Deuteronomy 21-22New King James Version (NKJV)
The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder
21 “If anyone is found slain,
lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you
to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then
your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from
the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 And it
shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man
will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not
pulled with a yoke. 4 The elders of that city shall
bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed
nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then
the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God
has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord;
by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled.6 And
all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall
wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 Then
they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our
eyes seen it. 8 Provide atonement,
O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay
innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be
provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 So you
shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when
you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
Female Captives
10 “When you go out to war against
your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and
you take them captive, 11 and you see among the
captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your
wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your
house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She
shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her
father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her
husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it
shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you
certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally,
because you have humbled her.
Firstborn Inheritance Rights
15 “If a man has two wives, one loved
and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the
loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who
is unloved, 16 then it shall be, on the day he
bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow
firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the
unloved, the true firstborn. 17 But
he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the
firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the
beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
The Rebellious Son
18 “If a man has a stubborn and
rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his
mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed
them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take
hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his
city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his
city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice;
he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the
men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the
evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
Miscellaneous Laws
22 “If a man has committed a sin
deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his
body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that
day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is
giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed
of God.
22 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his
sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them
back to your brother. 2 And if your brother is not
near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house,
and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall
restore it to him. 3 You shall do the same with his
donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with any lost thing of your
brother’s, which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise; you
must not hide yourself.
4 “You shall not see your brother’s
donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you
shall surely help him lift them up again.
5 “A woman shall not wear anything
that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who
do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
6 “If a bird’s nest happens to be
before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or
eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take
the mother with the young; 7 you shall surely let
the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you
and that you may prolong your days.
8 “When you build a new house, then
you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of
bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.
9 “You shall not sow your vineyard
with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown
and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
10 “You shall not plow with an ox and
a donkey together.
11 “You shall not wear a garment of
different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
12 “You shall make tassels on the
four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.
Laws of Sexual Morality
13 “If any man takes a wife, and goes
in to her, and detests her, 14 and charges her with
shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman,
and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’ 15 then
the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the
evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at
the gate. 16 And the young woman’s father shall say
to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests
her. 17 Now he has charged her with shameful
conduct, saying, “I found your daughter was not a virgin,” and
yet these are the evidences of my daughter’s virginity.’ And
they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 Then
the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him; 19 and
they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and
give them to the father of the young woman, because he has
brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot
divorce her all his days.
20 “But if the thing is true, and
evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, 21 then
they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the
men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a
disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you
shall put away the evil from among you.
22 “If a man is found lying with a
woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with
the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
23 “If a young woman who is a
virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with
her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the
gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young
woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled
his neighbor’s wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.
25 “But if a man finds a betrothed
young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then
only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you
shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young
woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises
against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this
matter. 27 For he found her in the
countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out,
but there was no one to save her.
28 “If a man finds a young
woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her
and lies with her, and they are found out, 29 then
the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of
silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be
permitted to divorce her all his days.
30 “A man shall not take his father’s
wife, nor uncover his father’s bed.
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