לא תענה על ריב, “do not respond to a grievance, etc.” The Torah speaks of a grievance that you are asked to get involved in as one of the arbiters, with the understanding that a majority opinion would be decisive. You must voice your opinion regardless of being outvoted. Some commentators understand the verse to mean that one must not decide such matters alone, but in a quorum in which the majority opinion is accepted.

וחדלת מעזוב לו, “and you would refrain from assisting him;” this is a veiled warning that you must not dare abandoning him to his problems just because the owner of the beast has a record of being hostile to you. On the contrary, you must make every effort to assist such a person, provided he too does his share in enabling the overloaded beast to get rid of its burden.

תשמטנה ונטשתה, “you shall leave it untended and unharvested.” You must neither plough and seed it nor fertilise the earth for future use. Nachmanides questions that the only work prohibited by Biblical decree is ploughing and seeding. Other work in the field during that year is prohibited by Rabbinic decree. He therefore explains that what the Torah speaks about here, [seeing that the first mentioned prohibition of seeding and harvesting has been spelled out in Leviticus 25. Ed.] is the subject dealt with in the previous verse where seeding for 6 consecutive years has been permitted or even ordained. During the seventh year, neither seeding nor harvesting is allowed. Whatever has grown in the field during that year must be left for the poor, and if there are not enough poor it must be left for the beasts roaming the fields. Ibn Ezra understands the word תשמטנה to refer to the foregoing of seeding, planning, the root שמוט implying withdrawal from activity. This is the way in which an owner signals that ultimately his field is G’d’s.

ובכל אשר אמרתי אליכם תשמרו, “be careful concerning all that I have said to you.” According to Rashi this is a warning concerning every positive commandment, i.e. each positive commandment implies violation of a negative commandment if it is ignored. [based on Mechilta chapter 20 by Rabbi Eliezer. Ed.] Nachmanides questions this whole concept, claiming that contrary to the meaning of the word השמר when used in connection with a negative commandment, when used with a positive commandment it leaves the positive commandment intact as such. He adds that unless, according to Rashi, this would be a general negative commandment, it would follow that every violation, i.e. failure to observe a positive commandment would automatically be punishable by 39 strokes. According to the plain meaning of the text, this line covers all the words commencing with ושם אלוהים אחרים in our verse.

ולא ישמע על פיך. “your mouth shall not cause it to be heard.” The Torah means that even if the name of such a deity is mentioned without any attribute identifying it as such, it is still prohibited to mention it as such in the presence of people who worship such a deity. These considerations prompted our sages to advise not to enter into a business partnership with a gentile, in order not to inadvertently violate this commandment. (Sanhedrin 63) It is possible to understand the word תזכירו here as a transitive verb, meaning that you must not mention the name of the deity to the person who worships such a deity anyway by, for instance, saying to him: “why don’t you pray to your god for help?”

חג הקציר. “the harvest festival.” Nachmnanides explains why the name of this festival has not been mentioned here. It is because all the legislation about festivals does not appear in the Torah until much later in Leviticus and in Numbers, at this point the Torah only alluded to it, without naming something we are not yet familiar with. Nonetheless, it was important to indicate that as soon as the harvest has begun, the duty to set aside for G’d or His representative on earth, i.e. the priest or Levite, whatever is due to Him. The command to “make” such a festival resurfaces in Deut. 16,10, i.e. ועשית חג שבועות לה', “you are to make a festival of weeks for Hashem.” Perhaps, in view of the fact that the Torah writes here already that there are to be three festivals involving pilgrimage to the place where G’d is in residence on earth, and the Torah had mentioned that the matzah festival occurs in the spring, the second such festival occurring during the harvest season, mention of the third such festival is related to the end of the harvest season, the Torah introduces already the first such festival with the warning, i.e. תשמור, meaning that we must make certain that all of these festivals are observed according to the seasons, i.e. the solar calendar. [with a certain degree of latitude. Ed.] They are named here in accordance with agricultural activities which predominate around the calendar dates when these festivals are being observed. Each progressive stage in food production from the earth which G’d has put at the farmer’s disposal, qualifies for an expression of thanksgiving by the farmer that he has been fortunate enough to reach that stage without his potential or actual crop having failed. To remind us of this aspect of farming, the Torah describes the address to which the gratitude is to be addressed as אל פני האדון ה', “in the presence of the Master i.e. Hashem.” It is in this capacity as the “boss” of nature that He has supervised your activities and blessed them with success.

הנה אנכי שולח מלאך, “Behold I send an angel, etc.” According to Rashi the Torah hints at this point already that the Israelites will become guilty of a sin which will cause the present proximity of G’d the essence, to be replaced by an intermediary, an angel (compare Exodus 33,2). Rashi mentions this, although at the insistence of Moses, (Exodus 33,17) the presence of G’d eventually did accompany the people, until under Joshua, it was replaced by the angel mentioned here. (compare Joshua, 5,14)

לא תשתחוה לאלוהיהם, “do not prostrate yourselves before their deities.” The warning not to become guilty of any form of idolatry is repeated in the Torah again and again, in spite of the Torah’s refraining from any unnecessary verbiage. This only proves how seriously any form of idolatry is considered by G’d, so much so that He repeats such warnings again and again to impress us with His great concern that we not become victims of such philosophies. The Torah, representing our Master, does what any human master does when he warns a servant repeatedly not to forget some basic task that he has to perform. The human master also does not like to have to repeat himself constantly, but he does so in light of the importance of the message he conveys. Perhaps, in the Ten Commandments G’d issued a general command, but now that the Israelites are liable to come face to face with the idolaters in the land of Canaan, they need especial reminders not only not to copy any of their practices but to completely uproot any residue of such idolatry.

ולא תעשו כמעשיהם, “and do not act in accordance with any of their practices.” This is the basic law not to adopt symbols of any gentiles that identify the practitioners as idolaters, even if the practice does not appear to have a religious significance. Generally, these prohibitions are known as not to copy דרכי האמורי, “the customs of the Emorite.” Perhaps the Torah warns here not to copy these religious practices even if in our eyes the practice appears as the very opposite of an act of deference and worship, such as the custom of defecating in front of the “Baal Peor,” a revolting practice, in our eyes.

ועבדתם את ה' אלוקיכם, “You shall worship the Lord your G’d.” Nachmanides writes that seeing most of the idolaters are fully aware that the Creator in heaven is the supreme G’d, and they do not pay respects to such forces of nature as for instance the sun, except because they believe that some benefit will accrue to them on account of that, as they think that the sun influences the ripening of the respective crops in their fields, and that G’d has delegated some of His power to the sun for that purpose, the Torah is at pains to remind us that only exclusive dependence of the Creator directly is permissible. We are to realize that by wiping out traces of idolatry in the country this will not only not harm our interest, but, on the contrary will ensure that G’d’s blessing will be even more bountiful. This is why the Torah adds that our bread and our water will receive its blessing directly from Hashem, without recourse to any intermediary.

והסירותי מחלה מקרבך, “I will remove disease from your midst.” This is a promise that the food and drink grown or taken from existing sources will not be contaminated and will be healthy.

לא תהיה משכלה, ”there will not be a woman who prematurely loses her fetus.” Seeing that the water and other drinks will be healthy thanks to G’d’s blessing, the bodies of the people will be healthy, and the organs responsible for reproduction will be able to carry out their function without hindrance. The reason why the Torah singles out the female population for this promise is that premature abortions occur with women, while a dysfunction of impregnating a woman with healthy sperm occurs generally with men, hence if a woman is barren this may not be her dysfunction but her husband’s, although the visible effect is the fact that she does not bear children. It is also possible that premature death of a fetus is a disease, one that originated with the male sperm, so that the promise of לא תהיה משכלה may actually be addressed to the man who will not suffer disease, מחלה, whereas the promise that there will not be an עקרה is addressed to the mothers to be.

בארצך, “in your land.” This includes the livestock.

את מספר ימיך אמלא, “I will fill the number of your days.” You will not die in war, through disease, through adverse climactic effects, but you will live out your years as envisaged at the time of your birth. These promises require supernatural intervention by G’d in your lives, i.e. miracles. G’d will perform these miracles on behalf of people who have made a point of living according to G’d’s revealed wishes. G’d adds that just as He will make plain that we are the beneficiaries of His goodwill, so will He make it plain that the sinners, i.e. His and our enemies, will become the victims of His wrath. They will be afflicted with a number of natural disasters, such as invasions of crop destroying insects, etc. These poisonous insects will even drive out the population of part of the land of Canaan in advance of your arrival there. The tribes mentioned are only representative of all the Canaanite tribes. Quite possibly, under ideal circumstances, there might not even be many Canaanite tribes left to make war against, after these plagues had afflicted them. According to Ibn Ezra the צרעה mentioned here is a disease afflicting the body, not an insect infesting the grain. The word would be related to the dreaded skin disease צרעת.

לא תכרות להם ולאלוהיהם ברית, “You must not enter into any covenant with them or their deities.” The plain meaning is that the inhabitants will not be promised that their lives will be spared if they surrender, and there will be no understanding that the Israelites will accept any part of their religious practices. Nachmanides writes that one could also interpret the Torah as meaning that no agreement of any kind with the local inhabitants must include retaining any of their religious practices. In other words, as long as the local inhabitants have not completely abandoned their idolatrous practices. In the event that the inhabitants convert to Judaism they may be allowed to survive.