Deuteronomy 20–22

Going to War

20When you go to war against your enemies, you might see that they have horses and chariots. They might even have an army that is stronger than yours. But don’t be afraid of them. The Lord your God will be with you. After all, he brought you up out of Egypt.

²Just before you go into battle, the priest will come forward. He’ll speak to the army. ³He’ll say, “Men of Israel, listen to me. Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don’t be scared. Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic. Don’t be terrified by them. ⁴The Lord your God is going with you. He’ll fight for you. He’ll help you win the battle over your enemies.”

⁵The officers will speak to the army. They will say, “Has anyone built a new house and not started to live in it? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will live in his house. ⁶Has anyone planted a vineyard and not started to enjoy it? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will enjoy his vineyard. ⁷Has anyone promised to get married to a woman but hasn’t done it yet? Let him go home. If he doesn’t, he might die in battle. Then someone else will marry her.” ⁸The officers will continue, “Is any man afraid? Is anyone scared? Let him go home. Then the other men won’t lose hope too.”

⁹The officers will finish speaking to the army. When they do, they’ll appoint commanders over it.

¹⁰Suppose you march up to attack a city. Before you attack it, offer peace to its people. ¹¹Suppose they accept your offer and open their gates. Then force all of the people in the city to be your slaves. They will have to work for you.

¹²But suppose they refuse your offer of peace and prepare for battle. Then surround that city. Get ready to attack it. ¹³The Lord your God will hand it over to you. When he does, kill all of the men with your swords.

¹⁴But you can take the women and children for yourselves. You can also take the livestock and everything else in the city. What you have captured from your enemies you can use for yourselves. The Lord your God has given it to you.

¹⁵That’s how you must treat all of the cities that are far away from you. Those cities don’t belong to the nations that are nearby.

¹⁶But what about the cities the Lord your God is giving you as your own? Kill everything in those cities that breathes. ¹⁷Completely destroy them. Wipe out the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. That’s what the Lord your God commanded you to do.

¹⁸If you don’t destroy them, they’ll teach you to follow all of the things the Lord hates. He hates the way they worship their gods. If you do those things, you will sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹Suppose you surround a city and get ready to attack it. And suppose you fight against it for a long time in order to capture it. Then don’t chop its trees down and destroy them. You can eat their fruit. So don’t cut them down. The trees of the field aren’t people. So why should you attack them?

²⁰But you can cut down trees that you know aren’t fruit trees. You can build war machines out of their wood. You can use them until you capture the city you are fighting against.

What to Do When You Don’t Know Who Killed Someone

21Suppose you find someone who has been killed. The body is lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to take as your own. But no one knows who the killer was. ²Then your elders and judges will go out and measure how far it is from the body to the nearby towns.

³The elders from the town that is nearest to the body will get a young cow. It must never have been used for work. It must never have pulled a load. ⁴The elders must lead it down into a valley. The valley must not have been farmed. There must be a stream flowing through it. There in the valley the elders must break the cow’s neck.

⁵The priests, who are sons of Levi, will step forward. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him. He wants them to bless the people in his name. He wants them to decide all cases that have to do with people arguing and attacking others.

⁶Then all of the elders from the town that is nearest to the body will wash their hands. They will wash them over the young cow whose neck they broke in the valley. ⁷They’ll say to the Lord, “We didn’t kill that person. We didn’t see it happen. ⁸Accept this payment for the sin of your people Israel. Lord, you have set your people free. Don’t hold them guilty for spilling the blood of someone who hasn’t done anything wrong.” That will pay for the death of that person.

⁹So you will get rid of the guilt of killing someone who didn’t do anything wrong. That’s because you have done what is right in the Lord’s eyes.

Getting Married to a Woman Who Is Your Prisoner

¹⁰Suppose you go to war against your enemies. And the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them as prisoners. ¹¹Then you notice a beautiful woman among them. If you like her, you can get married to her.

¹²Bring her home. Have her shave her head. Have her cut her nails. ¹³Have her throw away the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. Let her live in your house and sob over her parents for a full month. Then you can go to her and be her husband. And she will be your wife.

¹⁴But suppose you aren’t pleased with her. Then let her go where she wants to. You must not sell her. You must not treat her as a slave. You have already brought shame on her.

The Rights of the Oldest Son

¹⁵Suppose a man has two wives. He loves one but not the other. And both of them have sons by him. But the oldest son is the son of the wife the man doesn’t love. ¹⁶Someday he’ll leave his property to his sons. When he does, he must not give the rights of the oldest son to the son of the wife he loves. He must give those rights to his oldest son. He must do it even though his oldest son is the son of the wife he doesn’t love.

¹⁷He must recognize the full rights of the oldest son, even though that son is the son of the wife he doesn’t love. He must give that son a double share of everything he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. So the rights of the oldest son belong to him.

A Stubborn Son

¹⁸Suppose someone has a very stubborn son. He doesn’t obey his father and mother. And he won’t listen to them when they try to correct him. ¹⁹Then his parents will take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. ²⁰They will say to the elders, “This son of ours is very stubborn. He won’t obey us. He wastes his money. He’s always getting drunk.”

²¹Then all of the people in his town will put him to death by throwing stones at him. Get rid of that evil person. All of the people of Israel will hear about it. And they will be afraid to disobey their parents.

Several Other Laws

²²Suppose a man is put to death for a crime that is worthy of death. And a pole is stuck through his body and set up where people can see it. ²³Then you must not leave the body on the pole all night. Make sure you bury it that same day.

Everyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not make the land “unclean.” The Lord your God is giving it to you as your own.

22Suppose you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep wandering away. Then don’t act as if you didn’t see it. Instead, make sure you take it back to him.

²Your neighbor might not live near you. Or you might not know who he is. Then take the animal home with you. Keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back.

³Do the same thing if you find his donkey, coat or anything he loses. Don’t act as if you didn’t see it.

⁴Suppose you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox that has fallen down on the road. Then don’t act as if you didn’t see it. Help him get it up on its feet again.

⁵A woman must not wear men’s clothes. And a man must not wear women’s clothes. The Lord your God hates it when anyone does that.

⁶Suppose you happen to find a bird’s nest beside the road. It might be in a tree or on the ground. And suppose the mother bird is sitting on her little birds or on the eggs. Then don’t take the mother along with the little ones. ⁷You can take the little ones. But make sure you let the mother go. Then things will go well with you. You will live for a long time.

⁸If you build a new house, put a low wall around the edge of your roof. Then you won’t be held accountable if someone falls off your roof and dies.

⁹Don’t plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard. If you do, the crops you grow there will be polluted. Your grapes will also be polluted.

¹⁰Don’t let an ox and a donkey pull the same plow together.

¹¹Don’t wear clothes made of wool and linen that are woven together.

¹²Make tassels on the four corners of the coat you wear.

Breaking Marriage Laws

¹³Suppose a man gets married to a woman and makes love to her. But then he doesn’t like her. ¹⁴So he tells lies about her and says she’s a bad woman. He says, “I got married to this woman. But when I made love to her, I discovered she wasn’t a virgin.” ¹⁵Then the woman’s parents must bring proof that she was a virgin. They must give the proof to the elders at the gate of the town.

¹⁶The woman’s father will speak to the elders. He’ll say, “I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But he doesn’t like her. ¹⁷So now he has told lies about her. He has said, ‘I discovered that your daughter wasn’t a virgin.’ But here’s the proof that my daughter was a virgin.” Then her parents will show the elders of the town the cloth that has her blood on it.

¹⁸The elders will punish the man. ¹⁹They’ll make him weigh out two and a half pounds of silver. They’ll give it to the woman’s father. That’s because the man has said an Israelite virgin is a bad woman. She will continue to be his wife. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰But suppose the charge is true. And there isn’t any proof that the woman was a virgin. ²¹Then she must be brought to the door of her father’s house. There the people of her town will put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a very terrible thing in…