Beginning
Rules about murder
21 In the land that the Lord your God is giving to you, you may find someone's dead body lying in a field. Someone has killed him but you do not know who the murderer is. 2 Your leaders and your judges must then go to the field. They must measure how far the place is from the nearest towns. 3 Then the leaders from the town that is nearest to the body must take a young cow that has never done work on a farm. 4 They must lead the cow down to a valley where no one has ploughed the ground or planted seed. There must be a stream of water in the valley. There they must break the cow's neck.
5 The Levite priests must go there too. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to ask him to bless his people. They also decide as judges what is right. 6 After the leaders of the town have broken the cow's neck, they must wash their hands over it.[a]
7 Then they will say, ‘We did not kill this person. We did not see who killed him. 8 Please Lord, accept this animal from your people, Israel, that you have rescued. Do not say that we are guilty of this murder. This person did not deserve to die like this.’
When they do that, the Lord will accept their gift and he will forgive you. 9 In this way, you will not be guilty of the murder. You will remove this evil act from among you. You must do what the Lord says is right.
Marriage
10 When you go to fight a battle against your enemies, the Lord your God will give you power over them. You will take some of them as prisoners. 11 You may see among them a beautiful woman that you want to take as your wife. 12 Then you must bring her into your home. She must cut the hair off her head. She must cut her fingernails.[b] 13 She must change the clothes that she was wearing when you found her. Let her live in your house and weep for her parents for a whole month. Then you may have sex with her. You will be her husband and she will be your wife. 14 Later, you may not be pleased with her. If so, you must let her go wherever she wants. You must never sell her or make her become a slave. You must not do that, because you have made her have sex with you, as your wife.
Firstborn sons
15 A man may have two wives, but he may love only one of them. Each wife may give birth to a son. The firstborn son may be the son of the wife that he does not love. 16 But when the man shares his things with his children, he must promise this: After his death, the firstborn son will receive what he should have. The man may not choose to give the double share of his things to the son of the wife that he loves. 17 He must recognize that his firstborn son is the son of the wife that he does not love. This son was the first son born to that man. So he must receive the double share of his father's things. That is what God's Law says must happen.[c]
A son who turns against his parents
18 Perhaps a man has a son who refuses to obey his parents. They punish him to teach him what is right, but he refuses to listen to them. 19 If so, his parents must take their son to the leaders at the city gate. 20 They must say to the leaders, ‘This is our son. He refuses to obey us. He does not do what we tell him. He only wants to do what will please himself. He drinks too much and he becomes drunk.’
21 Then all the men of the city must throw stones at the son until he is dead. In this way, you must remove all evil things like that from among you. Then all Israel's people will hear about what has happened. They will be afraid.
22 A person may do an evil thing so that you punish him with death. If you have hung his dead body on a tree, 23 you must not leave it there during the night. Be careful to bury it on the same day that he died. If someone's body is hanging on a tree, it shows that God has cursed him. So do not leave it there. The Lord your God is giving the land to you so that it belongs to you. So do not let evil things spoil your land.
Other rules
22 You may see your neighbour's cow or sheep that has become lost. If so, do not look the other way. You must catch the animal. You must take it back to your neighbour. 2 Perhaps the man does not live near you. Perhaps you do not know who the animal belongs to. If so, take the animal to your own home and keep it safe there. When the man comes to look for his animal, give it to him. 3 You must do the same thing if you find someone's donkey or clothes or anything else. You must not refuse to help.
4 Perhaps your neighbour's donkey or his cow has fallen on the road. If you see it lying there, do not look the other way. You must help the man to lift the animal so that it can stand.
5 A woman must not wear the same clothes that men wear. A man must not wear clothes that make him look like a woman. The Lord your God hates people who do this.
6 You may find a bird's nest beside the road. It may be in a tree or on the ground. If the mother bird is sitting on eggs or on young birds, you must not take the mother away from them. 7 You may take the young birds for yourself. But you must let the mother bird go free. If you do that, everything will be well with you. You will have a long life.
8 If you build a new house, you must make a wall around the edge of the flat roof. Then if someone falls off the roof and dies, you will not be guilty for his death.
9 You must not plant any other crops between the vines in your vineyard. If you do that, none of the food or the grapes will belong to you.
10 You must not tie an ox and a donkey together to pull a plough.
11 You must not mix wool and linen together to make your clothes.
12 You must fix tassels on the four corners of your coat.
Rules for marriage
13 Perhaps a man will marry a woman, and he has sex with her. Later he decides he no longer wants her to be his wife. 14 He may then tell lies against her to say that she is bad. He may say, ‘I married this woman, and I had sex with her. Then I discovered that she had already had sex before I married her.’
15 If that happens, the woman's parents must bring the cloth that she slept on with her husband. They must take it to the leaders of the town to show them. 16 The woman's father must say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But now he does not like her. 17 He accuses her that she is bad. He says, “I discovered that your daughter had sex before I married her.” But look at her cloth. This shows that she had never had sex before.’ Then her parents must hold the cloth in front of the leaders of the town. 18 The leaders must then take hold of the man. They must punish him. 19 They must make the man pay 100 pieces of silver to the young woman's father. The man has told lies. He has accused a pure Israelite girl to say that she is bad. After that, she will continue to be his wife. He may never send her away as long as he lives.
20 But perhaps the husband has spoken the truth. Perhaps his new wife cannot show that she had not had sex before. 21 If so, the leaders must take her to the entrance of her father's house. The men of the town must throw stones at her there, until she dies. She has done a very bad thing that brings shame on Israel. She has had sex like a prostitute while she lived in her father's house. You must remove evil acts like this from among you.
22 You may discover a man who is having sex with another man's wife. If so, you must punish both the man and the woman with death. In this way, you will remove such evil acts from Israel.
23 Perhaps a man may meet a young woman in a town. She has already promised to marry another man, but the man has sex with her. 24 If so, you must take both of them to the gate of that town. You must throw stones at both of them there, until they die. The young woman is guilty because she did not shout aloud for help. They were in the town, so someone would have heard her. The man is guilty because he had sex with the future wife of another man. In this way, you will remove evil acts from among you.
25 But perhaps a man may meet a young woman in a field in the country. She has already promised to marry another man. But the man is stronger than her and he has sex with her. If that happens, only the man must die. 26 Do not punish the young woman. She does not deserve to die. The man's act is like a man who attacks and murders another person. 27 The man met the young woman in a field. When she shouted for help, nobody heard her because it happened in the country. There was no one there to rescue her.
28 Perhaps a man may meet a girl who has not had sex with anyone before. She has not yet promised to marry anyone. The man may be too strong and he has sex with her. 29 If that happens, the man must pay 50 pieces of silver to the girl's father. He must also marry the girl because he has had sex with her. He may never send her away as long as he lives.
30 A man must not marry a woman who was his father's wife. That would bring shame on his father.
Meetings to worship God
23 Perhaps a man has sex parts that someone has destroyed or spoiled. That man cannot join with the Lord's people when they meet together. 2 If someone was born when his parents were not properly married, he cannot join with the Lord's people. His descendants may not meet with the Lord's people to worship the Lord either. That will continue to the tenth generation of the man's descendants.
3 Ammonite and Moabite people also cannot join with the Lord's people when they come together to worship him. Even the tenth generation of their descendants can never do this. 4 The people of those nations refused to help you when you were leaving Egypt. They did not give you food or water. Also, they paid Beor's son Balaam to curse you. He came from Pethor in Mesopotamia. 5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He refused to curse you. Instead, he blessed you. The Lord your God did that because he loves you. 6 You must never do anything to help these two nations. Do not let them live in peace.
7 But do not hate anyone from Edom. The Edomites have the same ancestor as you. Do not hate an Egyptian person. You once lived as foreigners in Egypt. 8 The third generation of their descendants can join with the Lord's people when they meet together to worship him.
Keep the camp clean
9 Your soldiers may be living in tents while they fight against your enemies. They must keep away from anything that makes them unclean. 10 While a man is asleep, semen may come from his sex part. That makes him unclean so he must go outside the camp. He must stay there all day. 11 In the evening, he must wash himself. At sunset he can return into the camp.
12 You must choose a special place outside the camp. Use that place as your toilet. 13 Always carry a small spade with your other tools. When you go to the toilet, dig a hole with your spade. Then bury your dung in it and cover it with earth. 14 For the Lord your God moves among you in your camp. He keeps you safe from your enemies so that you win against them. So make sure that your camp is a holy place. The Lord must not see anything that would bring shame on you. Do not make him turn away from you.
15 Someone's slave may escape from his master and come to you. If that happens, do not send him back to his master. 16 He can live anywhere among you. He may choose to live in any of your towns that he likes. Do not be cruel to him.
17 No Israelite man or woman must ever become a prostitute at places where people worship their gods. 18 You must not bring the money that people pay to these prostitutes into the Lord's temple. Do not use it to offer a gift that you have promised to the Lord your God. He hates prostitutes, both men and women.
19 You may lend money or food or anything else to another Israelite. But do not ask him to give you back more than you lent to him. 20 You can ask a foreign person to pay back more, but not an Israelite. If you obey this command, the Lord your God will bless you. When you live in your new land, God will bless everything that you do.
21 If you promise to give something to the Lord your God, be careful to bring your gift soon. If you do not bring it, that is a sin. The Lord will certainly demand it from you. 22 You may choose not to promise any gift. That is not a sin. 23 But whatever you promise to do, you must be careful to do it. If you choose to promise a gift to the Lord your God, give it soon.
24 If you go into your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat some of the grapes. You may eat as many grapes as you want, but do not carry any away in a basket. 25 If you go into your neighbour's field of grain, you may eat some of it. You may pick some grain with your hands, but do not use a knife to cut it down.[d]
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.