Study Desk

He will do this if you completely obey his commands that I give you today—if you love the Lord your God and always live the way he wants. Then, when he gives you more land, you should choose three more cities for safety. They should be added to the first three cities.

"But suppose there is a man who hates his neighbor. That man might hide and wait to kill the person he hates. If he kills that person and runs to one of these cities of safety,

the elders in his hometown must send someone to get him and take him away from the city of safety. These leaders must hand him over to the close relative. He is a murderer and he must die.

Is there any man here who has planted a vineyard but has not yet gathered any of the grapes? That man should go back home. If that man dies in the battle, someone else will enjoy the fruit from his field.

"These Levite officials must also say to the people, ‘Is there any man here who has lost his courage and is afraid? He should go back home. Then he will not cause the other soldiers to lose their courage too.'

When the man divides his property among his children, he cannot give the rights of the firstborn to the son of his favorite wife.

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.

"A man might have a son who is stubborn and refuses to obey. This son does not obey his father or mother. They punish the son, but he still refuses to listen to them.

His father and mother must then take him to the leaders of the town at the town meeting place.

"A man might be guilty of a sin that must be punished by death. People might kill him and hang his body on a tree.

The girl's father must say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her.

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.

"But what the husband said about his wife might be true. The wife's parents might not have the proof that she was a virgin. If this happens,

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.

"A man must not bring shame to his father by marrying his father's wife.

"A man with a crushed testicle or part of his sex organ cut off may not join with the men of Israel to worship the Lord .

If a man's parents were not legally married, that man may not join with the men of Israel to worship the Lord . And none of his descendants to the tenth generation—may join in that group.

"A man might marry a woman, and then find some secret thing about her that he does not like. If that man is not pleased with her, he must write the divorce papers and give them to her. Then he must send her from his house.

When she has left his house, she may go and become another man's wife.

But suppose the new husband also does not like her and sends her away. If that man divorces her, the first husband may not take her again to be his wife. Or if the new husband dies, her first husband may not take her again to be his wife. She has become unclean to him. If he married her again, he would be doing something the Lord hates. You must not sin like this in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.