Deuteronomy 20 - 25
20 WHEN YOU TAKE THE FIELD against an enemy and are faced by horses
and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them; for
the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.
When you are about to join battle, the priest shall come forward and
address the army in these words: 'Hear, O Israel, this day you are joining
battle with the enemy; do not lose heart, or be afraid, or give way to panic
in face of them; for the LORD your God will go with you to fight your
enemy for you and give you the victory.' Then the officers shall address
the army in these words: 'Any man who has built a new house and has not
dedicated it shall go back to his house; or he may die in battle and another
man dedicate it. Any man who has planted a vineyard and has not begun
to use it shall go back home; or he may die in battle and another man may use
it. Any man who has pledged himself to take a woman in marriage and has
not taken her shall go back home; or he may die in battle and another man
take her.' The officers shall further address the army: 'Any man who is
afraid and has lost heart shall go back home; or his comrades will be dis-
couraged as he is.' When these officers have finished addressing the army,
commanders shall be appointed to lead it.
When you advance on a city to attack it, make an offer of peace. If the
city accepts the offer and opens its gates to you, then all the people in it
shall be put to forced labour and shall serve you. If it does not make peace
with you but offers battle, you shall besiege it, and the LORD your God will
deliver it into your hands. You shall put all its males to the sword, but you
may take the women, the dependants, and the cattle for yourselves, and
plunder everything else in the city. You may enjoy the use of the spoil of
your enemies which the LORD your God gives you. That is what you shall
do to cities at a great distance, as opposed to those which belong to nations
near at hand. In the cities of these nations whose land the LORD your God
is giving you as a patrimony, you shall not leave any creature alive. You
shall annihilate them——Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites,
Jebusites——as the LORD your God commands you, so that they may not
teach you to imitate all the abominable things that they have done for their
gods and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.
When you are at war, and lay siege to a city for a long time in order to
take it, do not destroy its trees by taking the axe to them, for they provide
you with food; you shall not cut them down. The trees of the field are not
men that you should besiege them. But you may destroy or cut down any
trees that you know do not yield food, and use them in siege-works against
the city that is at war with you, until it falls.
21 When a dead body is found lying in open country, in the land which the
LORD your God is giving you to occupy, and it is not known who struck
the blow, your elders and your judges shall come out and measure the
distance to the surrounding towns to find which is nearest. The elders of
the town shall take a heifer that has never been mated or worn a yoke,
and bring it down to a ravine where there is a stream that never runs dry
and the ground is never tilled or sown, and there in the ravine they shall
break its neck. The priests, the sons of Levi, shall then come forward; for
the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the
name of the LORD, and their voices shall be decisive in all cases of dispute
and assault. Then all the elders of the town nearest to the dead body shall
wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken in the ravine.
They shall solemnly declare: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did
we witness the bloodshed. Accept expiation, O LORD, for thy people
Israel whom thou hast redeemed, and do not let the guilt of innocent blood
rest upon thy people Israel: let this bloodshed be expiated on their behalf.'
Thus, by doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD, you shall rid yourselves
of the guilt of innocent blood.
When you wage war against your enemy and the LORD your God
delivers them into your hands and you take some of them captive, then if
you see a comely woman among the captives and take a liking to her, you
may marry her. You shall bring her into your house, where she shall shave
her head, pare her nails, and discard the clothes which she had when
captured. Then she shall stay in your house and mourn for her father and
mother for a full month. After that you may have intercourse with her; you
shall be her husband and she your wife. But if you no longer find her
pleasing, let her go free. You must not sell her, nor treat her harshly, since
you have had your will with her.
When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they
both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder, then, when
the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he shall not
treat the son of the loved wife as his first-born in contempt of his true first-
born, the son of the unloved wife. He shall recognize the rights of his first-
born, the son of the unloved wife, and give him a double share of all that
he possesses; for he was the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of
the first-born is his.
When a man has a son who is disobedient and out of control, and will
not obey his father or his mother, or pay attention when they punish
him, then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out
to the elders of the town, at the town gate. They shall say to the elders of
the town, 'This son of ours is disobedient and out of control; he will not
obey us, he is a wastrel and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the town shall
stone him to death, and you will thereby rid yourselves of this wickedness.
All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
When a man is convicted of a capital offence and is put to death, you
shall hang him on a gibbet; but his body shall not remain on the gibbet
overnight; you shall bury it on the same day, for a hanged man is offensive
in the sight of God. you shall not pollute the land which the LORD your
God is giving you as your patrimony.
22 WHEN YOU SEE A FELLOW COUNTRY-MAN'S OX or sheep straying, do
not ignore it but take it back to him. If the owner is not a near neighbour
and you do not know who he is, take the animal into your own house and
keep it with you until he claims it, and then give it back to him. Do the same
with his ass or his cloak or anything else that your fellow-countryman has
lost, if you find it. You may not ignore it.
When you see your fellow-countryman's ass or ox lying on the road, do
not ignore it; you must help him lift it to its feet again.
No woman shall wear an article of man's clothing, nor shall a man put
on a woman's dress; for those who do these things are abominable to the
LORD your God.
When you come across a bird's nest by the road, in a tree or on the
ground, with fledglings or eggs in it and the mother bird on the nest, do
not take both mother and young. Let the mother-bird go free, and take
only the young; then you will prosper and live long.
When you build a new house, put a parapet along the roof, or you will
bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if anyone should fall from it.
You shall not sow your vineyard with a second crop, or the full yield
will be forfeit, both the yield of the seed you sow and the fruit of the vine-
yard.
You shall not plough with the ox and ass yoked together.
You shall not wear clothes woven with two kinds of yarn, wool and flax
together.
You shall make twisted tassels on the four corners of your cloaks which
you wrap round you.
When a man takes a wife and after having intercourse with her turns
against her and brings trumped-up charges against her, giving her a bad
name and saying, 'I took this woman and slept with her and did not find
proof of virginity in her', then the girl's father as mother shall take the
proof of her virginity to the elders of the town, at the town gate. The girl's
father shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter in marriage to this man,
and he has turned against her. He has trumped up a charge and said, "I
have not found proofs of virginity in your daughter." Here are the proofs.'
They shall then spread the garment before the elders of the town. The
elders shall take the man and punish him: they shall fine him a hundred
pieces of silver because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel, and
hand them to the girl's father. She shall be his wife: he is not free to divorce
her all his life long. If, on the other hand, the accusation is true and no
proof of the girl's virginity is found, then they shall bring her out to the
door of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death.
She has committed an outrage in Israel by playing the prostitute in her
father's house: you shall rid yourselves of this wickedness.
When a man is discovered lying with a married woman, they shall both
die, the woman as well as the man who lay with her: you shall rid Israel
of this wickedness.
When a virgin is pledged in marriage to a man and another man comes
upon her in the town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them out to
the gate of that town and stone them to death; the girl because, although in
the town, she did not cry for help, and the man because he dishonoured
another man's wife: you shall rid yourselves of this wickedness. If the man
comes upon such a girl in the country and rapes her, then the man alone
shall die because he lay with her. You shall do nothing to the girl, she has
done nothing worthy of death: this deed is like that of a man who attacks
another and murders him, for the man came upon her in the country and,
though the girl cried for help, there was no one to rescue her.
When a man comes upon a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and
forces her to lie with him, and they are discovered, then the man who lies
with her shall give the girl's father fifty pieces of silver, and she shall be
his wife because he has dishonoured her. He is not free to divorce her all
his life long.
A man shall not take his father's wife: he shall not bring shame on his
father.
23 No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose organ has been
severed shall become a member of the assembly of the LORD.
No descendant of an irregular union, even down to the tenth generation,
shall become a member of the assembly of the LORD.
No Ammonite or Moabite, even down to the tenth generation, shall
become a member of the assembly of the LORD. They shall never become
members of the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with
food and water on your way out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam
son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to revile you. The LORD
your God refused to listen to Balaam and turned his denunciation into a
blessing, because the LORD your God loved you. You shall never seek their
welfare or their good all your life long.
You shall not regard an Edomite as an abomination, for he is your own
kin; nor an Egyptian, for you were aliens in his land. The third generation
of children born to them may become members of the assembly of the
LORD.
When you are encamped against an enemy, you shall be careful to avoid
any foulness. When one of your number is unclean because of an emission
of seed at night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come within it.
Towards evening he shall wash himself in water, and at sunset he may come
back into the camp. You shall have a sign outside the camp showing where
you can withdraw. With your equipment you will have a trowel, and when
you squat outside, you shall scrape a hole with it, and then turn and cover
your excrement. For the LORD your God goes about in your camp, to keep
you safe and to hand over your enemies as you advance, and your camp
must be kept holy for fear that he should see something indecent and go
with you no further.
You shall not surrender to his master a slave who has taken refuge with
you. Let him stay with you anywhere he chooses in any one of your settle-
ments, wherever suits him best; you shall not force him.
No Israelite woman shall become a temple-prostitute, and no Israelite
man shall prostitute himself in this way.
You shall not allow a common prostitute's fee, or the pay of a male
prostitute, to be brought into the house of the LORD your God in fulfilment
of any vow, for both of them are abominable to the LORD your God.
You shall not charge interest on anything you lend to a fellow-
countryman, money or food or anything else on which interest can be
charged. You may charge interest on a loan to a foreigner but not on a
loan to a fellow-countryman, for then the LORD your God will bless you
in all you undertake in the land which you are entering to occupy.
When you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not put off its fulfilment;
otherwise the LORD your God will require satisfaction of you and you will
be guilty of sin. If you choose not to make a vow, you will not be guilty of
sin; but if you voluntarily make a vow to the LORD your God, mind what
you say and do what you have promised.
When you go into another man's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes
as you wish to satisfy your hunger, but you may not put any into your
basket.
When you go into another man's standing corn, you can pluck and ear to
rub in your hands, but you may not put a sickle to his standing corn.
24 When a man has married a wife, but she does not win his favour because
he finds something shameful in her, and he writes her a note of divorce,
gives it to her and dismisses her; and suppose after leaving his house she
goes off to become the wife of another man, and the next husband turns
against her and writes her a note of divorce which he gives her and dis-
misses her, or dies after making her his wife——then in that case her first
husband who dismissed her is not free to take her back to be his wife again
after she has become for him unclean. This is abominable to the LORD;
you must not bring sin upon the land which the LORD your God is giving
you as your patrimony.
When a man is newly married, he shall not be liable for military service
or any other public duty. He shall remain at home exempt from service
for one year and enjoy the wife he has taken.
No man shall take millstones, or even the upper one alone, in pledge;
that would be taking a life in pledge.
When a man is found to have kidnapped a fellow-countryman, and Israel-
ite, and to have treated him harshly and sold him, he shall die: you shall rid
yourselves of this wickedness.
Be careful how you act in all cases of malignant skin-disease; be careful
to observe all that the levitical priests tell you; I gave them my commands
which you must obey. Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam,
on your way out of Egypt.
When you make a loan to another man, do not enter his house to take a
pledge from him. Wait outside, and the man whose creditor you are shall
bring the pledge out to you. If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in the
cloak he has pledged. Give it back to him at sunset so that he may sleep in
it and bless you; then it will be counted to your credit in the sight of the
LORD your God.
You shall not keep back the wages of a man who is poor and needy,
whether a fellow-countryman or an alien living in your country in one of
your settlements. Pay him his wages on the same day before sunset, for
he is poor and his heart is set on them: he may appeal to the LORD against
you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for
their fathers; a man shall be put to death only for his own sin.
You shall not deprive aliens and orphans of justice nor take a widow's
cloak in pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD
your God redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do this.
When you reap the harvest in your field and forget a swathe, do not go
back to pick it up; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
In order that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake.
When you beat your olive-trees, do not strip them afterwards; what is
left shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, do not glean after-
wards; what is left shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I command you to
do this.
25 When two men go to law and present themselves for judgement, the
judges shall try the case; they shall acquit the innocent and condemn the
guilty. If the guilty man is sentenced to be flogged, the judge shall cause him
to lie down and be beaten in his presence ; the number of strokes shall
correspond to the gravity of the offence. They may give him forty strokes,
but not more; otherwise if they go further and exceed this number, your
fellow-countryman will have been publicly degraded.
You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the corn.
When brothers live together and one of them dies without leaving a son,
his widow shall not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall
have intercourse with her; he shall take her in marriage and do his duty by
her as her husband's brother. The first son she bears shall perpetuate the
dead brother's name so that it may not be blotted out from Israel. But if
the man is unwilling to take his brother's wife , she shall go to the elders at
the town gate and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his
brother's name in Israel; he will not do his duty by me.' At this the elders
of the town shall summon him and reason with him. If he still stands his
ground and says, 'I will not take her', his brother's widow shall go up to
him in the presence of the elders; she shall pull his sandal off his foot and
spit in his face and declare: 'Thus we requite the man who will not build
up his brother's family.' His family shall be known in Israel as the House
of the Unsandalled Man.
When two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes near to
drag her husband clear of his opponent, if she puts out her hand and
catches hold of the man's genitals, you shall cut off her hand and show her
no mercy.
You shall not have unequal weights in your bag, one heavy, the other
light. You shall not have unequal measures in your house, one large, the
other small. You shall have true and correct weights and true and correct
measures, so that you may live long in the land which the LORD you God
is giving you. All who commit these offences, all who deal dishonestly, are
abominable to the LORD.
Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way out of Egypt,
how they met you on the road when you were faint and weary and cut off
your rear, which was lagging behind exhausted; they showed no fear of
God. When the LORD your God gives you peace from your enemies on
every side, in the land which he is giving you to occupy as your patrimony,
you shall not fail to blot out the memory of the Amalekites from under
heaven.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Apr 14, 2019, 1:13 AM UTC
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