Study Desk

then they shall bring her out to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed a deliberate sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father's house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out for help [though she was] in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor's [promised] wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

then the man who was intimate with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the girl's father, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he can never divorce her.

because they did not meet you with bread (food) and water on the road as you came out of Egypt, and because they hired [to act] against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

"Nevertheless, the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God has loved you.

"You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother [Esau's descendant]. You shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were a stranger (resident alien, foreigner) in his land.

"If there is any man among you who is [ceremonially] unclean because of nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he shall not come back to the camp.

"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she loses his favor because he has found something indecent or unacceptable about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house,

'Cursed is he who is intimate with his father's [former] wife, because he has violated what belongs to his father.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly because of the evil of your deeds, because you have turned away from Me.

"You will bring out a great quantity of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locusts will consume it.

"You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because the worm will eat them.

"You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourselves with the oil, because your olives will drop off.

"You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours [for long], because they will go into captivity.

"He will lend to you [out of his affluence], but you will not lend to him [because of your poverty]; he will be the head, and you the tail.

"So all these curses will come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He has commanded you.

"Because you did not serve the LORD your God with a heart full of joy and gladness for the abundance of all things [with which He blessed you],

so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, because he has nothing else left, during the siege and the misery by which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities.

"The most refined and well-bred woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and pampered, will be cruel and hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,

"Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, you who were as numerous as the stars of heaven shall be left few in number.