Deuteronomy 21 - 22

Atonement for Innocent Blood

“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has struck him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. 3 And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them. 6 And all the elders of that city who are nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8 Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them. 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

Statutes About Domestic Relations

10 “If you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it will be that, if you do not desire her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money; you shall not mistreat her because you have humbled her. 15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16 then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn. 17 But he shall recognize the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first of his vigor; the legal judgment for the firstborn belongs to him. 18 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. 20 Then they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him, and he will die; so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

22 “And if a man has committed a sin, the judgment of which is death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (because cursed of God is he who is hanged), so that you do not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

Various Statutes

“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. 2 And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother searches for it; then you shall give it back to him. 3 Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do likewise with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your brother, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ignore them. 4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way and ignore them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up. 5 “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh 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, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. 8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it. 9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard become defiled. 10 “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 “You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and flax together. 12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Statutes About Sexual Immorality

13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and charges her with shameful deeds and brings forth against her a bad name and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ 15 then 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. 16 Then the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, 19 and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father because he brought forth a bad name against a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. 20 “But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her, and she will die because she has committed a disgraceful act in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 22 “If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. 23 “If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them, and they will die; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 25 “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing 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, so is this case. 27 When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her. 28 “If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days. 30 “A man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt.