If you build a new house, you must construct a guard rail ¹  around your roof to avoid being culpable ²  in the event someone should fall from it.

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.

Surely he loves the people; ¹  all your holy ones ²  are in your power. ³  And they sit ⁴  at your feet, each receiving ⁵  your words.

and in the desert, where you saw him ¹  carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”

Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir ¹  as an inheritance for Esau.

However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord ¹  will surely bless ²  you in the land that he ³  is giving you as an inheritance, ⁴ 

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.

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.

Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved ¹  wife as firstborn and give him the double portion ²  of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power ³  – to him should go the right of the firstborn.

You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute ¹  or the wage of a male prostitute ²  into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

Fathers must not be put to death for what their children ¹  do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.

Then, ¹  if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, ²  the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. ³ 

You must go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your ¹  God that I have come into the land that the Lord ²  promised ³  to our ancestors ⁴  to give us.”

“The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ¹  in everything you undertake ²  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ³ 

When such a person ¹  hears the words of this oath he secretly ²  blesses himself ³  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ⁴  This will destroy ⁵  the watered ground with the parched. ⁶ 

As for the Lord your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the Lord has said.

For a fire has been kindled by my anger, and it burns to lowest Sheol; ¹  it consumes the earth and its produce, and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

And this is the blessing ¹  to Judah. He said, Listen, O Lord, to Judah’s voice, and bring him to his people. May his power be great, and may you help him against his foes.

So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. ¹  He did this to teach you ²  that humankind ³  cannot live by bread ⁴  alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. ⁵ 

You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages ¹  and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ²