This portion contains 74 of the Torah’s 613 commandments (mitzvot).

Moses reviews a variety of laws regarding family, animals and prosperity. For example, in Deuteronomy 22:6-7 we are told “If along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young.

Let the mother go and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.” Various civil and criminal laws are delineated, including those regarding sexual relationships, interaction with non-Israelites, loans, vows, and divorce.

Laws of commerce pertaining to loans, fair wages, and proper weights and measures are given. The portion ends with the commandment to remember Amalek, the evil nation who attacked the Israelites after they left Egypt, killing the old, weak and infirm.