then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days.

He said, “I will reject them, I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty.

So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified of them!

These are the ones you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

They are a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding among them.

These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites; the Moabites call them Emites.

They are your people, your valued property, whom you brought out with great strength and power.

Your eyes have seen the great judgments, those signs and mighty wonders.

Surely he loves the people; all your holy ones are in your power. And they sit at your feet, each receiving your words.

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

You must fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you.”

However, you may not eat the following animals among those that chew the cud or those that have divided hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger. (Although they chew the cud, they do not have divided hooves and are therefore ritually impure to you).

May the firstborn of his bull bring him honor, and may his horns be those of a wild ox; with them may he gore all peoples, all the far reaches of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.

you must not fear them. You must carefully recall what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt,

Are they not across the Jordan River, toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the oak of Moreh?

You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict.

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.

Do not blame your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.