The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder

21 “If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. ³ And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a ^(A)yoke. ⁴ The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for ^(B)the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; ^(C)by their word every controversy and every ^[a]assault shall be settled. ⁶ And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man ^(D)shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. ⁸ Provide atonement, O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, ^(E)and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. ⁹ So ^(F)you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Female Captives

¹⁰ “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your ^(G)wife, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(H)shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³ She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and ^(I)mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have ^(J)humbled her.

Firstborn Inheritance Rights

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved ^(K)and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be, ^(L)on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. ¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn ^(M)by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he ^(N)is the beginning of his strength; ^(O)the right of the firstborn is his.

The 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 who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, ¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. ²⁰ And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; ^(P)so you shall put away the evil from among you, ^(Q)and all Israel shall hear and fear.

Miscellaneous Laws

²² “If a man has committed a sin ^(R)deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ^23 (S)his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that ^(T)you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for ^(U)he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Various Laws of Morality

22 “You ^(V)shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray, and ^[b]hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. 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 remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. ³ You shall do the same with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise; you ^[c]must not hide yourself.

^4 (W)“You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him lift them up again.

⁵ “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are ^[d]an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you 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, ^(X)you shall not take the mother with the young; ⁷ you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, ^(Y)that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸ “When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.

^9 (Z)“You shall 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 (AA)“You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

^11 (AB)“You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.

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

Laws of Sexual Morality

¹³ “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and ^(AD)detests her, ¹⁴ and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’ ¹⁵ then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶ And the young woman’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her. ¹⁷ Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, “I found your daughter was not a virgin,” and yet these are the evidences of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him; ¹⁹ and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.

²⁰ “But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, ²¹ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with ^(AE)stones, because she has ^(AF)done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. ^(AG)So you shall ^[e]put away the evil from among you.

^22 (AH)“If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.

²³ “If a young woman who is a virgin is ^(AI)betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he ^(AJ)humbled his neighbor’s wife; ^(AK)so you shall put away the evil from among you.

²⁵ “But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶ But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. ²⁷ For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

^28 (AL)“If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, ²⁹ then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father ^(AM)fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife ^(AN)because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.

^30 (AO)“A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor ^(AP)uncover his father’s bed.

A Samaritan Village Rejects the Savior

⁵¹ Now it came to pass, when the time had come for ^(A)Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵² and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. ⁵³ But ^(B)they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ And when His disciples ^(C)James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, ^[a]just as ^(D)Elijah did?”

⁵⁵ But He turned and rebuked them, ^[b]and said, “You do not know what manner of ^(E)spirit you are of. ^56 [c]For ^(F)the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.

The Cost of Discipleship^(G)

^57 (H)Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”

⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man ^(I)has nowhere to lay His head.”

^59 (J)Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹ And another also said, “Lord, ^(K)I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”

⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is ^(L)fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Seventy Sent Out

10 After these things the Lord appointed ^[d]seventy others also, and ^(M)sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. ² Then He said to them, ^(N)“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore ^(O)pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. ³ Go your way; ^(P)behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. ^4 (Q)Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and ^(R)greet no one along the road. ^5 (S)But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. ^7 (T)And remain in the same house, ^(U)eating and drinking such things as they give, for ^(V)the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. ⁸ Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. ^9 (W)And heal the sick there, and say to them, ^(X)‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ^11 (Y)‘The very dust of your city which clings to ^[e]us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ ^12 [f]But I say to you that ^(Z)it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

A Plea for Relief from Oppressors

A ^[a]Contemplation of Asaph.