Deuteronomy 21:18-22:12

English Standard Version

A Rebellious Son

¹⁸“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, ²⁰and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹^(A)Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. ^(B)So you shall purge the evil from your midst, ^(C)and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

²²“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³^(D)his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for ^(E)a hanged man is cursed by God. ^(F)You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Various Laws

22 “You ^(G)shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. ²And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. ³And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. ⁴^(H)You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, ^(I)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶“If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(J)you shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(K)that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

⁹^(L)“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,^[a] the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

¹²^(M)“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.