Study Desk

"But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait and ambush for him and attacks him and strikes him down so that he dies, and the assailant escapes to one of these cities,

"You shall not pity him [the guilty one], but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

"However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall lay siege to it.

"But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

"But it shall be that if you have no delight and take no pleasure in her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes. You certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not deal with her as a slave or mistreat her, because you have humbled her [by forced marriage].

his body shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall most certainly bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is cursed by God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.

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

and charges her [without cause] with shameful behavior and publicly defames her, and says, 'I took this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,'

"The father of the young woman shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her and has turned against her;

and behold, he has made baseless charges against her, saying, "I did not find in your daughter the evidence of her virginity." But this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city.

"But if this charge is true that the evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,

"But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no sin worthy of death, for this is the same as when a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

When he found her in the [open] field, the engaged girl [may have] cried out for help, but there was no one to [hear and] save her.

"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.

"But when evening comes, he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may return to the camp.

"You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your fellow Israelite you shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.

"But if you refrain from making a vow, that would not be [counted as] sin in you.

"When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you please, but you shall not put any in your basket [to take with you].

"When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, you may pluck the ears of grain with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain [to harvest it].

"But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.