By July 6, 2008 Read More →

Deuteronomy 22

22If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow. 2If your fellow does not live near you or you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your fellow claims it; then you shall give it back to him. 3You shall do the same with his ass; you shall do the same with his garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow loses and you find- you must not remain indifferent.

4If you see your fellow’s ass or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must help him raise it.
5A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

6If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. 7Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.

8When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.

9You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, else the crop—from the seed you have sown—and the yield of the vineyard may not be used. 10You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. 11You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.

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

13A man marries a woman and cohabits with her. Then he takes an aversion to her 14and makes up charges against her and defames her, saying, “I married this woman; but when I approached her, I found that she was not a virgin.” 15In such a case, the girl’s father and mother shall produce the evidence of the girl’s virginity before the elders of the town at the gate. 16And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, “I gave this man my daughter to wife, but he has taken an aversion to her; 17so he has made up charges, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter a virgin.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town. 18The elders of that town shall then take the man and flog him, 19and they shall fine him a hundred [shekels of] silver and give it to the girl’s father; for the man has defamed a virgin in Israel. Moreover, she shall remain his wife; he shall never have the right to divorce her.

20But if the charge proves true, the girl was found not to have been a virgin, 21then the girl shall be brought out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her town shall stone her to death; for she did a shameful thing in Israel, committing fornication while under her father’s authority. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst.

22If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both of them—the man and the woman with whom he lay—shall die. Thus you will sweep away evil from Israel.

23In the case of a virgin who is engaged to a man—if a man comes upon her in town and lies with her, 24you shall take the two of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death- the girl because she did not cry for help in the town, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst. 25But if the man comes upon the engaged girl in the open country, and the man lies with her by force, only the man who lay with her shall die, 26but you shall do nothing to the girl. The girl did not incur the death penalty, for this case is like that of a man attacking another and murdering him. 27He came upon her in the open; though the engaged girl cried for help, there was no one to save her.

28If a man comes upon a virgin who is not engaged and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29the man who lay with her shall pay the girl’s father fifty [shekels of] silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he has violated her, he can never have the right to divorce her.

Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem- Jewish Publication Society) 1985.

Posted in: Exodus

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