Bullet Point Summary
– There shall be just judges in all your gates
– You shall not plant any groves by an altar of YHWH or set up an idol
– You shall not sacrifice anything that is blemished to YHWH
– You shall stone anyone who serves other elohim after making diligent search to see if it’s true
– All matters shall be established by two or three witnesses
– Levi, Priests, and Judges shall decide the sentence for hard matters
– When you come into the land you shall set a King over you from your brethren whom YHWH will choose
– King must write a copy of the whole Torah and read from it every day
– The Levi’im shall have no part with Yisra’el, YHWH is their inheritence
– If a Levi desires to come and serve YHWH he shall be allowed to take part
– You shall not take on the ways of the nations before you
– A prophet like Moshe is promised to stand between YHWH and the people
– You shall put to death a false prophet
– You shall make cities of refuge for people who accidentally kill someone
– If a man kills someone but not by accident and flees to a city of refuge the judges shall deliver him to the avenger of blood
– You shall not move your neighbor’s landmarks
– False witnesses to receive the punishment of the accused
– Priests to speak to men before going to war
– 4 reasons men should not go out to war
– Before making war on a city first offer peace, if they refuse kill all males
– When taking a city of your inheritance from God kill all breathing creatures
– When making a long war you shall not destroy the fruit trees because you can eat from them
– Laws for finding a dead person in a field
– Haftarah – Do not fear your oppressor because YHWH will take His fury off you and put it on them
Parashat Text with Readers and Daily Portions (Reader 1 Starts on Saturday Evening)
Shoftim “Judges”
Deut 16:18 – 21:9 , Isaiah 51:12 – 52:12
Reader 1 (Saturday Evening Portion)
Deu 16:18 Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which YHWH your Elohim
gives you, throughout your tribes: and they shall judge * the people with just judgment.
Deu 16:19 You shall not wrest judgment; you shall not respect persons, neither take a bribe: for
a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Deu 16:20 That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit * the
land which YHWH your Elohim gives you.
Deu 16:21 You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near unto the altar of YHWH your
Elohim, which you shall make you.
Deu 16:22 Neither shall you set you up any image; which YHWH your Elohim hates.
Deu 17:1 You shall not sacrifice unto YHWH your Elohim any bullock, or sheep, wherein is
blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto YHWH your Elohim.
Deu 17:2 If there be found among you, within any of your gates which YHWH your Elohim
gives you, man or woman, that has wrought * wickedness in the sight of YHWH your
Elohim, in transgressing His covenant,
Deu 17:3 And has gone and served other elohim, and worshipped them, either the sun, or
moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
Deu 17:4 And it be told you, and you have heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be
true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Yisra’el:
Deu 17:5 Then shall you bring forth * that man or that woman, which has committed * that
wicked thing, unto your gates, * that man or * that woman, and shall stone them with
stones, till they die.
Deu 17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be
put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
Deu 17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward
the hands of all the people. So you shall put the evil away from among you.
(Sunday Morning Portion)
Deu 17:8 If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood,
between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, matters of controversy within your
gates: then shall you arise, and get you up into the place which YHWH your Elohim shall
choose;
Deu 17:9 And you shall come unto the priests the Levi’im, and unto the judge that shall be in
those days, and enquire; and they shall show you * the sentence of judgment:
Deu 17:10 And you shall do according to the sentence, which they of that place which YHWH
shall choose shall show you; and you shall observe to do according to all that they inform
you:
Deu 17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the
judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do: you shall not decline from the sentence
which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.
Deu 17:12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that
stands to minister there before YHWH your Elohim, or unto the judge, even that man shall
die: and you shall put away the evil from Yisra’el.
Deu 17:13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
Reader 2 (Sunday Evening Portion)
Deu 17:14 When you are come unto the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, and shall
possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the
nations that are about me;
Deu 17:15 You shall in any wise set him king over you, whom YHWH your Elohim shall choose:
from among your brethren shall you set king over you: you may not set a stranger over you,
which is not your brother.
Deu 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause * the people to return to
Mitzrayim, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as YHWH has said unto
you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.
Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall
he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
(Monday Morning Portion)
Deu 17:18 And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him
* a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levi’im:
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may
learn to fear * YHWH your Elohim, to keep * all the words of this law and these statutes, to
do them:
Deu 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from
the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days
in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Yisra’el.
Reader 3 (Monday Evening Portion)
Deu 18:1 The priests the Levi’im, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance
with Yisra’el: they shall eat the offerings of YHWH made by fire, and His inheritance.
Deu 18:2 Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: YHWH is their
inheritance, as He has said unto them.
(Tuesday Morning Portion)
Deu 18:3 And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice,
whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two
cheeks, and the maw.
Deu 18:4 The firstfruit also of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece
of your sheep, shall you give him.
Deu 18:5 For YHWH your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in
the name of YHWH, him and his sons forever.
Reader 4 (Tuesday Evening Portion)
Deu 18:6 And if a Levi come from any of your gates out of all Yisra’el, where he sojourned, and
come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which YHWH shall choose;
Deu 18:7 Then he shall minister in the name of YHWH your Elohim, as all his brethren the
Levi’im, which stand there before YHWH.
Deu 18:8 They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which comes of the sale of his
patrimony.
(Wednesday Morning Portion)
Deu 18:9 When you are come into the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, you shall not
learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to
pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a
witch,
Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto YHWH: and because of these
abominations YHWH your Elohim does drive them out * from before you.
Deu 18:13 You shall be perfect with YHWH your Elohim.
Reader 5 (Wednesday Evening Portion)
Deu 18:14 For these nations, which you shall possess, * hearkened unto observers of times, and
unto diviners: but as for you, YHWH your Elohim has not suffered you so.
Deu 18:15 YHWH your Elohim will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your
brethren, like unto me; unto him you shall hearken;
Deu 18:16 According to all that you desired of YHWH your Elohim in Chorev in the day of the
assembly, saying, Let me not hear again * the voice of YHWH your Elohim, neither let me
see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deu 18:17 And YHWH said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put
my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them * all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass, whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall
speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Deu 18:20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, * which I have
not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other elohim, even that
prophet shall die.
Deu 18:21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know * the word which YHWH has not
spoken?
Deu 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of YHWH, if the thing follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which YHWH has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it
presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him.
(Thursday Morning Portion)
Deu 19:1 When YHWH your Elohim has cut off * the nations, whose * land YHWH your Elohim
gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;
Deu 19:2 You shall separate three cities for you in the midst of your land, which YHWH your
Elohim gives you to possess it.
Deu 19:3 You shall prepare you a way, and divide * the coasts of your land, which YHWH your
Elohim gives you to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee there.
Deu 19:4 And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee there, that he may live: Whoever
kills * his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;
Deu 19:5 As when a man goes into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetch
a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the helve, and comes
upon * his neighbor, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
Deu 19:6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake
him, because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch
as he hated him not in time past.
Deu 19:7 Wherefore I command you, saying, You shall separate three cities for you.
Deu 19:8 And if YHWH your Elohim enlarge * your coast, as He has sworn unto your fathers,
and give you all the land which He promised to give unto your fathers;
Deu 19:9 If you shall keep * all these commandments to do them, which I command you this
day, to love * YHWH your Elohim, and to walk ever in His ways; then shall you add three
cities more for you, beside these three:
Deu 19:10 That innocent blood be not shed in your land, which YHWH your Elohim gives you
for an inheritance, and so blood be upon you.
Deu 19:11 But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and
smite him mortally that he die, and flees into one of these cities:
Deu 19:12 Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him there, and deliver him into the
hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
Deu 19:13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away innocent blood from Yisra’el, that
it may go well with you.
Reader 6 (Thursday Evening Portion)
Deu 19:14 You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set in
your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land that YHWH your Elohim gives you to
possess it.
Deu 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any lawlessness, or for any sin, in any
sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the
matter be established.
Deu 19:16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him wrong;
Deu 19:17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before YHWH,
before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
Deu 19:18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false
witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;
Deu 19:19 Then shall you do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so
shall you put the evil away from among you.
Deu 19:20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more
any such evil among you.
Deu 19:21 And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand
for hand, foot for foot.
Deu 20:1 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a
people more than you, be not afraid of them: for YHWH your Elohim is with you, which
brought you up out of the land of Mitzrayim.
Deu 20:2 And it shall be, when you are come near unto the battle, that the priest shall approach
and speak unto the people,
Deu 20:3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Yisra’el, you approach this day unto battle against
your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be you terrified
because of them;
Deu 20:4 For YHWH your Elohim is He that goes with you, to fight for you against your
enemies, to save you.
Deu 20:5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that has built
a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the
battle, and another man dedicate it.
Deu 20:6 And what man is he that has planted a vineyard, and has not yet eaten of it? let him
also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.
Deu 20:7 And what man is there that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? let him go
and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
Deu 20:8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is
there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest * his
brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
Deu 20:9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that
they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
Reader 7 (6th Day Friday Morning Double Portion)
Deu 20:10 When you come near unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
Deu 20:11 And it shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open unto you, then it shall be,
that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto you, and they shall serve
you.
Deu 20:12 And if it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall
besiege it:
Deu 20:13 And when YHWH your Elohim has delivered it into your hands, you shall smite *
every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
Deu 20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, all the
spoil thereof, shall you take unto yourself; and you shall eat * the spoil of your enemies,
which YHWH your Elohim has given you.
Deu 20:15 Thus shall you do unto all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of
the cities of these nations.
Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which YHWH your Elohim does give you for an
inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes:
Deu 20:17 But you shall utterly destroy them; namely, the Chitti, and the Amori, the Kena’ani,
and the Perizzi, the Chivi, and the Yevusi; as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you:
Deu 20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done
unto their elohim; so should you sin against YHWH your Elohim.
Deu 20:19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you
shall not destroy * the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for you may eat of them,
and you shall not cut them down * (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in
the siege:
Deu 20:20 Only the trees which you know that they be not trees for food, you shall destroy and
cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until
it be subdued.
Deu 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it,
lying in the field, and it be not known who has slain him:
Deu 21:2 Then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the
cities which are round about him that is slain:
Deu 21:3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that
city shall take a heifer, which has not been wrought with, and which has not drawn in the
yoke;
Deu 21:4 And the elders of that city shall bring down * the heifer unto a rough valley, which is
neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off * the heifer’s neck there in the valley:
Deu 21:5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them YHWH your Elohim has
chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of YHWH; and by their word shall
every controversy and every stroke be tried:
Deu 21:6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash * their
hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
Deu 21:7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed * this blood, neither have our
eyes seen it.
Deu 21:8 Be merciful, O YHWH, unto your people Yisra’el, whom you have redeemed, and lay
not innocent blood unto your people of Yisra’el’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven
them.
Deu 21:9 So shall you put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do right in
the sight of YHWH.
Haftarah (Shabbat Evening Portion)
Isa 51:12 I, even I, am He that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man
that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
Isa 51:13 And forget YHWH your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the
foundations of the earth; and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the
oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
Isa 51:14 The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit,
nor that his bread should fail.
Isa 51:15 But I am YHWH your Elohim, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: YHWH
Tsebeoath is His name.
Isa 51:16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my
hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto
Tziyon, You are my people.
Isa 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Yahrushalayim, which has drunk at the hand of YHWH *
the cup of his fury; you have drunken * the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them
out.
Isa 51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is
there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
Isa 51:19 These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and
destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
Isa 51:20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net:
they are full of the fury of YHWH, the rebuke of your Elohim.
Isa 51:21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunk, but not with wine:
Isa 51:22 Thus saith YHWH your Elohim, and your Elohim that pleads the cause of his people,
Behold, I have taken out of your hand * the cup of trembling, * the dregs of the cup of my
fury; you shall no more drink it again:
Isa 51:23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to your soul,
Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the
street, to them that went over.
Isa 52:1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Tziyon; put on your beautiful garments, O
Yahrushalayim, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the
uncircumcised and the unclean.
Isa 52:2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Yahrushalayim: loose yourself
from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Tziyon.
Isa 52:3 For thus saith YHWH, You have sold yourselves for nothing; and you shall be
redeemed without money.
Isa 52:4 For thus saith YHWH Elohim, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn
there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
Isa 52:5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith YHWH, that my people is taken away for
nothing? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith YHWH; and my name
continually every day is blasphemed.
Isa 52:6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I
am He that does speak: behold, it is I.
Isa 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that
publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that saith unto
Tziyon, Your Elohim reigns!
Isa 52:8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they
shall see eye to eye, when YHWH shall bring again Tziyon.
Isa 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Yahrushalayim: for YHWH has
comforted His people, He has redeemed Yahrushalayim.
Isa 52:10 YHWH has made bare * His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of
the earth shall see * the salvation of our Elohim.
Isa 52:11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go you out of
the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of YHWH.
Isa 52:12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for YHWH will go before you;
and the Elohim of Yisra’el will gather you.
Review Torah Summaries (Shabbat Morning Portion)