Deuteronomy 21-23

Deuteronomy 21

¹If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

²your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

³Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,

⁴bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

⁶Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken,

⁷and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

⁸Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.

⁹So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

¹⁰When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,

¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,

¹²then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

¹³and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

¹⁵If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,

¹⁶when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

¹⁷Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

¹⁹his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,

²⁰and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

²³you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22

¹If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.

²If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

³And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

⁴If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

⁵A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

⁶If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.

⁷You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled—both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

¹⁰Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

¹¹Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

¹²You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

¹³Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

¹⁴and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

¹⁵Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate

¹⁶and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her.

¹⁷And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

²¹she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²²If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²⁵But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

²⁶Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

²⁷When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

²⁹then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Deuteronomy 23

¹No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

²No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

⁴For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

⁵Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

⁶You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

⁷Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

⁸The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

⁹When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.

¹⁰If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside.

¹¹When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp.

¹²You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself.

¹³And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

¹⁴For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

¹⁵Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you.

¹⁶Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.

¹⁷No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.

¹⁸You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁹Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.

²⁰You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.

²¹If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.

²²But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin.

²³Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

²⁴When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

²⁵When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.