Chronological Plan

¹“If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

²your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities.

³The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

⁴The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream.

⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

⁶All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken.

⁷They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it.

⁸LORD, wipe away the guilt of your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then the responsibility for bloodshed will be wiped away from them.

⁹You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the LORD’s sight.

¹⁰“When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and

¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife,

¹²you are to bring her into your house. She is to shave her head, trim her nails,

¹³remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.

¹⁴Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, and if the unloved wife has the firstborn son,

¹⁶when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the loved wife as his firstborn over the firstborn of the unloved wife.

¹⁷He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him two shares of his estate, for he is the firstfruits of his virility; he has the rights of the firstborn.

¹⁸“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him,

¹⁹his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown.

²⁰They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’

²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

²²“If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

²³you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

¹“If you see your brother Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it; make sure you return it to your brother.

²If your brother does not live near you or you don’t know him, you are to bring the animal to your home to remain with you until your brother comes looking for it; then you can return it to him.

³Do the same for his donkey, his garment, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

⁴If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen down on the road, do not ignore it; help him lift it up.

⁵“A woman is not to wear male clothing, and a man is not to put on a woman’s garment, for everyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

⁶“If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, do not take the mother along with the young.

⁷You may take the young for yourself, but be sure to let the mother go free, so that you may prosper and live long.

⁸If you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; otherwise, the entire harvest, both the crop you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled.

¹⁰Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹Do not wear clothes made of both wool and linen.

¹²Make tassels on the four corners of the outer garment you wear.

¹³“If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and comes to hate her,

¹⁴and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn’t find any evidence of her virginity,’

¹⁵the young woman’s father and mother will take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the city elders at the city gate.

¹⁶The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her.

¹⁷He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying: “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city will take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They will also fine him a hundred silver shekels and give them to the young woman’s father, because that man gave an Israelite virgin a bad name. She will remain his wife; he cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰But if this accusation is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found,

²¹they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

²²“If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death — the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you.

²⁵But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die.

²⁶Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

²⁷When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered,

²⁹the man who raped her is to give the young woman’s father fifty silver shekels, and she will become his wife because he violated her. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰“A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not violate his father’s marriage bed.

¹“No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the LORD’s assembly.

²No one of illegitimate birth may enter the LORD’s assembly; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, may enter the LORD’s assembly.

³No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the LORD’s assembly; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the LORD’s assembly.

⁴This is because they did not meet you with food and water on the journey after you came out of Egypt, and because Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim was hired to curse you.

⁵Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but he turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God loves you.

⁶Never pursue their welfare or prosperity as long as you live.

⁷Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you were a resident alien in his land.

⁸The children born to them in the third generation may enter the LORD’s assembly.

⁹“When you are encamped against your enemies, be careful to avoid anything offensive.

¹⁰If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a bodily emission during the night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come anywhere inside the camp.

¹¹When evening approaches, he is to wash with water, and when the sun sets he may come inside the camp.

¹²You are to have a place outside the camp and go there to relieve yourself.

¹³You are to have a digging tool in your equipment; when you relieve yourself, dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement.

¹⁴For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you; so your encampments must be holy. He must not see anything indecent among you or he will turn away from you.

¹⁵“Do not return a slave to his master when he has escaped from his master to you.

¹⁶Let him live among you wherever he wants within your city gates. Do not mistreat him.

¹⁷“No Israelite woman is to be a cult prostitute, and no Israelite man is to be a cult prostitute.

¹⁸Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s earnings into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁹“Do not charge your brother interest on silver, food, or anything that can earn interest.

²⁰You may charge a foreigner interest, but you must not charge your brother Israelite interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you do in the land you are entering to possess.

²¹“If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because he will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin.

²²But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin.

²³Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised to the LORD your God.

²⁴“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but do not put any in your container.

²⁵When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.