Beginning

21 ¶ When one is found dead in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit, lying in the field, and it is not known who has slain him,

² then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is dead;

³ and it shall be that the elders of the city which is next unto the dead man shall take a heifer, which has not served, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which has neither been plowed nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

⁵ And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for the LORD thy God has chosen them to minister unto him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be determined.

⁶ And all the elders of that closest city next to the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.

⁷ And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸ Reconcile thy people Israel, whom thou hast ransomed, O LORD, and impute not the innocent blood shed in the midst of thy people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹ So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰ ¶ When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God has delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

¹¹ and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her that thou would have her to thy wife,

¹² then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails,

¹³ and she shall put off the clothing of her captivity and shall remain in thine house and bewail her father and her mother a full month, and after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

¹⁴ And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go free, but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of her because thou hast humbled her.

¹⁵ ¶ When a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have born him sons, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is of the one that was hated,

¹⁶ then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the right of the firstborn unto the son of the beloved in preference over the son of the hated, who is indeed the firstborn;

¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸ ¶ When anyone has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them,

¹⁹ then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place;

²⁰ and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not hear our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.

²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.

²² And when a man shall have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and thou shall have hung him on a tree,

²³ his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt without fail bury him that same day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God) that thy land not be defiled, which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance.

22 ¶ Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.

² And even if thy brother is not kin unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seeks after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.

³ In like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his clothing; and with any lost thing of thy brother’s, which he has lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise; thou may not draw back from this.

⁴ Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fallen down by the way and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.

⁵ ¶ The woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

⁶ If a bird’s nest is encountered before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the mother with the young.

⁷ But thou shalt let the mother go and take the young for thyself, that it may be well with thee and that thou may prolong thy days.

⁸ When thou shall build a new house, then thou shalt make a parapet for thy roof that thou not bring blood upon thine house if anyone should fall from there.

⁹ Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with mixture lest the fullness of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled.

¹⁰ Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.

¹¹ Thou shalt not wear a garment of mixture, as of woolen and linen together.

¹² Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy covering with which thou dost cover thyself.

¹³ ¶ When any man takes a wife and after having gone in unto her, hates her

¹⁴ and gives occasions of speech against her and brings up an evil name upon her and says, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a virgin,

¹⁵ then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate.

¹⁶ And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hates her;

¹⁷ and, behold, he has given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a virgin; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;

¹⁹ and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel because he has brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

²⁰ But if this thing is true and the tokens of virginity are not found for the damsel,

²¹ then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die because she has wrought folly in Israel, to fornicate in her father’s house; so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

²² If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman; so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

²³ When a damsel that is a virgin is betrothed unto a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,

²⁴ then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones, and they shall die; the damsel because she did not cry out, being in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife; so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

²⁵ But if the man found a betrothed damsel in the field and the man forced her and lay with her; then only the man that lay with her shall die;

²⁶ but unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbour and murders him, even so is this matter.

²⁷ For he found her in the field and the betrothed damsel cried out, and there was no one to save her.

²⁸ When a man finds a damsel that is a virgin who is not betrothed and lays hold on her and lies with her, and they are found,

²⁹ then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver and she shall be his wife; because he has humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

³⁰ A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s skirt.

23 ¶ He that is wounded in the stones or is castrated shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

² A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

³ An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever,

⁴ because they did not meet you with bread and with water in the way when ye came forth out of Egypt and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.

⁵ Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the LORD thy God loved thee.

⁶ Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.

⁷ Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother; thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian because thou wast a stranger in his land.

⁸ The sons that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation.

⁹ ¶ When the host goes forth against thine enemies, then keep thyself from every evil thing.

¹⁰ When there is among you any man that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chances by night, then he shall go abroad out of the camp; he shall not come within the camp.

¹¹ And it shall be when evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.

¹² Thou shalt have a place also outside the camp where thou shalt go forth abroad;

¹³ and thou shalt have a stake among thy weapons; and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig with it and shalt turn back and cover thy excrement;

¹⁴ for the LORD thy God walks in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore, shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee.

¹⁵ ¶ Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the slave who is escaped from his master unto thee.

¹⁶ He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where he likes it best; thou shalt not oppress him.

¹⁷ There shall be no female cult prostitutes of the daughters of Israel nor any male cult prostitutes of the sons of Israel.

¹⁸ Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, {a male cult prostitute} into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow; for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

¹⁹ Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother, usury of money, usury of food, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury.

²⁰ Unto a stranger thou may lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands upon the land which thou doest enter in to inherit.

²¹ When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it; for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

²² But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall not be sin in thee.

²³ That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform, that which thou hast promised unto the LORD thy God, that which thou hast spoken of thy free will with thy mouth.

²⁴ When thou comest into thy neighbour’s vineyard, then thou may eat grapes, thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel.

²⁵ When thou comest into the standing grain of thy neighbour, then thou may pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour’s standing grain.