New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 You shall not watch your neighbor's ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner.
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If you see your brother's ox or his sheep wandering, do not go by without helping, but take them back to your brother.
2 If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until the owner claims it; then you shall return it.
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If their owner is not near, or if you are not certain who he is, then take the beast to your house and keep it till its owner comes in search of it, and then you are to give it back to him.
3 You shall do the same with a neighbor's donkey; you shall do the same with a neighbor's garment; and you shall do the same with anything else that your neighbor loses and you find. You may not withhold your help.
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Do the same with his ass or his robe or anything which has gone from your brother's keeping and which you have come across: do not keep it to yourself.
4 You shall not see your neighbor's donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.
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If you see your brother's ox or his ass falling down on the road, do not go by without giving him help in lifting it up again.
5 A woman shall not wear a man's apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.
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It is not right for a woman to be dressed in man's clothing, or for a man to put on a woman's robe: whoever does such things is disgusting to the Lord your God.
6 If you come on a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.
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If by chance you see a place which a bird has made for itself in a tree or on the earth, with young ones or eggs, and the mother bird seated on the young ones or on the eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young:
7 Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.
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See that you let the mother bird go, but the young ones you may take; so it will be well for you and your life will be long.
8 When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.
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If you are building a house, make a railing for the roof, so that the blood of any man falling from it will not come on your house.
9 You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, or the whole yield will have to be forfeited, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.
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Do not have your vine-garden planted with two sorts of seed: or all of it may become a loss, the seed you have put in as well as the increase.
10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
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Do not do your ploughing with an ox and an ass yoked together.
11 You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.
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Do not have clothing made of two sorts of thread, wool and linen together.
12 You shall make tassels on the four corners of the cloak with which you cover yourself.
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On the four edges of your robe, with which your body is covered, put ornaments of twisted threads.
13 Suppose a man marries a woman, but after going in to her, he dislikes her
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If any man takes a wife, and having had connection with her, has no delight in her,
14 and makes up charges against her, slandering her by saying, "I married this woman; but when I lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity."
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And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name, saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin:
15 The father of the young woman and her mother shall then submit the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.
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Then let the girl's father and mother put before the responsible men of the town, in the public place, signs that the girl was a virgin:
16 The father of the young woman shall say to the elders: "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man but he dislikes her;
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And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love for her;
17 now he has made up charges against her, saying, "I did not find evidence of your daughter's virginity.' But here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity." Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town.
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And now he has put shame on her, saying that she is not a virgin; but here is the sign that she is a virgin. Then they are to put her clothing before the responsible men of the town.
18 The elders of that town shall take the man and punish him;
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Then the responsible men of the town are to give the man his punishment;
19 they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman's father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
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They will take from him a hundred shekels of silver, which are to be given to the father of the girl, because he has given an evil name to a virgin of Israel: she will go on being his wife, he may never put her away all his life.
20 If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman's virginity was not found,
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But if what he has said is true, and she is seen to be not a virgin,
21 then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
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Then they are to make the girl come to the door of her father's house and she will be stoned to death by the men of the town, because she has done evil and put shame on Israel, by acting as a loose woman in her father's house: so you are to put away evil from among you.
22 If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
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If a man is taken in the act of going in to a married woman, the two of them, the man as well as the woman, are to be put to death: so you are to put away the evil from Israel.
23 If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her,
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If a young virgin has given her word to be married to a man, and another man meeting her in the town, has connection with her;
24 you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
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Then you are to take the two of them to the doorway of the town, and have them stoned to death; the young virgin, because she gave no cry for help, though it was in the town, and the man, because he has put shame on his neighbour's wife: so you are to put away evil from among you.
25 But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
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But if the man, meeting such a virgin in the open country, takes her by force, then only the man is to be put to death;
26 You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor.
26
Nothing is to be done to the virgin, because there is no cause of death in her: it is the same as if a man made an attack on his neighbour and put him to death:
27 Since he found her in the open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
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For he came across her in the open country, and there was no one to come to the help of the virgin in answer to her cry.
28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act,
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If a man sees a young virgin, who has not given her word to be married to anyone, and he takes her by force and has connection with her, and discovery is made of it;
29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman's father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
29
Then the man will have to give the virgin's father fifty shekels of silver and make her his wife, because he has put shame on her; he may never put her away all his life.
30 A man shall not marry his father's wife, thereby violating his father's rights.
30
A man may not take his father's wife or have sex relations with a woman who is his father's.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.