As for your sinful thing ¹  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ²  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

and the curse if you pay no attention ¹  to his ²  commandments and turn from the way I am setting before ³  you today to pursue ⁴  other gods you have not known.

If the place he ¹  chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he ²  has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages ³  just as you wish.

You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. ¹  Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.

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 

You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you.

Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom ¹  in Israel.

whenever a prophet speaks in my ¹  name and the prediction ²  is not fulfilled, ³  then I have ⁴  not spoken it; ⁵  the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

Suppose he goes with someone else ¹  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ²  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ³  from the handle and strikes ⁴  his fellow worker ⁵  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ⁶  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ⁷ 

When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ¹  and troops ²  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ¹  you must not chop down its trees, ²  for you may eat fruit ³  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁴ 

Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering ¹  from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. ²  I have not violated or forgotten your commandments.

Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors – a land flowing with milk and honey.”

For I know that after I die you will totally ¹  corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly ²  before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.” ³ 

For this is no idle word for you – it is your life! By this word you will live a long time in the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

As for that prophet or dreamer, ¹  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ²