Beginning
About Killing Someone
21 “If a person has been killed and is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man. 3 The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled a plow. 4 The leaders of that city will bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water, which has not been plowed or planted. They will break the cow’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the religious leaders, the sons of Levi, will come near for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bring good in the name of the Lord. Every question about what is right and every fight will be decided upon by them. 6 All the leaders of that city nearest to the dead man will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 Then they will say, ‘Our hands have not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it. 8 O Lord, forgive Your people Israel whom You have set free. Do not put the guilt of killing a man who did no wrong on Your people Israel.’ And they will be forgiven from the guilt of the man’s death. 9 So you must take away the guilt of taking the life of a good man by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Marrying a Woman Taken in Battle
10 “When you go out to battle against those who hate you, and the Lord your God gives them to you, and you make them go with you, 11 and you see a beautiful woman and have a desire for her as a wife, 12 bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails. 13 She will change the clothes she wore when you took her away, and stay in your house. She will have sorrow for her father and mother for one month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, you should let her go wherever she wants. But do not sell her for money or act as if she were a servant because you have put her to shame.
15 “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other not loved, and both the loved and the one not loved have borne him sons, and if the first-born son belongs to the wife who is not loved, 16 on the day when the man divides what he has for his sons, he cannot make the first-born of his loved wife the first-born before the son of the wife who is not loved, who is the first-born. 17 He must respect the first-born, the son of the wife who is not loved, by giving him twice the share of all he has. He is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born belongs to him.
18 “If a man has a strong-willed son who goes against him and does not obey his father or mother and when they punish him he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother will take hold of him and bring him to the leaders of his city at the gate of his city. 20 They will say to the leaders of his city, ‘This son of ours is strong-willed and goes against us. He will not obey us. He eats and drinks too much.’ 21 Then all the men of his city will kill him with stones. You must get rid of the sin from among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
22 “If a man has sinned and should be put to death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body must not hang all night on the tree. You should be sure to bury him on the same day (for he who hangs is cursed by God). So do not make your land unclean which the Lord your God is giving you.
22 “If you see your brother’s bull or sheep walking away, do not pretend that you do not see them. Be sure to return them to your brother. 2 If your brother is not home, or if you do not know who he is, then bring the animal to your house. Keep it there until your brother looks for it. Then return it to him. 3 Do the same with his donkey, or his coat, or anything lost by your brother. If you find what he has lost, you must help him. 4 If you see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the road, do not pretend that you do not see them. Be sure to help him lift them up again.
5 “A woman must not wear men’s clothing. And a man must not put on women’s clothing. For the Lord your God hates whoever does these things.
6 “You might find a bird’s nest by the road, in a tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs. If you find the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7 Be sure to let the mother go. But you may take the young for yourself. Then it will go well with you, and you will live long.
8 “When you build a new house, you should put a short wall around your roof. Then no one will fall from it and bring the guilt of blood upon your house.
9 “Do not plant among your vines another kind of seed. All that grows from what you have planted will be unclean. 10 Do not plow with a bull and a donkey together. 11 Do not wear clothing made of both wool and linen together.
12 “Make tassels to put on the four corners of the clothing you use to cover yourself.
Law of Those Who Are Not Faithful in Marriage
13 “If a man takes a wife and goes in to her and decides he does not like her, 14 and says that she did sinful acts and puts her to shame before others and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I found that she had been with another man,’ 15 then the girl’s father and mother should bring what is needed to prove she has not been with another man to the leaders of the city at the gate. 16 The girl’s father will say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife. But he turned against her. 17 He said she has done sinful acts, saying, “I found that your daughter has been with another man.” But I brought what will prove that my daughter has not been with another man.’ And they will spread the clothing in front of the leaders of the city. 18 Then the leaders of that city will take the man and punish him. 19 They will make him pay a hundred pieces of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he has put to shame the name of an Israelite girl who has not had a man. She will still be his wife. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if it is true that the girl was found to have had another man, 21 then they will bring the girl to the door of her father’s house. There the men of her city will kill her with stones, because she has done a foolish act in Israel by acting in her father’s house like a woman who sells the use of her body. So you will get rid of the sin from among you.
22 “If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them must die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you will get rid of the sin from Israel.
23 “If a girl who has never had a man is promised in marriage to a man, another man might find her in the city and lie with her. 24 Then you must bring them both to the gate of that city and kill them with stones. Put the girl to death because she did not cry for help in the city, and the man because he has sinned against his neighbor’s wife. So you will get rid of the sin from among you. 25 But if the man finds a girl in the field who is promised in marriage, and makes her lie with him, then only the man who lies with her will die. 26 Do nothing to the girl. There is no sin in the girl bad enough for her to be put to death. It is as if a man goes against his neighbor and kills him. 27 When he found her in the field, the girl promised in marriage cried out. But there was no one to save her.
28 “If a man finds a girl who has never had a man and is not promised in marriage, and takes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her must give fifty pieces of silver to the girl’s father. And she will become his wife, because he has put her to shame. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.
30 “A man must not take his father’s wife. He must not take the clothes off the woman who belongs to his father.
Those Who Cannot Go into the Meeting of the Lord
23 “No man who has his sex part crushed or cut off will go into the meeting of the Lord. 2 No one who was born to parents who were not married will go into the meeting of the Lord. And none of his children will go into the meeting of the Lord, even to the children’s children of ten families in the future. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite will go into the meeting of the Lord. None of their children will go into the meeting of the Lord, even to the children’s children of ten families of the future, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on your way from Egypt, and they paid Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead He changed the curse into good for you, because the Lord your God loves you. 6 Do nothing for their peace or their well-being all your days.
7 “Do not hate an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not hate an Egyptian. For you were a stranger in his land. 8 Their great-grandchildren may go into the meeting of the Lord.
The Camp Is to Be Clean
9 “When you go as an army against those who hate you, keep yourself away from every sinful thing. 10 If there is any man among you who is unclean because he had a flow from his body during the night, he must go away from the tents. He must not come among the tents. 11 When evening comes he must wash his body with water. And when the sun goes down he may return to the tents.
12 “You should have a place to go away from the tents. 13 You should have a tool there to dig with. Use it to dig a hole when you sit down outside. Then use it to cover the waste from your body. 14 Because the Lord your God walks among your tents to set you free and make you win the battle against those who hate you, the place where your tents are must be holy. He must not see anything among you that is unclean and turn away from you.
Different Laws
15 “If a servant runs away from his owner and comes to you, do not return him to his owner. 16 Let him stay with you, in the place he chooses in one of your towns, where it pleases him. Do not make it hard for him.
17 “No daughter of Israel is to sell the use of her body in worship to a strange god. And no son of Israel is to sell the use of his body for a strange god. 18 You must not bring the pay of a woman who sells the use of her body or of a man who does sex sins into the house of the Lord your God for any promised gift. For the Lord your God hates both of these. 19 Do not make your brothers pay you for the use of money, food, or anything you might give them to use. 20 You may make a stranger pay you for the use of money, but not your brother. So the Lord your God may bring good to you in all you do in the land you are going into to have for your own.
21 “When you make a promise to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it. It would be sin in you, for the Lord your God will be sure to ask you for it. 22 But if you do not make a promise, it would not be sin in you. 23 Be careful to do what you say you are going to do. Keep the promise you have made to the Lord your God because you want to.
24 “When you go into your neighbor’s grape-field, you may eat grapes until you are full. But do not put any in your basket. 25 When you go into your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick the heads with your hand. But do not cut down any of your neighbor’s standing grain.
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.