Various Laws

1“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. 2And 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. 3You 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. 4You 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, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, 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 [a]parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.

9“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise [b]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will be [c]forfeited to the sanctuary.

10“You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

11“You shall not wear a material of wool and linen combined together.

12“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws on Morality

13“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then [d]turns against her, 14and he charges her with shameful behavior and [e]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,’ 15then 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. 16And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he [f]turned against her; 17and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But [g]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city. 18Then the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him, 19and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he [h]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to [i]divorce her all his days.

20“But if this [j]charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, 21then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her [k]to death, because she has committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

22“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“If there is a girl who is a virgin [l]betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them [m]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 [n]rapes her, then only the man who [o]raped her shall die. 26And 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, [p]so is this case. 27When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl [q]cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28“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, 29then 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“[r]A man shall not take [s]his father’s wife in marriage, so that he does not [t]uncover his father’s garment.

[a] 8 I.e., a protective railing
[b] 9 Lit the fullness
[c] 9 Or forfeit, adj sense
[d] 13 Lit hates her
[e] 14 Lit brings out an evil reputation against her
[f] 16 Lit hated her
[g] 17 Lit these are
[h] 19 Lit brought out an evil reputation against a virgin
[i] 19 Lit send her away
[j] 20 Lit matter
[k] 21 Lit with stones so that she dies
[l] 23 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
[m] 24 Lit with stones so that they die
[n] 25 Lit lies down with
[o] 25 Lit lies down with
[p] 26 I.e., she is only a victim
[q] 27 I.e., presumably did so
[r] 30 Ch 23:1 in Heb
[s] 30 I.e., a stepmother, not his birth mother
[t] 30 Idiom for violating his father’s marriage