Study Desk

Exclusion From the Assembly

^[a]No one who has been emasculated^(a) by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord .

No one born of a forbidden marriage^[b] nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord , not even in the tenth generation.

No Ammonite^(b) or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord , not even in the tenth generation.^(c)

For they did not come to meet you with bread and water^(d) on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam^(e) son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim^[c](f) to pronounce a curse on you.^(g)

However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse^(h) into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves⁽ⁱ⁾ you.

Do not seek a treaty^(j) of friendship with them as long as you live.^(k)

Do not despise an Edomite,^(l) for the Edomites are related to you.^(m) Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country.⁽ⁿ⁾

The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord .

When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.^(o)

If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.^(p)

But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset^(q) he may return to the camp.^(r)

Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself.

As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

For the Lord your God moves^(s) about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy,^(t) so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

If a slave has taken refuge^(u) with you, do not hand them over to their master.^(v)

Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress^(w) them.

No Israelite man^(x) or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.^(y)

You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute^[d] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.^(z)

Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.^(aa)

You may charge a foreigner^(ab) interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless^(ac) you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.

If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it,^(ad) for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.^(ae)

But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty.^(af)

Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket.

If you enter your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.^(ag)

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him^(a) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,^(b) gives it to her and sends her from his house,

and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,

and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,

then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord . Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord ^(c) your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.^(d)

Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person's livelihood as security.^(e)

If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die.^(f) You must purge the evil from among you.^(g)

In cases of defiling skin diseases,^[a] be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical^(h) priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.⁽ⁱ⁾

Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.^(j)

When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.^(k)

Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.

If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge^(l) in your possession.

Return their cloak by sunset^(m) so that your neighbor may sleep in it.⁽ⁿ⁾ Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.^(o)

Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.^(p)

Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor^(q) and are counting on it.^(r) Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.^(s)

Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.^(t)

Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless^(u) of justice,^(v) or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt^(w) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it.^(x) Leave it for the foreigner,^(y) the fatherless and the widow,^(z) so that the Lord your God may bless^(aa) you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.^(ab) Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.

When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.^(ac)

When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges^(a) will decide the case,^(b) acquitting^(c) the innocent and condemning the guilty.^(d)

If the guilty person deserves to be beaten,^(e) the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves,

but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes.^(f) If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes.^(g)

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.^(h)

If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.⁽ⁱ⁾

The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.^(j)

However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife,^(k) she shall go to the elders at the town gate^(l) and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me."^(m)

Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her,"

his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,⁽ⁿ⁾ spit in his face^(o) and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line."

That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts,

you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.^(p)

Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light.^(q)

Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small.

You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long^(r) in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.^(s)

Remember what the Amalekites^(t) did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt.

When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.^(u)

When the Lord your God gives you rest^(v) from all the enemies^(w) around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek^(x) from under heaven. Do not forget!