Deuteronomy 23–26

23RD CHAPTER^a

Various Laws

¹A man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off may never join the assembly of the Lord. 

²A man born from an illicit union may not join the assembly of the Lord. No descendant of his may join the assembly of the Lord for ten generations. 

³Ammonites or Moabites may not join the assembly of the Lord. Not one descendant of theirs may join the assembly of the Lord for ten generations. ⁴They cannot join because they didn’t greet you with food and water on your trip from Egypt. They even hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you. ⁵But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. Instead, he turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶Never offer them peace or friendship as long as you live. 

⁷Never consider the Edomites disgusting. They’re your relatives. Never consider the Egyptians disgusting. You once were foreigners living in their country. ⁸Their grandchildren may join the assembly of the Lord. 

⁹When you’re at war and have set up camp to fight your enemies, stay away from anything that will make you unclean.^b10If one of your men becomes unclean from a nocturnal emission, he must go outside the camp and stay there. ¹¹Toward evening he must wash, and at sunset he may come back to camp. 

¹²Choose a place outside the camp where you can go ⸤to relieve yourself⸥. ¹³You must carry a pointed stick as part of your equipment. When you go outside to squat, dig a hole with it. When you’re done, cover up your excrement. ¹⁴The Lord your God moves around in your camp to protect you and hand your enemies over to you. So your camp must always be holy. This way, the Lord will never see anything offensive among you and turn away from you. 

¹⁵If a slave escapes from his master and comes to you, don’t return him to his master. ¹⁶Let him stay with you ⸤and live⸥ among your people wherever he chooses, in any of your cities that seems best to him. Never mistreat him. 

¹⁷No Israelite man or woman should ever become a temple prostitute. ¹⁸Never bring gifts or money earned by prostitution into the house of the Lord your God as an offering you vowed to give. These earnings are disgusting to the Lord your God. 

¹⁹Never charge another Israelite any interest on money, food, or anything else that is borrowed. ²⁰You may charge a foreigner interest, but not an Israelite. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do once you’ve entered the land and taken possession of it. 

²¹If you make a vow to the Lord your God, don’t avoid keeping it. The Lord your God expects you to keep it. You would be guilty of a sin if you didn’t. ²²If you didn’t make a vow, you would not be guilty. ²³Make sure you do what you said you would do ⸤in your vow⸥. You freely chose to make your vow to the Lord your God. 

²⁴If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you like until you’re full. But never put any in your basket. ²⁵If you go into your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick grain by hand. But never use a sickle to cut your neighbor’s grain. 

24TH CHAPTER

Various Laws

¹This is what you must do if a husband writes out a certificate of divorce, gives it to his wife, and makes her leave his house. (He divorced her because he found out something indecent about her and she no longer pleased him.) ²She might marry another man after she leaves his house. ³If her second husband doesn’t love her and divorces her, or if he dies, ⁴her first husband is not allowed to marry her again. She has become unclean.^aThis would be disgusting in the Lord’s presence. Don’t pollute with sin the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your property. 

⁵A man who has recently been married will be free from military duty or any other public service. For one year he is free to stay at home and make his new wife happy. 

⁶Never let a family’s handmill for grinding flour—or even part of a handmill—be taken to guarantee a loan. The family wouldn’t be able to prepare food in order to stay alive. 

⁷Whoever kidnaps another Israelite must die. The kidnapper must die, whether he treated the other person like a slaveor sold him. You must get rid of this evil. 

⁸Guard against outbreaks of serious skin diseases. Be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. Make sure you do what I commanded them. ⁹Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your trip from Egypt. 

¹⁰When you make a loan to your neighbor, don’t go into his house to take a security deposit. ¹¹Wait outside, and the person to whom you’re making the loan will bring the deposit out to you. ¹²If the person is poor, don’t keep the coat you took as a deposit overnight. ¹³Make sure you bring it back to him at sunset. When he wears his coat to bed ⸤that night⸥, he’ll bless you. You will have done the right thing in the presence of the Lord your God. 

¹⁴Don’t withhold pay from hired workers who are poor and needy, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your cities. ¹⁵Pay them each day before sunset because they are poor and need their pay. Otherwise, they will complain to the Lord about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. 

¹⁶Parents must never be put to death for the crimes of their children, and children must never be put to death for the crimes of their parents. Each person must be put to death for his own crime. 

¹⁷Never deprive foreigners and orphans of justice. And never take widows’ clothes to guarantee a loan. ¹⁸Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from slavery. So I’m commanding you to do this. 

¹⁹This is what you must do when you’re harvesting wheat in your field. If you forget to bring in one of the bundles of wheat, don’t go back to get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. 

²⁰When you harvest olives from your trees, never knock down all of them. Leave some for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 

²¹When you pick the grapes in your vineyard, don’t pick all of them. Leave some for foreigners, orphans, and widows. ²²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. So I’m commanding you to do this. 

25TH CHAPTER

Various Laws

¹This is what you must do whenever ⸤two⸥ people have a disagreement that is brought into court. The judges will hear the case and decide who’s right and who’s wrong. ²If the person who’s in the wrong deserves to be beaten, the judge will order him to lie down. Then the judge will have him beaten with as many lashes as the crime deserves. ³Forty lashes may be given, but no more. If an Israelite were given more than that, he would be publicly humiliated. 

⁴Never muzzle an ox when it’s threshing^agrain. 

⁵When brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother must marry her and sleep with her. He must do his duty as her brother-in-law. ⁶Then the first son she has will carry the dead brother’s name so that his name won’t die out in Israel. 

⁷But if the man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the leaders of the city at the city gate. She must say, “My brother-in-law refuses to let his brother’s name continue in Israel. He doesn’t want to do his duty as my brother-in-law.” ⁸Then the leaders of the city must summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying that he doesn’t want to marry her, ⁹his brother’s widow must go up to him in the presence of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face. She must make this formal statement: “This is what happens to a man who refuses to continue his brother’s family line.” ¹⁰Then in Israel his family will be called the Family of the Man Without a Sandal. 

¹¹This is what you must do when two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from the man who is beating him. If she tries to stop the fight by grabbing the other man’s genitals, ¹²cut off her hand. Have no pity on her. 

¹³Never carry two sets of weights, a heavier one and a lighter one. ¹⁴Never have two kinds of measures in your house, a larger one and a smaller one. ¹⁵Use accurate and honest weights and measures. Then you will live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶Everyone who uses dishonest weights and measures is disgusting to the Lord. 

¹⁷Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your trip from Egypt. ¹⁸They attacked you when you were tired and exhausted and killed all those who were lagging behind. They weren’t afraid of God. ¹⁹So when the Lord your God gives you peace from all your enemies around you in the land that he is giving you as your own property, don’t forget to erase every memory of the Amalekites from the earth. 

26TH CHAPTER

A Reminder to Keep God’s Laws

¹Soon you will enter and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your property. When you have settled there, ²take some of the first produce harvested from the fields in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket. Then go to the place where the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. ³Go to the priest who is serving at that time, and tell him, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land that the Lord is giving us, as he swore to our ancestors.” ⁴Then the priest will take the basket from you and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵You will make this formal statement in the presence of the Lord your God: “My ancestors were wandering Arameans. There were only a few of them when they went to Egypt and lived as foreigners. But then they became a great, powerful, and large nation. ⁶So the Egyptians treated us cruelly, oppressed us, and made us do back-breaking work for them. ⁷We cried out to the Lord God of our ancestors, and he heard us. He saw our misery, suffering, and oppression. ⁸Then the Lord used his mighty hand and powerful…