the world, just as rain is.] My teaching [i.e., Torah] shall drip as the rain; My word shall flow as the dew, [which is universally welcome], as winds upon the herbage, [which cause it to flourish (so Torah causes its disciples to flourish)], as showers upon the [(individual) blades] of grass.
  	When I call the name of the L-rd, ascribe greatness to our G-d [(whence it is derived that after a blessing in the Temple, the response is "Blessed is the name of the glory of His kingdom" (Baruch shem kevod malchutho)].
  	The Rock [Even when He is strong (as a rock), when He brings punishment upon the flouters of His will] — perfect, [in absolute accord with justice] is His work, for all of His ways are judgment [and not blind fury]. He is a G-d of trust [to repay the righteous in the world to come], without wrong [even to the wicked. He repays their deeds of righteousness in this world.] He is [pronounced] righteous [i.e., All vindicate His judgment], and it is fit [that they do so].
  	They have corrupted [themselves], not Him. [They were] His sons, [and the corruption that they wrought is] their blemish [and not His] — a crooked and twisted generation!
  	Would you thus requite the L-rd, [who has the power to exact punishment of you, and who accorded you all manner of good?] Ignorant people, [who forgot all that was done to them], and not wise [to foresee consequences, it being in His power to do good and ill]. Is He not your father, your provider? He made you [a nation among nations], and He established you [securely].
  	Remember the days of yore [i.e., what He did to the first ones who angered Him]; reflect upon the years of [the] generation [of Enosh, which He flooded with Oceanus], and [the] generation [of the flood]. Ask your father [the prophets], and he shall tell you; your elders [the sages], and they will relate it [the early happenings] to you.
  	When the Most High caused [the] nations [who angered Him] to "inherit," [He inundated them]; when He separated the sons of man [i.e., when He scattered the generation of the Tower of Babel (dor haflagah), He could have removed them from the world; but He did not do so. Instead,] He set the bounds [(seventy tongues)] of the peoples [He established them and did not cause them to go lost], for the sake of the number of the children of Israel [that were destined to go forth from the children of Shem, and in accordance with the number of seventy souls of the children of Israel who went down to Egypt.]
  	[And why all this?] For the portion of the L-rd [was secreted among them and destined to come forth. And who is His "portion"?] — His people. [And who is His people?] Jacob, the cord of His inheritance, [the third cord of a three-fold cord (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), Jacob and his sons being His inheritance (not Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and not Esav, the son of Isaac.)]
  	He found them [(Jacob's sons) faithful unto Him] in a desert land, [Israel accepting His Torah, His kingdom, and His yoke, as opposed to Ishmael and Esav (see 33:2)], and in a wasteland, howling [with jackals, etc.] and desolate. [(Even there they were steadfast in their faith.)] [There] He surrounded them [with clouds, and with standards on four sides, and with the base of the mountain (Sinai), arching it over them like a barrel], He invested them [with Torah and understanding]. He protected them [from fiery serpents, scorpions, and the nations] like the pupil of His eye.
  	[He led them with mercy and compassion,] as an eagle [by soft motions] awakes its nest, hovering over its fledglings [and not bearing down upon them. (Likewise, the Holy One Blessed be He, in giving Israel the Torah, did not "bear down upon them" from one side, but "projected Himself" from four sides)], spreading its wings and taking them, bearing them on its pinion [from place to place, unlike other birds, who take their young in their talons, fearing the eagle who flies above them. Not so the eagle, which fears no other birds, but only projectiles, from which it shields its fledglings with its body.) The L-rd, likewise, "shielded" Israel at the Red Sea (See Exodus 19:4 and 14: 19-20)]
  	The L-rd led them [in the desert], alone [and secure], and there was no power [in any of the] strange [i.e., the nations' gods] against them.
  	He made him ride on the high places of the earth [(Eretz Yisrael is the highest of all the lands)], and he ate the shoots of the field [(The fruits of Eretz Yisrael "shoot up" faster than all others)]. And He gave him to suck [fig-] honey from the rock, and oil from the flint of the rock [(These are the olives of Gush Chalav.)]
  	Cream from the herd and milk from the flock [(as transpired in the days of Solomon (I Kings 5:2-3)], with fat of lambs [(as transpired in the days of the ten tribes (Amos 6:4)], and [fat] rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with wheat [as fat as] the fat of kidneys [(as transpired in the days of Solomon (I Kings 5:2)], and blood of the grape did you drink [as choice] wine [(as transpired in the days of the ten tribes (Amos 6:6)].
  	And Yeshurun grew fat and it kicked. You grew fat, you grew thick, you were covered [with fat], and he forsook the G-d who made him and abased the Rock of his salvation [see Ezekiel 8:16].
  	They provoked Him with strange [gods]; they angered Him with abominations [like sodomy and necromancy].
  	They sacrificed to demons, which availed naught [(If there were some utility to them, His anger would not be "doubled" as it is now)], (to) gods they had not known, new ones, newly come, [who were unknown even to the heathens, (who thought them to be Jewish images)] — your fathers had not dreaded them.
  	The Rock of your birth you forgot; and you forgot the G-d who brought you forth [from the womb].
  	And the L-rd saw and He thrust away in anger His sons and His daughters.
  	And He said: I shall hide My face from them. I shall see what their end shall be. For they are a generation of conversion [They convert My favor to anger], sons in whom there is no rearing [i.e., in whom My rearing is not evident, I, having reared them to good, and they, having departed from it.]
  	They have incited Me with a no-god; they have angered Me with their vanities. And I will incite them with a no-people [i.e., a people of no repute (viz. Isaiah 23:13; Ovadiah 1:2)]. With a base nation [i.e., the heretics (viz. Psalms 14:1)] will I anger them.
  	For a fire has been kindled in My wrath, and it shall burn [in you] to the nethermost pit [the foundation], and it shall consume the land [i.e., your land] and its produce, and it shall set ablaze the foundations of the mountains [i.e., Jerusalem, which is founded on the mountains].
  	I will join evils [i.e., evil upon evil] upon them. I will end [all of] My arrows in them (— but they themselves will not end)].
  	(They will be) hairy with hunger and embattled by reshef [demons] and cut down by Meriri [a demon]. And the tooth of beasts will I send against them [(as it, indeed, happened, that the bite of lambs caused death)], with the venom of the crawlers in the dust [i.e., the serpents].
  	On the outside [of the city] the sword [of legions] shall devour [them], and in the chambers [of their hearts, when they flee], fright [will pound, eventually killing them], both young man and virgin, suckling and the man of gray hairs.
  	I said: I would disclaim them; I would cut off their remembrance from men,
  	Were it not that the anger of the foe were stored up [against them to destroy them. And if they did destroy them, they would attribute the victory to themselves and to their gods, and not to Me] — lest their oppressors estrange [i.e., lest they attribute their triumph to a stranger], lest they say: Our hand is exalted, and it is not the L-rd who has wrought all this.
  	For it [the foe] is a nation devoid of counsel, and there is no understanding in them, [for]
  	If they were wise, they would understand this, they would comprehend their [Israel's] end [i.e., their defeat (as the L-rd's doing and not as theirs).For they would say]
  How could one [of us] pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, if their Rock had not sold them, and the L rd (had not) delivered them [into our hands]!
  	[They should understand this, knowing from past experience] that not as our Rock is their rock, ["their rock" having been entirely powerless against ours], and [now] our foes judge [us! It must be, then, that our Rock has sold us.]
  	["I said I would disclaim them, etc." (26)], for of the wine of Sodom is their wine, and of the fields of Amorah [i.e., their deeds are those of Sodom and Amorah.] Their grapes are grapes of gall. Bitter clusters are their desert [for their "bitter" deeds].
  	The [bitter] venom of snakes is their wine [of retribution] and the cruel gall of asps [is their cup. A cruel foe will come and exact punishment of them].
  	[They think I have forgotten their deeds, but] is it ["the fruit of their wine and the produce of their fields" (see 32)] not laid up with Me and sealed in My stores!
  	With Me is [readied] vengeance, and it shall pay them [in accordance with their deeds] at the time their foot gives way [i.e., when they exhaust the merit of their fathers, which is their support]. For readied is the day of their calamity, and what is destined [for them] shall quickly befall them. [(Thus far, Moses' words of chastisement, the song to serve as witness, when retribution comes upon them, that he had forewarned them. There follow his words of consolation, relating to what will befall them after their punishment has been exacted (see 30:1-2)]
  	When the L rd has judged His people [with the aforementioned afflictions], and He repents Himself of His servants, [turning to be merciful to them], seeing that the hand [of the foe] is becoming progressively stronger, and that they (Israel) are bereft of [saving] restraint or strengthening,
  	Then He will say [about them]: Where are their gods? The rock in whom they sought shelter,
  	who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations? Let them arise and aid you! Let him [the "rock"] be covert for you!
  	See, now, [from the retribution that I brought upon you and from which none could save you, and from the salvation that I shall bring you, from which none can deter Me], that it is I [for "lowering," and] I [for "lifting"], and there is no god against Me [to deter Me]. I put to death and I bring to life, I smite and I heal, and there is no saving [those who sin against Me] from My hand.
  	For [in My wrath] I shall raise My hand [in oath] to heaven [i.e., to Myself], and I shall say: As I live forever,
  	I shall whet the flash of My sword and My hand shall take hold of justice, [abandoning mercy for My foes — "for I was wroth (against Israel) but little, and they (Israel's foes) 'assisted' in evil" (Zechariah 1:15)]; I shall return vengeance to My adversaries, and I shall repay those who hate Me.
  	I will make My arrows drunk with blood [of the nations], and My sword shall eat [their] flesh, [this, in retribution] for the blood of [Israel's] slain and [their] captivity, [in retribution] for [the sins of] the beginning of the breaches of the foe. [(When the Holy One Blessed be He exacts punishment of the nations, He visits upon them their sins and those of their forefathers, from the very beginning of the breach that they made in Israel.)]
  	[At that time] the nations will praise His people [for cleaving to Him in all of their vicissitudes and not forsaking Him, knowing His goodness and His glory]. For, the [shedding of the] blood of His servants shall He avenge, and vengeance shall He return to His adversaries [for their despoiling of Israel], and He will conciliate His land [and] His people [for the suffering they endured and for what the foe did to them. (When His people are consoled, His land is consoled.)]
  	And Moses came and he spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun. [Moses invested Joshua with the authority to expound in his (Moses') lifetime in order to raise his stature in the eyes of Israel (but Joshua, nonetheless, persisted in his humility, this, the signification of the reversion to "Hoshea" here, after he had already been granted the eminence of Yehoshua")].
  	And Moses finished speaking all of these things to all of Israel.
  	And he said to them: Put your hearts to all of these things which I place as testimony in you this day, which you shall command your children to keep and to do — all the words of this Torah.
  	For it is not an empty thing for you [Not in vain do you toil in it; great reward inheres in it]; for it is your life, and by this thing you shall prolong days on the land whither you cross over the Jordan to inherit it.
  	And the L-rd spoke to Moses on this very day [(in the middle of the day, so that no one could later say that had he known of it, he would have prevented Moses' departure)] saying:
  	Go up to this Mount Avarim, Mount Nevo, which is in the land of Moav, facing Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel as a holding.
  	And die on the mountain which you are ascending, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died [(i.e., with the same kind of death that you witnessed, and which you longed for)], in Hor Hahar, and he was gathered to his people.
  	("And die") because of your having trespassed against Me [i.e., because of your having led to a trespass against Me] in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Merivath Kadesh in the desert of Tzin, because of your not having sanctified Me [i.e., because of your having led to My not being sanctified] in the midst of the children of Israel [see Numbers 20:12].
  	For from afar shall you see the land, [for I know that it is beloved by you], but there you shall not come [(If you do not see it now, you will not see it at all — wherefore I tell you: "Go up … and see, etc."] — to the land that I give to the children of Israel.
  
  
  
  	And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of G-d blessed the children of Israel [immediately] before his death ["If not now, when!"]
  	And he said [(Moses opens with praise of the L-rd and then with the requirements of Israel, Israel's merits inhering in the L-rd's praise)]: The L-rd came from Sinai [(He went out towards them when they came to stand at the foot of the mountain, as a groom goes out towards his bride)], and He shone forth from Seir to them, [after having first offered the Torah to the sons of Esav, (the inhabitants of Seir), who refused it]. He appeared from Mount Paran [after offering it to the children of Yishmael, who refused it]. And He came [to Israel, and with Him] some of the ten thousands of His holy [angels — and not even the greater part (as opposed to the ways of men of flesh and blood, who parade all of their wealth and glory on their nuptial day)]; from His right hand [i.e., In the tablets written by His right hand, He gave] them the law of fire [i.e., the Law which was written of yore before Him in black fire on white fire].
  	He also fondly loved the peoples [i.e., the tribes]; all of his holy ones are in Your hand [i.e., the souls of his righteous ones are secreted with You.], and [they are worthy of this, for at Mount Sinai] they placed themselves in the midst, at Your feet. They took upon themselves Your commandments.
  	The Torah which Moses commanded unto us is the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob [(We have possessed it and will not abandon it.)]
  	And He was a king in Yeshurun [i.e., the yoke of His kingdom was upon them] whenever their complement was assembled, the tribes of Israel together, [i.e., when there is peace (and not discord) among them].
  	Reuven shall live [in this world] and he shall not die [in the world to come (The episode of Bilhah (Genesis 352) will not be "brought up" to him)], and his men will be counted [among those of his brothers].
  	And this, [i.e., the same,] for Yehudah, [both Reuven and Yehudah having confessed for their misdeed (see Genesis 38:26)]. And he said: Hear, O L-rd, the voice of Yehudah [i.e., the prayers of Yehudah's descendants: those of David, Solomon, and Assa vis-à-vis the Kushites, those of Yehoshafat vis-à-vis the Ammonites, and those of Chizkiah vis-à-vis Sancheriv.], and to his people shall You bring him [in peace from battle]. His hands will fight [his battle and take vengeance] for him, and You shall be a help against his foes [(this, in respect to Yehoshafat in the war of Ramoth Gilead)].
  	And of Levi he said: Your Thumim and Your Urim to Your (acknowledged) pious one, whom You proved in Massah, [Levi not caviling like the others], whom You tested at the waters of Merivah,
  	who says [(in the episode of the golden calf, when Levi was commanded to kill those who had served it)] of his father [i.e., his mother's father (the tribe of Levi not having sinned)] and of his mother: I have not seen them; and his brothers [i.e., his maternal brothers (by an Israelite)] he did not recognize, and his sons [i.e., his daughter's sons (by an Israelite)] he did not know. For they kept Your commandment ["You shall have no other gods"], and Your covenant [of circumcision] they kept [(the Levites, unlike the other tribes, having circumcised their sons in the desert)].
  	They shall teach Your judgments to Jacob [(they are worthy of doing so)], and Your Torah to Israel. They shall place incense before You and a burnt-offering upon Your altar.
  	Bless, O L-rd, his substance, and desire the work of his hands. Break the thighs of those who rise up against him, and of his foes, that they rise not.
  	[The rationale of the juxtaposition: The blessing of Levi is the sacrificial service and that of Binyamin, the building of the Temple in his portion. Joseph follows (13) in that the sanctuary of Shiloh was built in his portion (but Binyamin takes precedence in that the Temple was more beloved than the sanctuary.)] Of Binyamin he said: Beloved of the L-rd; he shall rest securely upon Him. He hovers over it [the Temple, protecting it] the entire day [i.e., forever (Once Jerusalem was selected, the Shechinah did not repose itself in a different place)]; and between his shoulders [(in a slight depression on the highest part of Binyamin's land)] does it (the Temple) rest.
  	And of Joseph he said: Blessed of the L-rd is his land, [his being the choicest of the land of all the tribes]: of the sweet things of the heaven, of the dew, and of the deep, lying below, [the deep rising and watering it from below (see Genesis 49:25). With all of the tribes, the blessing of Moses was reminiscent of that of Jacob].
  	And of the sweet things brought forth by the sun, [Joseph's land being "open" to the sun, which sweetened the fruits], and of the sweet things [like melons] quickened by the moon,
  	And of the first [-ripened fruits] of the mountains of "yore" [(the mountains being earliest to ripen the fruits)], and of the sweet things of the eternal hills [i.e., hills which are "eternally" fruitful, never lacking rain],
  	And of the sweet things of the earth and its fullness, and (of) the favor of the Dweller [who first appeared to me] in the bush (Exodus 3:2). May it [this blessing] come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the head of him sundered [from] his brothers.
  	The grandeur [and kingdom] of his "ox" [(Joshua, who comes from Joseph and who conquered many kings)] is accorded him [see Numbers 27:20], and the horns of a re'em are his horns [i.e., they are as strong as those of an ox and beautiful as those of a re'em]. With them he shall gore peoples as one, the ends of the earth [i.e., thirty-one kings from the ends of the earth, (Eretz Yisrael being so desirable that there was no king who did not establish a seat in it)]. And they [the "gored ones"] are the ten thousands of Ephraim [i.e., those slain by Joshua, who came from Ephraim], and they are the thousands of Menasheh [i.e., those slain by Gideon in Midian (Judges 8:10)].
  	[The names of each of the last five tribes is "doubled" in the blessing in order to "strengthen" them, these being the weakest of all the tribes (which Joseph presented to Pharaoh. See Genesis 47:2)] And of Zevulun he said: Rejoice Zevulun in your going forth [in ships to trade], and Yissachar [learning] in your tents [of Torah, (Zevulun, through their support, enabling Yissachar to do so, for which reason Zevulun is mentioned first)].
  	Peoples [of the tribes of Israel] at the mountain [Mount Moriah] they [Yissachar, by being the "decisors" of the festival times (see I Chronicles 12:33)] will assemble. There they will sacrifice offerings of righteousness. For the abundance of the seas will they [Yissachar and Zevulun] suck, [giving them leisure for Torah study], and the covered things hidden in the sand [(valuable things found in the sea and the sand in the territory of Yissachar and Zevulun)].
  	And of Gad he said: Blessed is He that broadens Gad, [the territory of Gad broadening out eastward]. As a lion he dwells, [(border dwellers requiring the "strength of a lion" to repel invaders)], and he tore the arm together with the crown [Gad's slain ones were conspicuous — they hacked off head and arm at one blow.]
  	And he saw [fit to take] for himself [a portion in the land of Sichon and Og, which is the] first [of the conquest of Eretz Yisrael]. For [he knew that] there [in his territory] the [burial] plot of the lawgiver [Moses] is hidden [from all men (see 34:6)]. And he [Gad] went out at the head of the people [i.e., the vanguard of the army (in the conquest of the land), their men being warriors (Joshua 1:14)]. He did the righteousness of the L-rd and His judgments with Israel, [keeping their word to cross over the Jordan (and not to return) until their brethren had conquered and apportioned the land.]
  	And of Dan he said: Dan is a lion's whelp [(Dan, too, was close to the border)]; he shall leap forth from the Bashan [(The Jordan issued forth from the Bashan in the territory of Dan.)]
  	And of Naftali he said: [The land of] Naftali sates the desire [of all its inhabitants], and it is full of the blessing of the L-rd — Inherit the sea [of Kinnereth] and the south [(Naftali received a rope-length of fishing coast in its south)].
  	And of Asher he said: Blessed with sons is Asher [more than all of the other tribes]. He shall be ingratiating to his brothers [by supplying them with oil and fine fruits (and they to him, by supplying him with grain)], and he shall steep his foot in oil [(his land drawing oil like a well)].
  	[And now Moses speaks of all of Israel:] Iron and copper are your locks, [the warriors of Israel being stationed in the border cities and "locking out" invaders]; and as [blessed as] the days [of your youth will be the days of] your old age.
  	[Know,] Yeshurun, [that] there is none like the Almighty [among all the gods of the peoples]. The Rider in the heavens [— He is the G-d who] is your help; and in His pride [He rides] the skies,
  	[which He chose] as an abode for the G-d of yore [i.e., the G-d who preceded all others], and beneath [the skies] (trembling beneath Him) are the [strong] arms of the world, [viz., Sichon and Og, the kings of Canaan, who were the "might" of the world]. And He drove out the foe before you, and He said [to you]: Destroy [them]!
  	And Israel dwelt secure, alone, [each one under his vine and under his fig tree, scattered, not needing to dwell together in fear of the enemy], as [in the blessing of] Jacob [(Genesis 48:21), G-d bringing them] to a land of corn and wine. His heavens, too, shall drip dew, [as in the blessing of Isaac (Genesis 27:28)].
  	[(Moses now says:) Why need I enumerate details? Everything is yours!] Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you? A people helped by the L-rd, the Shield of your salvation and the Sword of your pride! Your foes will dissimulate to you [in fear of you, viz. the Giveonites (Joshua 9:9)], and you will tread on their high places [viz. Ibid. 10:24)].
  
  
  
  	And Moses went up [in one bound] from the plains of Moav to Mount Nevo, the top of the height which faces Jericho, and the L-rd showed him all of the land [(He showed him all of Eretz Yisrael in its (time of) peace, and the oppressors who were destined to rise up against it)], the Gilead until Dan [(He showed him the sons of Dan serving idolatry (Judges 18:30), and He showed him Shimshon, of the tribe of Dan, who would arise as a savior.)]
  	And all of Naftali [(He showed him his land in its peace and in its ruin, and He showed him Barak and Devorah of Kedesh-Naftali warring with Sisra and his hosts)], and the land of Ephraim and Menasheh [(He showed him their land in its peace and in its ruin, and He showed him Joshua, who came from Ephraim, warring with the kings of Canaan; and Gideon, who came from Menasheh, warring with Midian and Amalek)], and all the land of Yehudah [(in its peace and in its ruin; and He showed him the Davidic kingdom and its triumph)], until the western sea [(in its peace and in its ruin)].
  	And the southland and the plain [of the Jordan. He showed him Solomon casting the Temple vessels (viz. I Kings 7:46)], the valley of Jericho, the city of palms, until Tzoar.
  	And the L-rd said to him: This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; I have shown it to you before your eyes [so that you go to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] and say [to them]: To your seed shall I give it [i.e., I have fulfilled My oath]; but [it is a decree before Me that] there you shall not pass over [(Otherwise, I would have kept you alive until you saw them planted and settled there, to go and tell the patriarchs of it)]
  	[(Up to this point, Moses wrote; from this point on, Joshua wrote.)] And Moses died there, the servant of the L-rd, in the land of Moav, by the word of the L-rd.
  	And He [Himself] buried him in the valley in the land of Moav opposite Beth-Peor [(His grave had been readied there from the six days of creation to atone for the sin of Peor)]; and no man knew his grave, until this very day.
  	And Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye did not dim [even after he died], and his sap did not flee [(He did not decompose and his lineaments did not change)].
  	And the children of Israel [(the men)] mourned Moses in the plains of Moav thirty days [(whereas Aaron, who had pursued peace between man and his neighbor and man and his wife, was mourned by "all the house of Israel," men and women (Numbers 20:29)]; and the days of the weeping of the mourning of Moses ended.
  	And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had placed his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and they did as the L-rd had commanded Moses.
  	And there arose no other prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the L-rd knew face to face [i.e., Moses being "familiar" with the L-rd, speaking with Him whenever he desired]
  	In all the signs and the wonders which the L-rd sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all of his servants, and to all of his land,
  	And in all the strong hand [of Moses that received the Torah on the tablets], and in all the great awe, [the miracles and the mighty acts in the great, awesome desert] that Moses wrought before the eyes of all Israel, [his venturing to break the tablets before their eyes (viz. 9:17) — and the L-rd concurring in his resolution!]