Delphi Septuagint

by Lancelot C L Brenton (ed)

  [12] And if thy brother or sister, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold to thee, he shall serve thee six years, and in the seventh year thou shalt send him out free from thee. [13] And when thou shalt send him out free from thee, thou shalt not send him out empty. [14] Thou shalt give him provision for the way from thy flock, and from thy corn, and from thy wine; as the Lord thy God has blessed thee, thou shalt give to him.

  [15] And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee from thence; therefore I charge thee to do this thing. [16] And if he should say to thee, I will not go out from thee, because he continues to love thee and thy house, because he is well with thee; [17] then thou shalt take an awl, and bore his ear through to the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever; and in like manner shalt thou do to thy maid-servant. [18] It shall not seem hard to thee when they are sent out free from thee, because thy servant has served thee six years according to the annual hire of a hireling; so the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all things whatsoever thou mayest do.

  [19] Every first-born that shall be born among thy kine and thy sheep, thou shalt sanctify the males to the Lord thy God; thou shalt not work with thy first-born calf, and thou shalt not shear the first-born of thy sheep. [20] Thou shalt eat it before the Lord year by year in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy house. [21] And if there be in it a blemish, if it be lame or blind, an evil blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it to the Lord thy God.

  [22] Thou shalt eat it in thy cities; the unclean in thee and the clean shall eat it in like manner, as the doe or the stag. [23] Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it out on the earth as water.

  Chapter 16

  [1] Observe the month of new corn, and thou shalt sacrifice the passover to the Lord thy God; because in the month of new corn thou camest out of Egypt by night. [2] And thou shalt sacrifice the passover to the Lord thy God, sheep and oxen in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to have his name called upon it. [3] Thou shalt not eat leaven with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread with it, bread of affliction, because ye came forth out of Egypt in haste; that ye may remember the day of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. [4] Leaven shall not be seen with thee in all thy borders for seven days, and there shall not be left of the flesh which thou shalt sacrifice at even on the first day until the morning. [5] thou shalt not have power to sacrifice the passover in any of the cities, which the Lord thy God gives thee. [6] But in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, to have his name called there, thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even at the setting of the sun, at the time when thou camest out of Egypt. [7] And thou shalt boil and roast and eat it in the place, which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt return in the morning, and go to thy house. [8] Six days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a holiday, a feast to the Lord thy God: thou shalt not do in it any work, save what must be done by any one.

  [9] Seven weeks shalt thou number to thyself; when thou hast begun to put the sickle to the corn, thou shalt begin to number seven weeks. [10] And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks to the Lord thy God, accordingly as thy hand has power in as many things as the Lord thy God shall give thee. [11] And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow which dwells among you, in whatsoever place the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name should be called there.

  [12] And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these commands. [13] Thou shalt keep for thyself the feast of tabernacles seven days, when thou gatherest in thy produce from thy corn-floor and thy wine-press. [14] And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow that is in thy cities. [15] Seven days shalt thou keep a feast to the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose for himself; and if the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy fruits, and in every work of thy hands, then thou shalt rejoice.

  [16] Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty. [17] Each one according to his ability, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he has given thee.

  [18] Thou shalt make for thyself judges and officers in thy cities, which the Lord thy God gives thee in thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment: [19] they shall not wrest judgment, nor favour persons, nor receive a gift; for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. [20] Thou shalt justly pursue justice, that ye may live, and go in and inherit the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.

  [21] Thou shalt not plant for thyself a grove; thou shalt not plant for thyself any tree near the altar of thy God. [22] Thou shalt not set up for thyself a pillar, which the Lord thy God hates.

  Chapter 17

  [1] Thou shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God a calf or a sheep, in which there is a blemish, or any evil thing; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

  [2] And if there should be found in any one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God gives thee, a man or a woman who shall do that which is evil before the Lord thy God, so as to transgress his covenant, [3] and they should go and serve other gods, and worship them, the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which he commanded thee not to do, [4] and it be told thee, and thou shalt have enquired diligently, and, behold, the thing really took place, this abomination has been done in Israel; [5] then shalt thou bring out that man, or that woman, and ye shall stone them with stones, and they shall die. [6] He shall die on the testimony of two or three witnesses; a man who is put to death shall not be put to death for one witness. [7] And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him among the first to put him to death, and the hand of the people at the last; so shalt thou remove the evil one from among yourselves.

  [8] And if a matter shall be too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, and between cause and cause, and between stroke and stroke, and between contradiction and contradiction, matters of judgment in your cities; [9] then thou shalt arise and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and they shall search out the matter and report the judgment to thee. [10] And thou shalt act according to the thing which they shall report to thee out of the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt observe to do all whatsoever shall have been by law appointed to thee. [11] Thou shalt do according to the law and to the judgment which they shall declare to thee: thou shalt not swerve to the right hand or to the left from any sentence which they shall report to thee.

  [12] And the man whosoever shall act in haughtiness, so as not to hearken to the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord thy God, or the judge who shall preside in those days, that man shall die, and thou shalt remove the evil one out of Israel. [13] And all the people shall hear and fear, and shall no more commit impiety.

  [14] And when thou shalt enter into the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, and shalt inherit it and dwell in it, and shalt say, I will set a ruler over me, as also the other nations round about me; [15] thou shalt surely set over thee the ruler whom the Lord God shall choose: of thy brethren thou shalt set over thee a ruler; thou shalt not have power to set over thee a stranger, because he is not thy brother. [16] For he shall not multiply to himself horses, and he shall by no means turn the people back to Egypt, lest he should multiply to himself horses; for the Lord said, Ye shall not any more turn back by that way. [17] And he shall not multiply to himself wives, lest his heart turn away; and he shall not greatly multiply to himself s
ilver and gold.

  [18] And when he shall be established in his government, then shall he write for himself this repetition of the law into a book by the hands of the priests the Levites; [19] and it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord thy God, and to keep all these commandments, and to observe these ordinances: [20] that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he depart not from the commandments on the right hand or on the left; that he and his sons may reign long in his dominion among the children of Israel.

  Chapter 18

  [1] The priests, the Levites, even the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; the burnt-offerings of the Lord are their inheritance, they shall eat them. [2] And they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord himself is his portion, as he said to him. [3] And this is the due of the priests in the things coming from the people from those who offer sacrifices, whether it be a calf or a sheep; and thou shalt give the shoulder to the priest, and the cheeks, and the great intestine: [4] and the first-fruits of thy corn, and of thy wine, and of thine oil; and thou shalt give to him the first-fruits of the fleeces of thy sheep: [5] because the Lord has chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand before the Lord thy God, to minister and bless in his name, himself and his sons among the children of Israel.

  [6] And if a Levite come from one of the cities of all the children of Israel, where he himself dwells, accordingly as his mind desires, to the place which he shall have chosen, [7] he shall minister to the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites, who stand there present before the Lord thy God. [8] He shall eat an allotted portion, besides the sale of his hereditary property. [9] And when thou shalt have entered into the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

  [10] There shall not be found in thee one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, [11] a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead. [12] For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before thy face. [13] Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God. [14] For all these nations whose land thou shalt inherit, they will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord thy God has not permitted thee so to do.

  [15] The Lord thy God shall raise up to thee a prophet of thy brethren, like me; him shall ye hear: [16] according to all things which thou didst desire of the Lord thy God in Choreb in the day of the assembly, saying, We will not again hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and we will not any more see this great fire, and so we shall not die. [17] And the Lord said to me, They have spoken rightly all that they have said to thee. [18] I will raise up to them a prophet of their brethren, like thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them as I shall command him. [19] And whatever man shall not hearken to whatsoever words that prophet shall speak in my name, I will take vengeance on him. [20] But the prophet whosoever shall impiously speak in my name a word which I have not commanded him to speak, and whosoever shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. [21] But if thou shalt say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? [22] Whatsoever words that prophet shall speak in the name of the Lord, and they shall not come true, and not come to pass, this is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; that prophet has spoken wickedly: ye shall not spare him.

  Chapter 19

  [1] And when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed the nations, which God gives thee, even the land, and ye shall inherit them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses, [2] thou shalt separate for thyself three cities in the midst of thy land, which the Lord thy God gives thee. [3] Take a survey of thy way, and thou shalt divide the coasts of thy land, which the Lord thy God apportions to thee, into three parts, and there shall be there a refuge for every manslayer.

  [4] And this shall be the ordinance of the manslayer, who shall flee thither, and shall live, whosoever shall have smitten his neighbour ignorantly, whereas he hated him not in times past. [5] And whosoever shall enter with his neighbour into the thicket, to gather wood, if the hand of him that cuts wood with the axe should be violently shaken, and the axe head falling off from the handle should light on his neighbour, and he should die, he shall flee to one of these cities, and live. [6] Lest the avenger of blood pursue after the slayer, because his heart is hot, and overtake him, if the way be too long, and slay him, though there is to this man no sentence of death, because he hated him not in time past. [7] Therefore I charge thee, saying, Thou shalt separate for thy self three cities.

  [8] And if the Lord shall enlarge thy borders, as he sware to thy fathers, and the Lord shall give to thee all the land which he said he would give to thy fathers; [9] if thou shalt hearken to do all these commands, which I charge thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways continually; thou shalt add for thyself yet three cities to these three. [10] So innocent blood shall not be spilt in the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit, and there shall not be in thee one guilty of blood.

  [11] But if there should be in thee a man hating his neighbour, and he should lay wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him, that he die, and he should flee to one of these cities, [12] then shall the elders of his city send, and take him thence, and they shall deliver him into the hands of the avengers of blood, and he shall die. [13] Thine eye shall not spare him; so shalt thou purge innocent blood from Israel, and it shall be well with thee.

  [14] Thou shalt not move the landmarks of thy neighbour, which thy fathers set in the inheritance, in which thou hast obtained a share in the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit. [15] One witness shall not stand to testify against a man for any iniquity, or for any fault, or for any sin which he may commit; by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, shall every word be established. [16] And if an unjust witness rise up against a man, alleging iniquity against him; [17] then shall the two men between whom the controversy is, stand before the Lord, and before the priests, and before the judges, who may be in those days. [18] And the judges shall make diligent inquiry, and, behold, if and unjust witness has borne unjust testimony; and has stood up against his brother; [19] then shall ye do to him as he wickedly devised to do against his brother, and thou shalt remove the evil from yourselves. [20] And the rest shall hear and fear, and do no more according to this evil thing in the midst of you. [21] Thine eye shall not spare him: thou shalt exact life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

  Chapter 20

  [1] And if thou shouldest go forth to war against thine enemies, and shouldest see horse, and rider, and a people more numerous than thyself; thou shalt not be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. [2] And it shall come to pass whenever thou shalt draw nigh to battle, that the priest shall draw nigh and speak to the people, and shall say to them, [3] Hear, O Israel; ye are going this day to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint, fear not, neither be confounded, neither turn aside from their face. [4] For it is the Lord your God who advances with you, to fight with you against your enemies, and to save you.

  [5] And the scribes shall speak to the people, saying, What man is he that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war, and another man dedicate it. [6] And what man is he that has planted a vineyard, and not been made merry with it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man be made merry with it. [7] And what man is he that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. [8] And the scribes shall speak further to the people, and say, What man is he that fears and is cowardly in his h
eart? Let him go and return to his house, lest he make the heart of his brother fail, as his own. [9] And it shall come to pass when the scribes shall have ceased speaking to the people, that they shall appoint generals of the army to be leaders of the people.

  [10] And if thou shalt draw nigh to a city to overcome them by war, then call them out peaceably. [11] If then they should answer peaceably to thee, and open to thee, it shall be that all the people found in it shall be tributary and subject to thee. [12] But if they will not hearken to thee, but wage war against thee, thou shalt invest it; [13] until the Lord thy God shall deliver it into thy hands, and thou shalt smite every male of it with the edge of the sword: [14] except the women and the stuff: and all the cattle, and whatsoever shall be in the city, and all the plunder thou shalt take as spoil for thyself, and shalt eat all the plunder of thine enemies whom the Lord thy God gives thee. [15] Thus shalt thou do to all the cities that are very far off from thee, not being of the cities of these nations which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit their land. [16] Of these ye shall not take any thing alive; [17] but ye shall surely curse them, the Chettite, and the Amorite, and the Chananite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, and the Gergesite; as the Lord thy God commanded thee: [18] that they may not teach you to do all their abominations, which they did to their gods, and so ye should sin before the Lord your God.