Deuteronomy 22
The Scriptures (ISR 1998)

1“When you see your brother’s ox or his sheep going straying away, you shall not hide yourself from them. Return them to your brother without fail.

2“And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it, then you shall return it to him.

3“And so you do with his donkey, and so you do with his garment, and so you do with whatever your brother loses, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to hide yourself.

4“When you see your brother’s donkey or his ox fall down on the way, you shall not hide yourself from them. Help him raise them without fail.

5“A woman does not wear that which pertains to a man, nor does a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does this is an abomination to יהוה your Elohim.

6“When you come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young –

7let the mother go without fail, and take the young for yourself, so that it might be well with you, and that you shall prolong your days.

8“When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring blood-guilt on your house when one falls from it.

9“Do not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.

10“Do not plough with an ox and a donkey together.

11“Do not put on a garment of different kinds, of wool and linen together.

12“Make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

13“When any man takes a wife, and shall go in to her, and shall hate her,

14and shall make abusive charges against her and bring an evil name on her and say, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I did not find her a maiden,’

15then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the proof of the girl’s maidenhood to the elders of the city at the gate.

16“And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he hates her.

17‘And see, he has made abusive charges against her, saying, “I did not find your daughter a maiden,” and yet these are the proofs of my daughter’s maidenhood.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

18“And the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him,

19and fine him one hundred pieces of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name on a maiden of Yisra’ĕl. And she is to be his wife, he is not allowed to put her away all his days.

20“But if the matter is true, that the girl was not found a maiden,

21then they shall bring out the girl to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done wickedness in Yisra’ĕl, to whore in her father’s house. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst.

22“When a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman. Thus you shall purge the evil from Yisra’ĕl.

23“When a girl who is a maiden is engaged to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,

24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and shall stone them to death with stones, the girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst.

25“But if a man finds the girl who is engaged in the field, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

26“But you shall do no matter to the girl. The girl has no sin worthy of death – for the matter is like a man who rises against his neighbour and kills him –

27for he found her in the field, and she cried out, the engaged girl, but without anyone to save her.

28“When a man finds a girl who is a maiden, who is not engaged, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out,

29then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty pieces of silver, and she is to be his wife because he has humbled her. He is not allowed to put her away all his days.

30“A man does not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s skirt.

Deuteronomy 21
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