These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind,

Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, ¹  for he ²  had said he would destroy you.

When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace.

then he promises, ¹  “I will send rain for your land ²  in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, ³  so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.

“O, Lord God, ¹  you have begun to show me ²  your greatness and strength. ³  (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?)

And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ¹  your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

You must not encroach on your neighbor’s property, ¹  which will have been defined ²  in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ³ 

Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, ¹  and they both ²  bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife.

In the day he divides his inheritance ¹  he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other ²  wife’s son who is actually the firstborn.

So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”

Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them.

Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ¹  on the earth, and ask ²  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.

Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing ¹  everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ²  and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. ³ 

You will not be allowed to eat in your villages your tithe of grain, new wine, olive oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, any votive offerings you have vowed, or your freewill and personal offerings.

In the presence of the Lord your God you must eat from the tithe of your grain, your new wine, ¹  your olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the place he chooses to locate his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ¹  and kill him, ²  though this is not a capital case ³  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.