Book of Deuteronomy bible study chapters 9 through 16

Here is the next group of chapters in the book of Deuteronomy. These continue the message of the requirement to follow God and love Him above all else, and Chronicle the Israelis as they get ready to go cross the Jordan. Here is a link to the first 8 chapters of Deuteronomy

https://www.facebook.com/notes/jay-dougherty/deuteronomy-bible-study-chapters-1-through-8/10200703642007014

Deuteronomy chapter nine is a reminder to not fear the inhabitants of the new land and of their own rebellion earlier

(Deuteronomy 9:1)  "Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven,

(Deuteronomy 9:2)  a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?'

(Deuteronomy 9:3)  Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

(Deuteronomy 9:4)  "Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.

(Deuteronomy 9:5)  Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

(Deuteronomy 9:6)  "Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.

(Deuteronomy 9:7)  Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

(Deuteronomy 9:8)  Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

(Deuteronomy 9:9)  When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

(Deuteronomy 9:10)  And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

(Deuteronomy 9:11)  And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

(Deuteronomy 9:12)  Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.'

(Deuteronomy 9:13)  "Furthermore, the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people.

(Deuteronomy 9:14)  Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

(Deuteronomy 9:15)  So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

(Deuteronomy 9:16)  And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

(Deuteronomy 9:17)  So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

(Deuteronomy 9:18)  Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger.

(Deuteronomy 9:19)  For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.

(Deuteronomy 9:20)  And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

(Deuteronomy 9:21)  Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

(Deuteronomy 9:22)  "At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.

(Deuteronomy 9:23)  And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.

(Deuteronomy 9:24)  You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

(Deuteronomy 9:25)  "So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

(Deuteronomy 9:26)  And I prayed to the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

(Deuteronomy 9:27)  Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin,

(Deuteronomy 9:28)  lest the land from which you brought us say, "Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness."

(Deuteronomy 9:29)  For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.'

Deuteronomy chapter ten is again a reminder of various instructions like loving God with all strength, obeying the commandments, taking care of the sojourner and to fear God

(Deuteronomy 10:1)  "At that time the LORD said to me, 'Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood.

(Deuteronomy 10:2)  And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.'

(Deuteronomy 10:3)  So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

(Deuteronomy 10:4)  And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.

(Deuteronomy 10:5)  Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me."

(Deuteronomy 10:6)  (The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place.

(Deuteronomy 10:7)  From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water.

(Deuteronomy 10:8)  At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.

(Deuteronomy 10:9)  Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God said to him.)

(Deuteronomy 10:10)  "I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD was unwilling to destroy you.

(Deuteronomy 10:11)  And the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.'

(Deuteronomy 10:12)  "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

(Deuteronomy 10:13)  and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?

(Deuteronomy 10:14)  Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.

(Deuteronomy 10:15)  Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

(Deuteronomy 10:16)  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

(Deuteronomy 10:17)  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

(Deuteronomy 10:18)  He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

(Deuteronomy 10:19)  Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

(Deuteronomy 10:20)  You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.

(Deuteronomy 10:21)  He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.

(Deuteronomy 10:22)  Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Deuteronomy chapter 11 again is a reminder that God will dispossess all the inhabitants of the land often people who are far greater than them and consequences good and bad for following or not following God

(Deuteronomy 11:1)  "You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

(Deuteronomy 11:2)  And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,

(Deuteronomy 11:3)  his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land,

(Deuteronomy 11:4)  and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day,

(Deuteronomy 11:5)  and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place,

(Deuteronomy 11:6)  and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel.

(Deuteronomy 11:7)  For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did.

(Deuteronomy 11:8)  "You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,

(Deuteronomy 11:9)  and that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

(Deuteronomy 11:10)  For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.

(Deuteronomy 11:11)  But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,

(Deuteronomy 11:12)  a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

(Deuteronomy 11:13)  "And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

(Deuteronomy 11:14)  he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.

(Deuteronomy 11:15)  And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

(Deuteronomy 11:16)  Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;

(Deuteronomy 11:17)  then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 11:18)  "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

(Deuteronomy 11:19)  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

(Deuteronomy 11:20)  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

(Deuteronomy 11:21)  that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

(Deuteronomy 11:22)  For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,

(Deuteronomy 11:23)  then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

(Deuteronomy 11:24)  Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.

(Deuteronomy 11:25)  No one shall be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.

(Deuteronomy 11:26)  "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

(Deuteronomy 11:27)  the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today,

(Deuteronomy 11:28)  and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

(Deuteronomy 11:29)  And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

(Deuteronomy 11:30)  Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?

(Deuteronomy 11:31)  For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,

(Deuteronomy 11:32)  you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

In Deuteronomy chapter 12 is more in what the Lord expects of Israel to do, and what He does not want them to do when they cross the Jordan and enter into the Promised Land. They are only to serve God and to break down and destroy the idol worship sites

(Deuteronomy 12:1)  "These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.

(Deuteronomy 12:2)  You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

(Deuteronomy 12:3)  You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.

(Deuteronomy 12:4)  You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

(Deuteronomy 12:5)  But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,

(Deuteronomy 12:6)  and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

(Deuteronomy 12:7)  And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

(Deuteronomy 12:8)  "You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

(Deuteronomy 12:9)  for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 12:10)  But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,

(Deuteronomy 12:11)  then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.

(Deuteronomy 12:12)  And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

(Deuteronomy 12:13)  Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,

(Deuteronomy 12:14)  but at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

(Deuteronomy 12:15)  "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.

(Deuteronomy 12:16)  Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

(Deuteronomy 12:17)  You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,

(Deuteronomy 12:18)  but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake.

(Deuteronomy 12:19)  Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

(Deuteronomy 12:20)  "When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, 'I will eat meat,' because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.

(Deuteronomy 12:21)  If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.

(Deuteronomy 12:22)  Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.

(Deuteronomy 12:23)  Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

(Deuteronomy 12:24)  You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

(Deuteronomy 12:25)  You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

(Deuteronomy 12:26)  But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the LORD will choose,

(Deuteronomy 12:27)  and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat.

(Deuteronomy 12:28)  Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

(Deuteronomy 12:29)  "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

(Deuteronomy 12:30)  take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?--that I also may do the same.'

(Deuteronomy 12:31)  You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

(Deuteronomy 12:32)  "Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

Chapter 13 warns to serve the Lord and to avoid and even destroy false prophets and teachers who encourage people to serve other gods and idols

(Deuteronomy 13:1)  "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

(Deuteronomy 13:2)  and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,'

(Deuteronomy 13:3)  you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

(Deuteronomy 13:4)  You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

(Deuteronomy 13:5)  But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

(Deuteronomy 13:6)  "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which neither you nor your fathers have known,

(Deuteronomy 13:7)  some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,

(Deuteronomy 13:8)  you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.

(Deuteronomy 13:9)  But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.

(Deuteronomy 13:10)  You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

(Deuteronomy 13:11)  And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

(Deuteronomy 13:12)  "If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to dwell there,

(Deuteronomy 13:13)  that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known,

(Deuteronomy 13:14)  then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,

(Deuteronomy 13:15)  you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.

(Deuteronomy 13:16)  You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.

(Deuteronomy 13:17)  None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,

(Deuteronomy 13:18)  if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.

In chapter 14 of Deuteronomy God lists what the people can and cannot eat and reminds them to take care of the poor among them

(Deuteronomy 14:1)  "You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.

(Deuteronomy 14:2)  For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

(Deuteronomy 14:3)  "You shall not eat any abomination.

(Deuteronomy 14:4)  These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

(Deuteronomy 14:5)  the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

(Deuteronomy 14:6)  Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

(Deuteronomy 14:7)  Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you.

(Deuteronomy 14:8)  And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.

(Deuteronomy 14:9)  "Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.

(Deuteronomy 14:10)  And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

(Deuteronomy 14:11)  "You may eat all clean birds.

(Deuteronomy 14:12)  But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

(Deuteronomy 14:13)  the kite, the falcon of any kind;

(Deuteronomy 14:14)  every raven of any kind;

(Deuteronomy 14:15)  the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind;

(Deuteronomy 14:16)  the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl

(Deuteronomy 14:17)  and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant,

(Deuteronomy 14:18)  the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.

(Deuteronomy 14:19)  And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

(Deuteronomy 14:20)  All clean winged things you may eat.

(Deuteronomy 14:21)  "You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

(Deuteronomy 14:22)  "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.

(Deuteronomy 14:23)  And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

(Deuteronomy 14:24)  And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there,

(Deuteronomy 14:25)  then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses

(Deuteronomy 14:26)  and spend the money for whatever you desire--oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

(Deuteronomy 14:27)  And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

(Deuteronomy 14:28)  "At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

(Deuteronomy 14:29)  And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Deuteronomy chapter 15 has some more regulations on the release of servants and being generous to others

(Deuteronomy 15:1)  "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.

(Deuteronomy 15:2)  And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the LORD's release has been proclaimed.

(Deuteronomy 15:3)  Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release.

(Deuteronomy 15:4)  But there will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess--

(Deuteronomy 15:5)  if only you will strictly obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.

(Deuteronomy 15:6)  For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

(Deuteronomy 15:7)  "If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,

(Deuteronomy 15:8)  but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.

(Deuteronomy 15:9)  Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.

(Deuteronomy 15:10)  You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

(Deuteronomy 15:11)  For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'

(Deuteronomy 15:12)  "If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

(Deuteronomy 15:13)  And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.

(Deuteronomy 15:14)  You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

(Deuteronomy 15:15)  You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.

(Deuteronomy 15:16)  But if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you,

(Deuteronomy 15:17)  then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same.

(Deuteronomy 15:18)  It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years. So the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

(Deuteronomy 15:19)  "All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

(Deuteronomy 15:20)  You shall eat it, you and your household, before the LORD your God year by year at the place that the LORD will choose.

(Deuteronomy 15:21)  But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

(Deuteronomy 15:22)  You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer.

(Deuteronomy 15:23)  Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy chapter 16 gives even more regulations on how to observe Passover and other holidays and to be impartial not perverting justice

(Deuteronomy 16:1)  "Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

(Deuteronomy 16:2)  And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there.

(Deuteronomy 16:3)  You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction--for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste--that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

(Deuteronomy 16:4)  No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning.

(Deuteronomy 16:5)  You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you,

(Deuteronomy 16:6)  but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.

(Deuteronomy 16:7)  And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.

(Deuteronomy 16:8)  For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.

(Deuteronomy 16:9)  "You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.

(Deuteronomy 16:10)  Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.

(Deuteronomy 16:11)  And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.

(Deuteronomy 16:12)  You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

(Deuteronomy 16:13)  "You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.

(Deuteronomy 16:14)  You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.

(Deuteronomy 16:15)  For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

(Deuteronomy 16:16)  "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

(Deuteronomy 16:17)  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.

(Deuteronomy 16:18)  "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

(Deuteronomy 16:19)  You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.

(Deuteronomy 16:20)  Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 16:21)  "You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make.

(Deuteronomy 16:22)  And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates.'

For the next ten chapters of Deuteronomy which state many directions of what people are to do in various situations, please go to this link  https://www.facebook.com/notes/jay-dougherty/deuteronomy-bible-study-chapters-17-through-26/10200706214351321

God is careful and merciful to give these commands to Israel wanting them to follow them for their own good and blessing. He gives us the same thing today, too for the same reasons. He also gives us Jesus for any time we should stumble and fall. Jesus paid the penalty on the cross for our sins making it easy to come to God. God also accepts back people who have drifted away and are willing to repent- He is that merciful. I am now including a prayer which will enable you to come to or return to God and experience His mercy and grace and a relationship like no other. Please pray this prayer with me

Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness. I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin. You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess Jesus as our Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved. Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved. Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. I thank you Jesus that your grace never leads to license, but rather it always leads to repentance. Therefore Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and giving me eternal life.

Amen.

God bless you and yours