Study Desk

"If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to ^[a]possess, and it is not known who has struck him,

then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

Then ^(a)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord ; and every dispute and every ^[b]assault ^[c]shall be settled by them.

All the elders of that city ^[d]which is nearest to the slain man shall ^(b)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

^[e]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord , and do not place the guilt of ^(c)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be ^[f]forgiven them.

^(d)So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord .

"When you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(e)the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,

and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,

then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(f)shave her head and ^[g]trim her nails.

She shall also ^[h]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(g)mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go ^[i]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not ^[j]mistreat her, because you have ^(h)humbled her.

"If a man has two wives, the one loved and ⁽ⁱ⁾the other ^[k]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[l]unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ^[m]unloved,

then it shall be in the day he ^[n]wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ^[o]unloved, who is the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[p]unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ^[q]he has, for he is the ^(j)beginning of his strength; ^(k)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

"If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^(l)not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,

then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ^[r]at the gateway of his hometown.

They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

^(m)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ⁽ⁿ⁾you shall remove the evil from your midst, and ^(o)all Israel will hear of it and fear.

"If a man has committed a sin ^(p)worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

^(q)his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for ^(r)he who is hanged is ^[s]accursed of God), so that you ^(s)do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

"^(a)You shall not see your ^[a]countryman's ox or his sheep straying away, and ^[b]pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman.

If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.

Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ^[c]neglect them.

You shall not see your countryman's donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and ^[d]pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

"A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

"If you happen to come upon a bird's nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(b)you shall not take the mother with the young;

you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(c)in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

"^(d)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or ^[e]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.

"^(e)You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

"^(f)You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.

"^(g)You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

"^(h)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ^[f]turns against her,

and charges her with shameful deeds and ^[g]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,'

then the girl's father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

The girl's father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he ^[h]turned against her;

and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, "I did not find your daughter a virgin." But ^[i]this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

So ⁽ⁱ⁾the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him,

and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl's father, because he ^[j]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot ^[k]divorce her all his days.

"But if this ^[l](j)charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin,

then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her ^[m]to death because she has ^(k)committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; thus ^(l)you shall purge the evil from among you.

"^(m)If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

"⁽ⁿ⁾If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her,

then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them ^[n]to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

"But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die.

But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.

When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

"^(o)If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered,

then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.

"^[o](p)A man shall not take his father's wife so that he will not uncover his father's skirt.

"^(a)No one who is ^[a]emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord .

No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord ; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord .

^(b)No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord ; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord ,

^(c)because they did not meet you with ^[b]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(d)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[c]Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God ^(e)turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God ^(f)loves you.

^(g)You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

"You shall not detest an Edomite, for ^(h)he is your brother; you shall not detest an Egyptian, ⁽ⁱ⁾because you were an alien in his land.

The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord .

"When you go out as ^[d]an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

"^(j)If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ^[e]reenter the camp.

But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ^[f]reenter the camp.

"You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there,

and you shall have a ^[g]spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn ^[h]to cover up your excrement.

Since ^(k)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to ^[i]defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be ^(l)holy; and He must not see ^[j]anything indecent among you ^[k]or He will turn away from you.

"^(m)You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ^[l]escaped from his master to you.

He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your ^[m]towns where it pleases him; ⁽ⁿ⁾you shall not mistreat him.

"^(o)None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^(p)nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.

You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a ^[n](q)dog into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

"^(r)You shall not charge interest to your ^[o]countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.

^(s)You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your ^[p]countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that ^(t)the Lord your God may bless you in all ^[q]that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to ^[r]possess.

"^(u)When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, ^[s]and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.

However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you.

You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have ^[t]promised.

"When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat grapes ^[u]until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your ^[v]basket.

"^(v)When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.

"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens ^[a]that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some ^(a)indecency in her, and ^(b)he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,

and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife,

and if the latter husband ^[b]turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,

then her ^(c)former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord , and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

"^(d)When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall ^(e)give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

"No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

"^(f)If a man is ^[c]caught kidnapping any of his ^[d]countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

"^(g)Be careful against ^[e]an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

Remember what the Lord your God did ^(h)to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

"⁽ⁱ⁾When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.

You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.

^(j)When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and ^(k)it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

"^(l)You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your ^[f]countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your ^[g]towns.

^(m)You shall give him his wages on his day ^[h]before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his ^[i]heart on it; so that ⁽ⁿ⁾he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

"^(o)Fathers shall not be put to death ^[j]for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death ^[k]for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

"^(p)You shall not pervert the justice ^[l]due an alien or ^[m]an orphan, nor ^(q)take a widow's garment in pledge.

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

"^(r)When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be ^(s)for the alien, for the ^[n]orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God ^(t)may bless you in all the work of your hands.

^(u)When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs ^[o]again; it shall be ^(v)for the alien, for the ^[p]orphan, and for the widow.

"When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not ^[q]go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the ^[r]orphan, and for the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.