Atonement for Unsolved Murders

21 “If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer (A)that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen (B)them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and (C)by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 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, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and (E)do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ So (F)you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

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 (G)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 (H)let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you (I)treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

15 “If a man has two wives, (J)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 (K)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 (L)the firstfruits of his strength. (M)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 (N)Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. (O)So you shall purge the evil from your midst, (P)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 (Q)his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for (R)a hanged man is cursed by God. (S)You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Various Laws

22 “You (T)shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And 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. And 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. (U)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.

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

“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, (W)you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, (X)that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

“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.

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

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

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

13 “If any man takes a wife and (AA)goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip[c] him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels[d] of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin[e] of Israel. And she shall be his wife. (AB)He may not divorce her all his days. 20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and (AC)the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has (AD)done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. (AE)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

22 (AF)“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. (AG)So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

23 “If there is a (AH)betrothed virgin, and a man meets 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 for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. (AI)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes 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; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

28 (AJ)“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

30 [f] (AK)“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not (AL)uncover his father's nakedness.[g]

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

(AM)“No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

(AN)“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, (AO)because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they (AP)hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of (AQ)Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned (AR)the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. You (AS)shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for (AT)he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because (AU)you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

“When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

10 “If any man among you becomes (AV)unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, 11 but when evening comes, he shall (AW)bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

12 “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. 13 And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. 14 Because (AX)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

15 (AY)“You shall not give up to his master a slave[h] who has escaped from his master to you. 16 He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

17 “None of the (AZ)daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none (BA)of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. 18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog[i] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

19 (BB)“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, (BC)interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20 (BD)You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, (BE)that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

21 (BF)“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

24 “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, (BG)you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 21:15 Or hated; also verses 16, 17
  2. Deuteronomy 22:9 Hebrew become holy
  3. Deuteronomy 22:18 Or discipline
  4. Deuteronomy 22:19 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
  5. Deuteronomy 22:19 Or girl of marriageable age
  6. Deuteronomy 22:30 Ch 23:1 in Hebrew
  7. Deuteronomy 22:30 Hebrew uncover his father's skirt
  8. Deuteronomy 23:15 Or servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles (see Preface)
  9. Deuteronomy 23:18 Or male prostitute

The High Priestly Prayer

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, (A)he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, (B)the hour has come; (C)glorify your Son that the Son may (D)glorify you, since (E)you have given him authority over all flesh, (F)to give eternal life to all (G)whom you have given him. (H)And this is eternal life, (I)that they know you, (J)the only (K)true God, and (L)Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I (M)glorified you on earth, (N)having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, (O)glorify me in your own presence with the glory (P)that I had with you (Q)before the world existed.

(R)“I have manifested your name to the people (S)whom you gave me out of the world. (T)Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything (U)that you have given me is from you. For I have given them (V)the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that (W)I came from you; and (X)they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. (Y)I am not praying for the world but for those (Z)whom you have given me, for (AA)they are yours. 10 (AB)All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and (AC)I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but (AD)they are in the world, and (AE)I am coming to you. (AF)Holy Father, (AG)keep them in your name, (AH)which you have given me, (AI)that they may be one, (AJ)even as we are one. 12 (AK)While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have (AL)guarded them, and (AM)not one of them has been lost except (AN)the son of destruction, (AO)that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now (AP)I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have (AQ)my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 (AR)I have given them your word, and (AS)the world has hated them (AT)because they are not of the world, (AU)just as I am not of the world. 15 I (AV)do not ask that you (AW)take them out of the world, but that you (AX)keep them from (AY)the evil one.[a] 16 (AZ)They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 (BA)Sanctify them[b] in the truth; (BB)your word is truth. 18 (BC)As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And (BD)for their sake (BE)I consecrate myself,[c] that they also (BF)may be sanctified[d] in truth.

20 “I do not (BG)ask for these only, but also for those (BH)who will believe in me through their word, 21 (BI)that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that (BJ)they also may be in (BK)us, so that the world (BL)may believe that you have sent me. 22 (BM)The glory that you have given me (BN)I have given to them, (BO)that they may be one even as we are one, 23 (BP)I in them and you in me, (BQ)that they may become perfectly one, (BR)so that the world may know that you sent me and (BS)loved them even as (BT)you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be (BU)with me (BV)where I am, (BW)to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me (BX)before the foundation of the world. 25 (BY)O righteous Father, even though (BZ)the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 (CA)I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love (CB)with which you have loved me may be in them, and (CC)I in them.”

Footnotes

  1. John 17:15 Or from evil
  2. John 17:17 Greek Set them apart (for holy service to God)
  3. John 17:19 Or I sanctify myself; or I set myself apart (for holy service to God)
  4. John 17:19 Greek may be set apart (for holy service to God)

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