Deuteronomy 21; Deuteronomy 22; Deuteronomy 23

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Deuteronomy 21

1 "Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you, and you do not know who killed him.
2 Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns.
3 Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work.
4 They are to take it down to a spot near a stream that never runs dry and where the ground has never been plowed or planted, and there they are to break its neck.
5 The levitical priests are to go there also, because they are to decide every legal case involving violence. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name.
6 Then all the leaders from the town nearest the place where the murdered person was found are to wash their hands over the cow
7 and say, "We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it.
8 Lord, forgive your people Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Forgive us and do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.'
9 And so, by doing what the Lord requires, you will not be held responsible for the murder.
10 "When the Lord your God gives you victory in battle and you take prisoners,
11 you may see among them a beautiful woman that you like and want to marry.
12 Take her to your home, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails,
13 and change her clothes. She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that, you may marry her.
14 Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her as a slave and sell her.
15 "Suppose a man has two wives and they both bear him sons, but the first son is not the child of his favorite wife.
16 When the man decides how he is going to divide his property among his children, he is not to show partiality to the son of his favorite wife by giving him the share that belongs to the first-born son.
17 He is to give a double share of his possessions to his first son, even though he is not the son of his favorite wife. A man must acknowledge his first son and give him the share he is legally entitled to.
18 "Suppose someone has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him.
19 His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial.
20 They are to say to them, "Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes money and is a drunkard.'
21 Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. Everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and be afraid.
22 "If someone has been put to death for a crime and the body is hung on a post,
23 it is not to remain there overnight. It must be buried the same day, because a dead body hanging on a post brings God's curse on the land. Bury the body, so that you will not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Deuteronomy 22

1 "If you see an Israelite's cow or sheep running loose, do not ignore it; take it back.
2 But if its owner lives a long way off or if you don't know who owns it, then take it home with you. When its owner comes looking for it, give it to him.
3 Do the same thing if you find a donkey, a piece of clothing, or anything else that an Israelite may have lost.
4 "If an Israelite's donkey or cow has fallen down, don't ignore it; help him get the animal to its feet again.
5 "Women are not to wear men's clothing, and men are not to wear women's clothing; the Lord your God hates people who do such things.
6 "If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird.
7 You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go, so that you will live a long and prosperous life.
8 "When you build a new house, be sure to put a railing around the edge of the roof. Then you will not be responsible if someone falls off and is killed.
9 "Do not plant any crop in the same field with your grapevines; if you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes or the produce of the other crop.
10 "Do not hitch an ox and a donkey together for plowing.
11 "Do not wear cloth made by weaving wool and linen together.
12 "Sew tassels on the four corners of your clothes.
13 "Suppose a man marries a young woman and later he decides he doesn't want her.
14 So he makes up false charges against her, accusing her of not being a virgin when they got married.
15 "If this happens, the young woman's parents are to take the blood-stained wedding sheet that proves she was a virgin, and they are to show it in court to the town leaders.
16 Her father will say to them, "I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, and now he doesn't want her.
17 He has made false charges against her, saying that she was not a virgin when he married her. But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin; look at the bloodstains on the wedding sheet!'
18 Then the town leaders are to take the husband and beat him.
19 They are also to fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give the money to the young woman's father, because the man has brought disgrace on an Israelite woman. Moreover, she will continue to be his wife, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.
20 "But if the charge is true and there is no proof that she was a virgin,
21 then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father's house, where the men of her city are to stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father's house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.
22 "If a man is caught having intercourse with another man's wife, both of them are to be put to death. In this way you will get rid of this evil.
23 "Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a young woman who is engaged to someone else.
24 You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. She is to die because she did not cry out for help, although she was in a town, where she could have been heard. And the man is to die because he had intercourse with someone who was engaged. In this way you will get rid of this evil.
25 "Suppose a man out in the countryside rapes a young woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the man is to be put to death;
26 nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy of death. This case is the same as when one man attacks another man and murders him.
27 The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although she cried for help, there was no one to help her.
28 "Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged.
29 He is to pay her father the bride price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 "No man is to disgrace his father by having intercourse with any of his father's wives.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Deuteronomy 23

1 "No man who has been castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord's people.
2 "No one born out of wedlock or any descendant of such a person, even in the tenth generation, may be included among the Lord's people.
3 "No Ammonite or Moabite - or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation - may be included among the Lord's people.
4 They refused to provide you with food and water when you were on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor, from the city of Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing, because he loved you.
6 As long as you are a nation, never do anything to help these nations or to make them prosperous.
7 "Do not despise the Edomites; they are your relatives. And do not despise the Egyptians; you once lived in their land.
8 From the third generation onward their descendants may be included among the Lord's people.
9 "When you are in camp in time of war, you are to avoid anything that would make you ritually unclean.
10 If a man becomes unclean because he has had a wet dream during the night, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.
11 Toward evening he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into camp.
12 "You are to have a place outside the camp where you can go when you need to relieve yourselves.
13 Carry a stick as part of your equipment, so that when you have a bowel movement you can dig a hole and cover it up.
14 Keep your camp ritually clean, because the Lord your God is with you in your camp to protect you and to give you victory over your enemies. Do not do anything indecent that would cause the Lord to turn his back on you
15 "If slaves run away from their owners and come to you for protection, do not send them back.
16 They may live in any of your towns that they choose, and you are not to treat them harshly.
17 "No Israelite, man or woman, is to become a temple prostitute.
18 Also, no money earned in this way may be brought into the house of the Lord your God in fulfillment of a vow. The Lord hates temple prostitutes.
19 "When you lend money or food or anything else to Israelites, do not charge them interest.
20 You may charge interest on what you lend to foreigners, but not on what you lend to Israelites. Obey this rule, and the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land that you are going to occupy.
21 "When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not put off doing what you promised; the Lord will hold you to your vow, and it is a sin not to keep it.
22 It is no sin not to make a vow to the Lord,
23 but if you make one voluntarily, be sure that you keep it.
24 "When you walk along a path in someone else's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but you must not carry any away in a container.
25 When you walk along a path in someone else's grainfield, you may eat all the grain you can pull off with your hands, but you must not cut any grain with a sickle.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.