Deuteronomy 21:10-21

English Standard Version

Marrying Female Captives

¹⁰ “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, ¹² and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. ¹³ And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and ^(A)lament 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 But if you no longer delight in her, you shall ^(B)let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you ^(C)treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, ^(D)the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,^{[a] 16} then on the day when ^(E)he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, ¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is ^(F)the firstfruits of his strength. ^(G)The right of the firstborn is his.

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, ¹⁹ then 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, ²⁰ and 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 (H)Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. ^(I)So you shall purge the evil from your midst, ^(J)and all Israel shall hear, and fear.