Study Desk

This is because the Lord your God looked at all your tribes and chose Levi and his descendants to serve him as priests forever.

The Lord hates anyone who does these things. And because these other nations do these terrible things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land as you enter it.

God will send you this prophet because that is what you asked him to do. When you were gathered together at Mount Horeb, you became frightened and said, ‘Don't let us hear the voice of the Lord our God again! Don't let us see that great fire or we will die!'

But if the city is too far away, he might not be able to run there fast enough. A close relative of the person he killed might run after him and catch him before he reaches the city. The relative might kill the man in anger, even though he did not deserve to die because he did not mean to harm anyone.

The man must accept the firstborn son from the wife he does not love. The man must give that son a double share of everything he owns because that son is his first child. The right of the firstborn belongs to that son.

You must not let that body stay on the tree overnight. You must be sure to bury this man on the same day, because the one who hangs on a tree is cursed by God, and you must not let the land that the Lord your God is giving you become unclean.

"You must not plant seeds of grain in the same fields as your grapevines. Why? Because then they become useless—both the grapes and the grain produced by the seeds you planted.

They must fine him 40 ounces of silver. They will give the money to the girl's father because her husband brought shame to an Israelite girl. And the girl will continue to be the man's wife. He cannot divorce her for the rest of his life.

the town leaders must bring the girl to the door of her father's house. Then the men of the town must kill her with stones, because she has done a shameful thing in Israel. She has acted like a prostitute in her father's house. You must remove this evil from your group.

you must bring them both out to the public place near the gate of that city, and you must kill them with stones. You must kill the man, because he used another man's wife for sexual sin. And you must kill the girl, because she was in the city but did not call for help. You must remove this evil from your people.

he must pay the girl's father 20 ounces of silver. And the girl will become the man's wife, because he used her for sexual sin. He cannot divorce her all his life.

But the Lord your God refused to do what Balaam asked. Instead, the Lord changed the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

"You must not hate Edomites, because they are your relatives. You must not hate Egyptians, because you were a stranger in their land.

If there is any man who is unclean because he had a flow of semen during the night, he must go out of the camp. He must stay away from the camp.

This is because the Lord your God is there with you in your camp to save you and to help you defeat your enemies. So the camp must be holy. Then he will not see something disgusting and leave you.

The money earned by a prostitute, either a male or female, must not be brought to the special house of the Lord your God. That money cannot be used to pay for a gift that was promised to the Lord your God, because that kind of sin is disgusting to him.

Give him his pay every day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on the money. If you don't pay him, he will complain against you to the Lord , and you will be guilty of sin.

Don't hit anyone more than 40 times during punishment, because more than that means that their life is not important to you.

"If you do evil and turn away from the Lord , he will make bad things happen to you. You will have frustration and trouble in everything you do. He will continue to do this until you are quickly and completely destroyed. He will do this because you turned away from him and left him.

"Your fields will produce plenty of grain. But your harvest will be small, because the locusts will eat your harvest.