Deuteronomy 22–23

22^*“If you see a fellow-Israelite’s cow or sheep running loose, do not ignore it; take it back to him. ^2*But if its owner lives a long way off or if you don’t know who owns it, then take it home with you. When its owner comes looking for it, give it to him. ^3*Do the same thing if you find a donkey, a piece of clothing, or anything else that your fellow-Israelite may have lost.

^4*“If a fellow-Israelite’s donkey or cow has fallen down, don’t ignore it; help him to get the animal to its feet again.

⁵“Women are not to wear men’s clothing, and men are not to wear women’s clothing; the Lord your God hates people who do such things.

⁶“If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird. ⁷You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go, so that you will live a long and prosperous life.

⁸“When you build a new house, be sure to put a railing round the edge of the roof. Then you will not be responsible if someone falls off and is killed.

^9*“Do not plant any crop in the same field as your grapevines; if you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes or the produce of the other crop.

^10*“Do not hitch an ox and a donkey together for ploughing.

^11*“Do not wear cloth made by weaving wool and linen together.

^12*“Sew tassels on the four corners of your clothes.

Laws Concerning Sexual Purity

¹³“Suppose a man marries a woman and later he decides he doesn’t want her. ¹⁴So he makes up false charges against her, accusing her of not being a virgin when they got married.

¹⁵“If this happens, the woman’s parents are to take the blood-stained wedding sheet that proves she was a virgin, and they are to show it in court to the town leaders. ¹⁶Her father will say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, and now he doesn’t want her. ¹⁷He has made false charges against her, saying that she was not a virgin when he married her. But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin; look at the bloodstains on the wedding sheet!’ ^18*Then the town leaders are to take the husband and beat him. ^19*They are also to fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give the money to the woman’s father, because the man has brought disgrace on an Israelite woman. Moreover, she will continue to be his wife, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰“But if the charge is true and there is no proof that she was a virgin, ²¹then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father’s house, where the men of her city are to stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father’s house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²²“If a man is caught having intercourse with another man’s wife, both of them are to be put to death. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²³“Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a woman who is engaged to someone else. ²⁴You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. The woman is to die because she did not cry out for help, although she was in a town, where she could have been heard. And the man is to die because he had intercourse with a woman who was engaged. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²⁵“Suppose a man out in the countryside rapes a woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the man is to be put to death; ²⁶nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy of death. This case is the same as when one man attacks another man and murders him. ²⁷The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although she cried for help, there was no one to help her.

²⁸“Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged. ²⁹He is to pay her father the bride price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

^30*“No man is to disgrace his father by having intercourse with any of his father’s wives.

Exclusion from the ’s People

23“No man who has been castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord’s people.

²“No one born out of wedlock or any descendant of such a person, even in the tenth generation, may be included among the Lord’s people.

^3*“No Ammonite or Moabite—or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation—may be included among the Lord’s people. ^4*They refused to provide you with food and water when you were on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor, from the city of Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you. ^5*But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing, because he loved you. ⁶As long as you are a nation, never do anything to help these nations or to make them prosperous.

⁷“Do not despise the Edomites; they are your relatives. And do not despise the Egyptians; you once lived in their land. ⁸From the third generation onward their descendants may be included among the Lord’s people.

Keeping the Military Camp Clean

⁹“When you are in camp in time of war, you are to avoid anything that would make you ritually unclean. ¹⁰If a man becomes unclean because he has had a wet dream during the night, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. ¹¹Towards evening he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into camp.

¹²“You are to have a place outside the camp where you can go when you need to relieve yourselves. ¹³Carry a stick as part of your equipment, so that when you have a bowel movement you can dig a hole and cover it up. ¹⁴Keep your camp ritually clean, because the Lord your God is with you in your camp to protect you and to give you victory over your enemies. Do not do anything indecent that would cause the Lord to turn his back on you.

Various Laws

¹⁵“If a slave runs away from his or her owner and comes to you for protection, do not send them back. ¹⁶They may live in any of your towns that they choose, and you are not to treat them harshly.

^17*“No Israelite, man or woman, is to become a temple prostitute. ¹⁸Also, no money earned in this way may be brought into the house of the Lord your God in fulfilment of a vow. The Lord hates temple prostitutes.

^19*“When you lend money or food or anything else to a fellow-Israelite, do not charge him interest. ^20*You may charge interest on what you lend to a foreigner, but not on what you lend to a fellow-Israelite. Obey this rule, and the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land that you are going to occupy.

^21*“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not put off doing what you promised; the Lord will hold you to your vow, and it is a sin not to keep it. ²²It is no sin not to make a vow to the Lord, ²³but if you make one voluntarily, be sure that you keep it.

²⁴“When you walk along a path in someone else’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but you must not carry any away in a container. ²⁵When you walk along a path in someone else’s cornfield, you may eat all the corn you can pull off with your hands, but you must not cut any corn with a sickle.