The judge ¹  may sentence him to forty blows, ²  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ³  with contempt.

The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.

Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you ¹  just as he said he would!

But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the Lord our God we will die!

(13:1) ¹  You ²  must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! ³ 

Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. ¹ 

But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he ¹  said to me, “Enough of that! ²  Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ¹  you.

The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ¹  Then he inscribed the words ²  on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ¹  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way.

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ³  to these three.

In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s ¹  heart as fearful ²  as his own.”

Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”