Deuteronomy 22

¹ “If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore them; you must bring them back to your brother.

² If your brother does not live near you, or you do not know who he is, take the animal home with you. Let it stay with you until your brother comes looking for it; then return it to him.

³ Do the same with his donkey, do the same with his garment, and do the same with anything of your brother’s that is lost and that you find. You must not ignore it.

⁴ If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore them; help him get them back on their feet.

⁵ A woman must not wear what belongs to a man, and a man must not put on a woman’s clothing, for anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

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

⁷ You must let the mother go and take the young for yourself, so that things may go well with you and you may live long.

⁸ When you build a new house, make a railing around the roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹ Do not sow two kinds of seed in your vineyard, or the whole crop will be set apart: both the seed you sow and the produce of the vineyard.

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

¹¹ Do not wear cloth woven from two kinds of material, wool and linen together.

¹² Make tassels for yourself on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

¹³ A man may take a wife, lie with her, and then come to hate her.

¹⁴ He may make up charges against her and spread a bad report about her, saying, ‘I took this woman as my wife, but when I came to her, I found no proof that she was a virgin.’

¹⁵ Then the young woman’s father and mother must take the proof of her virginity and bring it to the elders of the city at the gate.”

¹⁶ “The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he has come to hate her.

¹⁷ Now he has made up charges against her, saying, «I found no proof that your daughter was a virgin.» But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they will spread out the garment before the elders of the city.

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

¹⁹ They will fine him one hundred pieces of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because he spread a bad report about a virgin of Israel. She will remain his wife, and he may not send her away as long as he lives.

²⁰ But the charge may be true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity may be found:

²¹ In that case, they will bring the young woman to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death, because she has committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. So you must remove the evil from among you.

²² If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both of them must die: the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you must remove the evil from Israel.

²³ A virgin may be engaged to a man, and another man may meet her in the city and lie with her.

²⁴ Bring both of them 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 violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must remove the evil from among you.

²⁵ But if the man meets the engaged young woman in the countryside, grabs her, and lies with her, only the man who lay with her must die.

²⁶ You must do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of a man who attacks his neighbor and takes his life.

²⁷ For he met her in the countryside. The engaged young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸ A man may meet a virgin who is not engaged, seize her, lie with her, and they may be discovered.

²⁹ The man who lay with her must give the young woman’s father fifty pieces of silver, and she will become his wife, because he violated her. He may not send her away as long as he lives.”

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