Deuteronomy 22:2-12

2 If the owner does not live close to you, or if you do not know who the owner is, take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it; then give it back.

3 Do the same thing if you find a donkey or coat or anything someone lost. Don't just ignore it.

4 If you see your fellow Israelite's donkey or ox fallen on the road, don't ignore it. Help the owner get it up.

5 A woman must not wear men's clothes, and a man must not wear women's clothes. The Lord your God hates anyone who does that.

6 If you find a bird's nest by the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on the young birds or eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young birds.

7 You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go free. Then things will go well for you, and you will live a long time.

8 When you build a new house, build a low wall around the edge of the roofn so you will not be guilty if someone falls off the roof.

9 Don't plant two different kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, both crops will be ruined.

10 Don't plow with an ox and a donkey tied together.

11 Don't wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

12 Tie several pieces of thread together; then put these tassels on the four corners of your coat.

Deuteronomy 22:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 22

In this chapter are various laws, concerning care of a neighbour's cattle gone astray or in distress, and of anything lost by him, De 22:1-4, forbidding one sex to wear the apparel, of another, De 22:5 and the taking away of the dam with the young found in a bird's nest, De 22:6,7, ordering battlements to be made in a new house, De 22:8, prohibiting mixtures in sowing, ploughing, and in garments, De 22:9-11, requiring fringes on the four quarters of a garment, De 22:12, fining a man that slanders his wife, upon producing the tokens of her virginity, De 22:13-19 but if these cannot be produced, then orders are given that she be put to death, De 22:20-21, then follow other laws, punishing with death the adulterer and adulteress, and one that hath ravished a betrothed damsel, De 22:22-27, amercing a person that lies with a virgin not betrothed and she consenting, and obliging him to marry her, and not suffering him to divorce her, De 22:28-29 and another against a man's lying with his father's wife, De 22:30.