Chapter 21

Expiation of a Crime

1 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to 1possess, and it is not known who has struck him,

2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

3 “It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

5 “Then athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every 1assault 2shall be settled by them.

6 “All the elders of that city 1which is nearest to the slain man shall awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

7 and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8 ‘1Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be 2forgiven them.

9 “aSo you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

10 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and athe Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,

11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,

12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ashave her head and 1trim her nails.

13 “She shall also 1remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and amourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

14 “It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go 1wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not 2mistreat her, because you have ahumbled her.

15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and athe other 1unloved, and both the loved and the 1unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the 1unloved,

16 then it shall be in the day he 1wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the 2unloved, who is the firstborn.

17 “But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the 1unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that 2he has, for he is the abeginning of his strength; bto him belongs the right of the firstborn.

18 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will anot obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,

19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city 1at the gateway of his hometown.

20 “They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’

21 “aThen all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so byou shall remove the evil from your midst, and call Israel will hear of it and fear.

22 “If a man has committed a sin aworthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

23 ahis corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for bhe who is hanged is 1accursed of God), so that you cdo not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

Chapter 22

Sundry Laws

1 “aYou shall not see your 1countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and 2pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman.

2 “If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.

3 “Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to 1neglect them.

4 “You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and 1pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

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

6 “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ayou shall not take the mother with the young;

7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ain order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

9 “aYou shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or 1all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.

10 “aYou shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

11 “aYou shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.

12 “aYou shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws on Morality

13 “aIf any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then 1turns against her,

14 and charges her with shameful deeds and 1publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’

15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

16 “The girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he 1turned against her;

17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But 1this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

18 “So athe elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him,

19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he 1publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot 2divorce her all his days.

20 “But if this 1acharge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin,

21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her 1to death because she has acommitted an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus byou shall purge the evil from among you.

22 “aIf a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

23 “aIf there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her,

24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them 1to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

25 “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die.

26 “But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.

27 “When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28 “aIf a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered,

29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.

30 “1aA man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt.

Chapter 23

Persons Excluded from the Assembly

1 “aNo one who is 1emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

2 “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

3 “aNo Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord,

4 abecause they did not meet you with 1food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you bBalaam the son of Beor from Pethor of 2Mesopotamia, to curse you.

5 “Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God aturned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God bloves you.

6 “aYou shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

7 “You shall not detest an Edomite, for ahe is your brother; you shall not detest an Egyptian, bbecause you were an alien in his land.

8 “The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

9 “When you go out as 1an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

10 “aIf there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not 1reenter the camp.

11 “But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may 1reenter the camp.

12 “You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there,

13 and you shall have a 1spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn 2to cover up your excrement.

14 “Since athe Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to 1defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be bholy; and He must not see 2anything indecent among you 3or He will turn away from you.

15 “aYou shall not hand over to his master a slave who has 1escaped from his master to you.

16 “He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your 1towns where it pleases him; ayou shall not mistreat him.

17 “aNone of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, bnor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.

18 “You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a 1adog into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

19 “aYou shall not charge interest to your 1countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.

20 “aYou may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your 1countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that bthe Lord your God may bless you in all 2that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to 3possess.

21 “aWhen you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, 1and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.

22 “However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you.

23 “You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have 1promised.

24 “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes 1until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your 2basket.

25 “aWhen you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.