Deuteronomy:21-26
Seeker Overlay ON
* "
If anyone is found slain ,
lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess ,
and it is not known who killed him ,
*
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities .
*
And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke .
*
The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water ,
which is neither plowed nor sown ,
and they shall break the heifer '
s neck there in the valley .
*
Then the priests ,
the sons of Levi ,
shall come near ,
for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD ;
by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled .
*
And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley .
*
Then they shall answer and say , "
Our hands have not shed this blood ,
nor have our eyes seen it .
*
Provide atonement ,
O LORD ,
for Your people Israel ,
whom You have redeemed ,
and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel .'
And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood .
*
So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD .
* "
When you go out to war against your enemies ,
and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand ,
and you take them captive ,
*
and you see among the captives a beautiful woman ,
and desire her and would take her for your wife ,
*
then you shall bring her home to your house ,
and she shall shave her head and trim her nails .
*
She shall put off the clothes of her captivity ,
remain in your house ,
and mourn her father and her mother a full month ;
after that you may go in to her and be her husband ,
and she shall be your wife .
*
And it shall be ,
if you have no delight in her ,
then you shall set her free ,
but you certainly shall not sell her for money ;
you shall not treat her brutally ,
because you have humbled her .
* "
If a man has two wives ,
one loved and the other unloved ,
and they have borne him children ,
both the loved and the unloved ,
and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved ,
*
then it shall be ,
on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons ,
that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved ,
the true firstborn .
*
But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife 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 .
* "
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother ,
and who ,
when they have chastened him ,
will not heed them ,
*
then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city ,
to the gate of his city .
*
And they shall say to the elders of his city , "
This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious ;
he will not obey our voice ;
he is a glutton and a drunkard .'
*
Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones ;
so you shall put away the evil from among you ,
and all Israel shall hear and fear .
* "
If a man has committed a sin deserving of death ,
and he is put to death ,
and you hang him on a tree ,
*
his body shall not remain overnight on the tree ,
but you shall surely bury him that day ,
so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance ;
for he who is hanged is accursed of God .
* "
You shall not see your brother '
s ox or his sheep going astray ,
and hide yourself from them ;
you shall certainly bring them back to your brother .
*
And if your brother is not near you ,
or if you do not know him ,
then you shall bring it to your own house ,
and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it ;
then you shall restore it to him .
*
You shall do the same with his donkey ,
and so shall you do with his garment ;
with any lost thing of your brother '
s ,
which he has lost and you have found ,
you shall do likewise ;
you must not hide yourself .
* "
You shall not see your brother '
s donkey or his ox fall down along the road ,
and hide yourself from them ;
you shall surely help him lift them up again .
* "
A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man ,
nor shall a man put on a woman '
s garment ,
for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God .
* "
If a bird '
s nest happens to be before you along the way ,
in any tree or on the ground ,
with young ones or eggs ,
with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs ,
you shall not take the mother with the young ;
*
you shall surely let the mother go ,
and take the young for yourself ,
that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days .
* "
When you build a new house ,
then you shall make a parapet for your roof ,
that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it .
* "
You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed ,
lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled .
* "
You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together .
* "
You shall not wear a garment of different sorts ,
such as wool and linen mixed together .
* "
You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself .
* "
If any man takes a wife ,
and goes in to her ,
and detests her ,
*
and charges her with shameful conduct ,
and brings a bad name on her ,
and says , "
I took this woman ,
and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin ,'
*
then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman '
s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate .
*
And the young woman '
s father shall say to the elders , "
I gave my daughter to this man as wife ,
and he detests her .
*
Now he has charged her with shameful conduct ,
saying , "
I found your daughter was not a virgin ,"
and yet these are the evidences of my daughter '
s virginity .'
And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city .
*
Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him ;
*
and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman ,
because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel .
And she shall be his wife ;
he cannot divorce her all his days .
* "
But if the thing is true ,
and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman ,
*
then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father '
s house ,
and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones ,
because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel ,
to play the harlot in her father '
s house .
So you shall put away the evil from among you .
* "
If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband ,
then both of them shall die--the man that lay with the woman ,
and the woman ;
so you shall put away the evil from Israel .
* "
If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband ,
and a man finds her in the city and lies with her ,
*
then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city ,
and you shall stone them to death with stones ,
the young woman because she did not cry out in the city ,
and the man because he humbled his neighbor '
s wife ;
so you shall put away the evil from among you .
* "
But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside ,
and the man forces her and lies with her ,
then only the man who lay with her shall die .
*
But you shall do nothing to the young woman ;
there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death ,
for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him ,
even so is this matter .
*
For he found her in the countryside ,
and the betrothed young woman cried out ,
but there was no one to save her .
* "
If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin ,
who is not betrothed ,
and he seizes her and lies with her ,
and they are found out ,
*
then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman '
s father fifty shekels of silver ,
and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her ;
he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days .
* "
A man shall not take his father '
s wife ,
nor uncover his father '
s bed .
* "
He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the LORD .
* "
One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD ;
even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD .
* "
An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD ;
even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever ,
*
because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt ,
and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia ,
to curse you .
*
Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam ,
but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you ,
because the LORD your God loves you .
*
You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever .
* "
You shall not abhor an Edomite ,
for he is your brother .
You shall not abhor an Egyptian ,
because you were an alien in his land .
*
The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD .
* "
When the army goes out against your enemies ,
then keep yourself from every wicked thing .
*
If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night ,
then he shall go outside the camp ;
he shall not come inside the camp .
*
But it shall be ,
when evening comes ,
that he shall wash with water ;
and when the sun sets ,
he may come into the camp .
* "
Also you shall have a place outside the camp ,
where you may go out ;
*
and you shall have an implement among your equipment ,
and when you sit down outside ,
you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse .
*
For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp ,
to deliver you and give your enemies over to you ;
therefore your camp shall be holy ,
that He may see no unclean thing among you ,
and turn away from you .
* "
You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you .
*
He may dwell with you in your midst ,
in the place which he chooses within one of your gates ,
where it seems best to him ;
you shall not oppress him .
* "
There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel ,
or a perverted one of the sons of Israel .
*
You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering ,
for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God .
* "
You shall not charge interest to your brother--interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest .
*
To a foreigner you may charge interest ,
but to your brother you shall not charge interest ,
that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess .
* "
When you make a vow to the LORD your God ,
you shall not delay to pay it ;
for the LORD your God will surely require it of you ,
and it would be sin to you .
*
But if you abstain from vowing ,
it shall not be sin to you .
*
That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform ,
for you voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth .
* "
When you come into your neighbor '
s vineyard ,
you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure ,
but you shall not put any in your container .
*
When you come into your neighbor '
s standing grain ,
you may pluck the heads with your hand ,
but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor '
s standing grain .
* "
When a man takes a wife and marries her ,
and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her ,
and he writes her a certificate of divorce ,
puts it in her hand ,
and sends her out of his house ,
*
when she has departed from his house ,
and goes and becomes another man '
s wife ,
*
if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce ,
puts it in her hand ,
and sends her out of his house ,
or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife ,
*
then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled ;
for that is an abomination before the LORD ,
and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance .
* "
When a man has taken a new wife ,
he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business ;
he shall be free at home one year ,
and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken .
* "
No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge ,
for he takes one '
s living in pledge .
* "
If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel ,
and mistreats him or sells him ,
then that kidnapper shall die ;
and you shall put away the evil from among you .
* "
Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy ,
that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests ,
the Levites ,
shall teach you ;
just as I commanded them ,
so you shall be careful to do .
*
Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt !
* "
When you lend your brother anything ,
you shall not go into his house to get his pledge .
*
You shall stand outside ,
and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you .
*
And if the man is poor ,
you shall not keep his pledge overnight .
*
You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down ,
that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you ;
and it shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God .
* "
You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy ,
whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates .
*
Each day you shall give him his wages ,
and not let the sun go down on it ,
for he is poor and has set his heart on it ;
lest he cry out against you to the LORD ,
and it be sin to you .
* "
Fathers shall not be put to death for their children ,
nor shall children be put to death for their fathers ;
a person shall be put to death for his own sin .
* "
You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless ,
nor take a widow '
s garment as a pledge .
*
But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt ,
and the LORD your God redeemed you from there ;
therefore I command you to do this thing .
* "
When you reap your harvest in your field ,
and forget a sheaf in the field ,
you shall not go back to get it ;
it shall be for the stranger ,
the fatherless ,
and the widow ,
that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands .
*
When you beat your olive trees ,
you shall not go over the boughs again ;
it shall be for the stranger ,
the fatherless ,
and the widow .
*
When you gather the grapes of your vineyard ,
you shall not glean it afterward ;
it shall be for the stranger ,
the fatherless ,
and the widow .
*
And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt ;
therefore I command you to do this thing .
* "
If there is a dispute between men ,
and they come to court ,
that the judges may judge them ,
and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked ,
*
then it shall be ,
if the wicked man deserves to be beaten ,
that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence ,
according to his guilt ,
with a certain number of blows .
*
Forty blows he may give him and no more ,
lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these ,
and your brother be humiliated in your sight .
* "
You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain .
* "
If brothers dwell together ,
and one of them dies and has no son ,
the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family ;
her husband '
s brother shall go in to her ,
take her as his wife ,
and perform the duty of a husband '
s brother to her .
*
And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother ,
that his name may not be blotted out of Israel .
*
But if the man does not want to take his brother '
s wife ,
then let his brother '
s wife go up to the gate to the elders ,
and say , "
My husband '
s brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel ;
he will not perform the duty of my husband '
s brother .'
*
Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him .
But if he stands firm and says , "
I do not want to take her ,'
*
then his brother '
s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders ,
remove his sandal from his foot ,
spit in his face ,
and answer and say , "
So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother '
s house .'
*
And his name shall be called in Israel , "
The house of him who had his sandal removed .'
* "
If two men fight together ,
and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him ,
and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals ,
*
then you shall cut off her hand ;
your eye shall not pity her .
* "
You shall not have in your bag differing weights ,
a heavy and a light .
*
You shall not have in your house differing measures ,
a large and a small .
*
You shall have a perfect and just weight ,
a perfect and just measure ,
that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you .
*
For all who do such things ,
all who behave unrighteously ,
are an abomination to the LORD your God .
* "
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt ,
*
how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks ,
all the stragglers at your rear ,
when you were tired and weary ;
and he did not fear God .
*
Therefore it shall be ,
when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around ,
in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance ,
that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven .
You shall not forget .
* "
And it shall be ,
when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance ,
and you possess it and dwell in it ,
*
that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground ,
which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you ,
and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide .
*
And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days ,
and say to him , "
I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us .'
* "
Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God .
*
And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God : "
My father was a Syrian ,
about to perish ,
and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there ,
few in number ;
and there he became a nation ,
great ,
mighty ,
and populous .
*
But the Egyptians mistreated us ,
afflicted us ,
and laid hard bondage on us .
*
Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers ,
and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression .
*
So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm ,
with great terror and with signs and wonders .
*
He has brought us to this place and has given us this land , "
a land flowing with milk and honey ";
*
and now ,
behold ,
I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you ,
O LORD ,
have given me .' "
Then you shall set it before the LORD your God ,
and worship before the LORD your God .
*
So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house ,
you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you .
* "
When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year--the year of tithing--and have given it to the Levite ,
the stranger ,
the fatherless ,
and the widow ,
so that they may eat within your gates and be filled ,
*
then you shall say before the LORD your God : "
I have removed the holy tithe from my house ,
and also have given them to the Levite ,
the stranger ,
the fatherless ,
and the widow ,
according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me ;
I have not transgressed Your commandments ,
nor have I forgotten them .
*
I have not eaten any of it when in mourning ,
nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use ,
nor given any of it for the dead .
I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God ,
and have done according to all that You have commanded me .
*
Look down from Your holy habitation ,
from heaven ,
and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us ,
just as You swore to our fathers , "
a land flowing with milk and honey ."'
* "
This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments ;
therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul .
*
Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God ,
and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes ,
His commandments ,
and His judgments ,
and that you will obey His voice .
*
Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people ,
just as He promised you ,
that you should keep all His commandments ,
*
and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made ,
in praise ,
in name ,
and in honor ,
and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God ,
just as He has spoken ."
*
Now Moses ,
with the elders of Israel ,
commanded the people ,
saying : "
Keep all the commandments which I command you today .