Deuteronomy 22–23

Various Laws

22“You ^sshall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. ²And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. ³And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. ^4tYou shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵“A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, ^ufor whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶“If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^vyou shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^wthat it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

^9x“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,¹ the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

^12y“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

¹³“If any man takes a wife and ^zgoes in to her and then hates her ¹⁴and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; ¹⁷and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip² him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels³ of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin⁴ of Israel. And she shall be his wife. ^aHe may not divorce her all his days. ²⁰But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and ^bthe men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has ^cdone an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. ^dSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

^22e“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. ^dSo you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“If there is a ^fbetrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. ^dSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, ²⁷because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

^28g“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

^{305 h}“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not ⁱuncover his father’s nakedness.⁶

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

^2j“No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

^3k“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ^4lbecause they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they ^mhired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ⁿMesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned ^othe curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. ⁶You ^pshall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

⁷“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for ^qhe is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because ^ryou were a sojourner in his land. ⁸Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

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

¹⁰“If any man among you becomes ^sunclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, ¹¹but when evening comes, he shall ^tbathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

¹²“You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. ¹³And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴Because ^uthe Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

^15v“You shall not give up to his master a slave¹ who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

¹⁷“None of the ^wdaughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none ^xof the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog² into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

^19y“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, ^zinterest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. ^20aYou may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, ^bthat the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

^21c“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²²But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

²⁴“If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. ²⁵If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, ^dyou may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.