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Deuteronomy 20-22
New American Standard Bible
Deuteronomy 20-22
New American Standard Bible
Laws of Warfare
20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see (A)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, (B)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people. 3 He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. (C)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, 4 for the Lord your God (D)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ 5 The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house but has not (E)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. 6 And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not [a]put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man [b]would put it to use. 7 (F)And who is the man that is [c]betrothed to a woman and has not [d]married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would [e]marry her.’ 8 Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘(G)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that [f]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’ 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.
10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall [g]offer it terms of peace. 11 And if it [h]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your (H)forced labor and serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, (I)you shall strike all the [i]men in it with the edge of the sword. 14 However, the women, the children, (J)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall [j]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations [k]nearby. 16 (K)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. 17 Instead, you shall [l]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they will not teach you to do [m](L)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, [n]by which you would (M)sin against the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, so you shall not cut them down. For [o]is the tree of the field a human, that it should [p]be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know [q]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.
Expiation of a Crime
21 “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to [r]possess, and it is not known who struck him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. 3 And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked [s]and has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then (N)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and [t]violent crime shall be [u]settled by them. 6 And all the elders of that city [v]which is nearest to the person killed shall (O)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7 and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. 8 [w]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for (P)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be [x]forgiven them. 9 (Q)So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Domestic Relations
10 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and (R)the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and are strongly attracted to her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12 then you shall bring her into your home, and she shall (S)shave her head and [y]trim her nails. 13 She shall also [z]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and (T)weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may have relations with her and become her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 But it shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go [aa]wherever she wishes; and you certainly shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as merchandise, since you have [ab](U)humiliated her.
15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and (V)the other [ac]unloved, and both the loved and the [ad]unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the [ae]unloved, 16 then it shall be on the day that he wills what he owns as an inheritance to his sons, he is not allowed to treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, [af]at the expense of the son of the [ag]unloved, who actually is the firstborn son. 17 On the contrary, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the [ah]unloved wife, by giving him a double [ai]portion of everything that [aj]he owns, for he was the (W)beginning of his [ak]strength; (X)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.
18 “If any person has a stubborn and rebellious son who does (Y)not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he does not listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city [al]at the gateway of his hometown. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, he is thoughtless and given to drinking.’ 21 (Z)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so (AA)you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and (AB)all Israel will hear about it and fear.
22 “Now if [am]a person has committed a sin carrying (AC)a sentence of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on [an]a tree, 23 (AD)his body is not to be left overnight on the [ao]tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for (AE)he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you (AF)do not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Various Laws
22 “(AG)You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and avoid them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. 2 And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. 3 You shall also do this with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with any lost property of your countryman, which has been lost by him and you have found. You are not allowed to avoid them. 4 You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, and avoid them; you shall certainly help him raise them up.
5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.
6 “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs in it, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, (AH)you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, (AI)in order that it may go well for you and that you may prolong your days.
8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a [ap]parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.
9 “(AJ)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise [aq]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will be [ar]forfeited to the sanctuary.
10 “(AK)You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11 “(AL)You shall not wear a material of wool and linen combined together.
12 “(AM)You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.
Laws on Morality
13 “(AN)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then [as]turns against her, 14 and he charges her with shameful behavior and [at]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity 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 a wife, but he [au]turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But [av]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city. 18 Then (AO)the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he [aw]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to [ax]divorce her all his days.
20 “But if this [ay](AP)charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, 21 then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her [az]to death, because she has (AQ)committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so (AR)you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
22 “(AS)If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who slept with the woman, and the woman; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.
23 “(AT)If there is a girl who is a virgin [ba]betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them [bb]to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
25 “But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and [bc]rapes her, then only the man who [bd]raped her shall die. 26 And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, [be]so is this case. 27 When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl [bf]cried out, but there was no one to save her.
28 “(AU)If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered, 29 then the man who had sexual relations with her shall give the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.
30 “[bg](AV)A man shall not take [bh]his father’s wife in marriage, so that he does not [bi]uncover his father’s garment.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit treat(ed) it as common
- Deuteronomy 20:6 Lit treat(ed) it as common
- Deuteronomy 20:7 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
- Deuteronomy 20:7 Lit taken
- Deuteronomy 20:7 Lit take
- Deuteronomy 20:8 As in LXX and other ancient versions; MT his brothers’ hearts do not melt like
- Deuteronomy 20:10 Lit call to it for peace
- Deuteronomy 20:11 Lit answers peace to you
- Deuteronomy 20:13 Lit males
- Deuteronomy 20:14 Lit eat
- Deuteronomy 20:15 Lit here
- Deuteronomy 20:17 Or put them under the ban
- Deuteronomy 20:18 Lit according to all the detestable
- Deuteronomy 20:18 Lit and you would
- Deuteronomy 20:19 Read as interrogative with ancient versions; MT the tree of the field is man
- Deuteronomy 20:19 Lit come before you in the siege
- Deuteronomy 20:20 Lit that it is not a tree of food
- Deuteronomy 21:1 Lit possess it
- Deuteronomy 21:3 Lit which has not
- Deuteronomy 21:5 Lit blow
- Deuteronomy 21:5 Lit according to their mouth
- Deuteronomy 21:6 Lit who are
- Deuteronomy 21:8 Lit Cover over, atone for
- Deuteronomy 21:8 Lit covered over, atoned for
- Deuteronomy 21:12 Lit do
- Deuteronomy 21:13 Lit remove from her
- Deuteronomy 21:14 Lit according to her soul
- Deuteronomy 21:14 I.e., by a forced marriage
- Deuteronomy 21:15 Or scorned; lit hated
- Deuteronomy 21:15 Or scorned; lit hated
- Deuteronomy 21:15 Or scorned; lit hated
- Deuteronomy 21:16 Lit against the face of
- Deuteronomy 21:16 See note v 15
- Deuteronomy 21:17 See note v 15
- Deuteronomy 21:17 Lit mouthful
- Deuteronomy 21:17 Lit is found with him
- Deuteronomy 21:17 I.e., power of procreation
- Deuteronomy 21:19 Lit and to the gate of his place
- Deuteronomy 21:22 Lit a sin is in a person carrying
- Deuteronomy 21:22 Lit wood
- Deuteronomy 21:23 Lit wood
- Deuteronomy 22:8 I.e., a protective railing
- Deuteronomy 22:9 Lit the fullness
- Deuteronomy 22:9 Or forfeit, adj sense
- Deuteronomy 22:13 Lit hates her
- Deuteronomy 22:14 Lit brings out an evil reputation against her
- Deuteronomy 22:16 Lit hated her
- Deuteronomy 22:17 Lit these are
- Deuteronomy 22:19 Lit brought out an evil reputation against a virgin
- Deuteronomy 22:19 Lit send her away
- Deuteronomy 22:20 Lit matter
- Deuteronomy 22:21 Lit with stones so that she dies
- Deuteronomy 22:23 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
- Deuteronomy 22:24 Lit with stones so that they die
- Deuteronomy 22:25 Lit lies down with
- Deuteronomy 22:25 Lit lies down with
- Deuteronomy 22:26 I.e., she is only a victim
- Deuteronomy 22:27 I.e., presumably did so
- Deuteronomy 22:30 Ch 23:1 in Heb
- Deuteronomy 22:30 I.e., a stepmother, not his birth mother
- Deuteronomy 22:30 Idiom for violating his father’s marriage
Deuteronomy 20-22
New International Version
Deuteronomy 20-22
New International Version
Going to War
20 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours,(A) do not be afraid(B) of them,(C) because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with(D) you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted(E) or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you(F) to fight(G) for you against your enemies to give you victory.(H)”
5 The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in(I) it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it. 6 Has anyone planted(J) a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it?(K) Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. 7 Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.(L)” 8 Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”(M) 9 When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.
10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.(N) 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject(O) to forced labor(P) and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.(Q) 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock(R) and everything else in the city,(S) you may take these as plunder(T) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance(U) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.(V) 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,(W) and you will sin(X) against the Lord your God.
19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?[b] 20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees(Y) and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.
Atonement for an Unsolved Murder
21 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,(Z) 2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. 3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke(AA) 4 and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. 5 The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings(AB) in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.(AC) 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands(AD) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,(AE) 9 and you will have purged(AF) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Marrying a Captive Woman
10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands(AG) and you take captives,(AH) 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful(AI) woman and are attracted to her,(AJ) you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head,(AK) trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month,(AL) then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.(AM)
The Right of the Firstborn
15 If a man has two wives,(AN) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,(AO) 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.(AP) 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double(AQ) share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength.(AR) The right of the firstborn belongs to him.(AS)
A Rebellious Son
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious(AT) son(AU) who does not obey his father and mother(AV) and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.(AW) You must purge the evil(AX) from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.(AY)
Various Laws
22 If someone guilty of a capital offense(AZ) is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.(BA) Be sure to bury(BB) it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.(BC) You must not desecrate(BD) the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.(BE) 2 If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. 3 Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4 If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey(BF) or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.(BG)
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
6 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.(BH) 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go,(BI) so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.(BJ)
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(BK)
9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard;(BL) if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.[c]
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.(BM)
11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.(BN)
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.(BO)
Marriage Violations
13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her(BP), dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate(BQ) proof that she was a virgin. 16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders(BR) shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels[d] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true(BS) and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing(BT) in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept(BU) with her and the woman must die.(BV) You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.(BW)
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed,(BX) there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,(BY) 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[e] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.[f](BZ)
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 20:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
- Deuteronomy 20:19 Or down to use in the siege, for the fruit trees are for the benefit of people.
- Deuteronomy 22:9 Or be forfeited to the sanctuary
- Deuteronomy 22:19 That is, about 2 1/2 pounds or about 1.2 kilograms
- Deuteronomy 22:29 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams
- Deuteronomy 22:30 In Hebrew texts this verse (22:30) is numbered 23:1.
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