Various Laws

²² If someone guilty of a capital offense^(A) is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, ²³ you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.^(B) Be sure to bury^(C) it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.^(D) You must not desecrate^(E) 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.^{(F) 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^(G) or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.^(H)

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.^{(I) 7} You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go,^(J) so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.^(K)

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.^(L)

⁹ Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard;^(M) if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.^[a]

¹⁰ Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.^(N)

¹¹ Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.^(O)

¹² Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.^(P)

Marriage Violations

¹³ If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her^(Q), 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^(R) 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^(S) shall take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They shall fine him a hundred shekels^[b] 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^(T) 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^(U) 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^(V) with her and the woman must die.^(W) 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.^(X)

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,^(Y) 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,^{(Z) 29} he shall pay her father fifty shekels^[c] 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.^[d](AA)

That Which Defiles^(A)

15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”^(B)

³ Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’^[a](C) and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’^{[b](D) 5} But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ ⁶ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them,^(G) but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”^(H)

¹² Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³ He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted^(I) will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴ Leave them; they are blind guides.^[d](J) If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”^(K)

¹⁵ Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”^(L)

¹⁶ “Are you still so dull?”^(M) Jesus asked them. ¹⁷ “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart,^(N) and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.^{(O) 20} These are what defile a person;^(P) but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman^(Q)

²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.^{(R) 22} A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David,^(S) have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”^(T)

²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”^(U)

²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him.^(V) “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith!^(W) Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand^(X)(Y)(Z)

²⁹ Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. ³⁰ Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.^{(AA) 31} The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.^(AB)

³² Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people;^(AC) they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

³³ His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴ “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.

“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵ He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. ³⁶ Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them^(AD) and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. ³⁷ They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.^{(AE) 38} The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁹ After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.