Deuteronomy 22

Various Laws

1 If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; ^[a] be sure to return it to your brother.

2 If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

3 And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

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

5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever 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, you must not take the mother along with the young.

7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled ^[b]—both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

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

11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

12 You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

Marriage Violations

13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

14 and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

15 Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate

16 and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her.

17 And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

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

19 They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver ^[c] and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you. ^[d]

22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

23 If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

24 you must take both 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 wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

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

28 If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

29 then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, ^[e] and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed. ^[f]

Deuteronomy 22 Commentary

Chapter 22

Of humanity towards brethren. (1-4) Various precepts. (5-12) Against impurity. (13-30)

Verses 1-4 If we duly regard the golden rule of "doing to others as we would they should do unto us," many particular precepts might be omitted. We can have no property in any thing that we find. Religion teaches us to be neighbourly, and to be ready to do all good offices to all men. We know not how soon we may have occasion for help.

Verses 5-12 God's providence extends itself to the smallest affairs, and his precepts do so, that even in them we may be in the fear of the Lord, as we are under his eye and care. Yet the tendency of these laws, which seem little, is such, that being found among the things of God's law, they are to be accounted great things. If we would prove ourselves to be God's people, we must have respect to his will and to his glory, and not to the vain fashions of the world. Even in putting on our garments, as in eating or in drinking, all must be done with a serious regard to preserve our own and others' purity in heart and actions. Our eye should be single, our heart simple, and our behaviour all of a piece.

Verses 13-30 These and the like regulations might be needful then, and yet it is not necessary that we should curiously examine respecting them. The laws relate to the seventh commandment, laying a restraint upon fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or you must not hide yourself
• [b]. Or will be forfeited to the sanctuary
• [c]. 100 shekels is approximately 2.5 pounds or 1.1 kilograms of silver.
• [d]. Here and in verse 24; cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13
• [e]. 50 shekels is approximately 1.26 pounds or 569.8 grams of silver.
• [f]. Or uncover his father’s skirt

Chapter Summary

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.