DeuteronomyChapter 22

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¹You may see your brother's ox or sheep wandering off. Do not pretend you didn't see it. Be sure to take it back to your brother. ²Your brother may not live near you. Or you may not know who he is. If so, take the animal home with you. Keep it until your brother comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. ³Do the same for his donkey or his cloak. Do the same for anything your brother has lost that you find. Do not pretend you didn't see it. ⁴You may see your brother's donkey or ox fallen down on the road. Do not pretend you didn't see it. You must help him lift it up. ⁵A woman must not wear men's clothes. A man must not wear women's clothes. The LORD your God finds anyone who does this disgusting. ⁶You may come across a bird's nest beside the road. It may be in a tree or on the ground. It may have baby birds or eggs in it, with the mother sitting on them. If so, do not take the mother along with the young. ⁷You may take the young. But be sure to let the mother go. Then things will go well for you, and you will live a long life. ⁸When you build a new house, build a low wall around the edge of your roof. Then if someone falls off it, your family will not be guilty of his death. ⁹Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard. If you do, the whole harvest will be made unholy, both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.a ¹⁰Do not plow with an ox and a donkey tied together under one yoke. ¹¹Do not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together. ¹²Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear. ¹³Suppose a man marries a woman and sleeps with her. Then he comes to hate her. ¹⁴He accuses her of shameful acts and gives her a bad name. He says, "I married this woman and slept with her. But I found out she was not a virgin." ¹⁵Then the young woman's father and mother must bring the proof that she was a virgin. They must bring it to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶Her father must say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But he has come to hate her. ¹⁷Now he has accused her of shameful acts. He says, 'I found out that your daughter was not a virgin.' But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin." Then her parents must spread out the cloth in front of the elders of the city. ¹⁸Then the elders of that city must take the man and punish him. ¹⁹They must also make him pay a hundred shekels of silver. They must give the silver to the young woman's father. This is because the man gave a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she must stay his wife. He must never divorce her as long as he lives.b ²⁰But the charge may be true. No proof may be found that the young woman was a virgin. ²¹If so, she must be brought to the door of her father's house. There the men of her city must stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing in Israel. She slept with men while she lived in her father's house. So you must get rid of the evil among you. ²²A man may be caught sleeping with another man's wife. Then both of them must die, the man who slept with her and the woman. You must get rid of the evil in Israel. ²³A young woman who is a virgin may be promised in marriage to a man. Another man may meet her in the city and sleep with her. ²⁴If so, take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death. The young woman must die because she did not cry out for help in the city. The man must die because he took his neighbor's wife. So you must get rid of the evil among you. ²⁵But a man may meet a woman who is promised in marriage out in the country. He may grab her and force her to sleep with him. Then only the man who did this must die. ²⁶Do nothing to the young woman. She has done no sin that deserves death. This case is just like when a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. ²⁷The man found her out in the field. The woman who was promised in marriage cried out, but there was no one to save her. ²⁸A man may meet a young woman who is a virgin and is not promised in marriage. He may grab her and sleep with her. And they may be found out. ²⁹Then the man who slept with her must pay the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver. She must become his wife, because he took her by force. He must never divorce her as long as he lives.c ³⁰A man must not marry his father's wife. He must not bring shame on his father's marriage bed.