Chapter 22
Concern for the Neighbor. 1 (A)You shall not see your neighbor’s ox or sheep going astray and ignore it; you must bring it back. 2 If this neighbor does not live near you, or you do not know who the owner may be, take it to your own house and keep it with you until your neighbor claims it; then return it. 3 You shall do the same with a donkey; you shall do the same with a garment; and you shall do the same with anything else which your neighbor loses and you happen to find. You may not ignore them.
4 You shall not see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you must help in lifting it up.
Various Precepts. 5 A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, your God.(B)
6 (C)If, while walking along, you come across a bird’s nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you shall not take away the mother bird along with her brood. 7 You must let the mother go, taking only her brood, in order that you shall prosper and have a long life.
8 When you build a new house, put a parapet around the roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt upon your house if someone falls off.(D)
9 [a](E)You shall not sow your vineyard with two different kinds of seed, or else its produce shall become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 11 You shall not wear cloth made from wool and linen woven together.
12 You shall put tassels on the four corners of the cloak that you wrap around yourself.(F)
Marriage Legislation. 13 If a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, comes to dislike her,(G) 14 and accuses her of misconduct and slanders her by saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her I did not find evidence of her virginity,” 15 the father and mother of the young woman shall take the evidence of her virginity[b] and bring it to the elders at the city gate. 16 There the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, but he has come to dislike her, 17 and now accuses her of misconduct, saying: ‘I did not find evidence of your daughter’s virginity.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 Then these city elders shall take the man and discipline him,[c] 19 and fine him one hundred silver shekels, which they shall give to the young woman’s father, because the man slandered a virgin in Israel. She shall remain his wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if this charge is true, and evidence of the young woman’s virginity is not found, 21 they shall bring the young woman to the entrance of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a shameful crime in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.(H)
22 If a man is discovered lying with a woman who is married to another, they both shall die, the man who was lying with the woman as well as the woman.(I) Thus shall you purge the evil from Israel.
23 If there is a young woman, a virgin who is betrothed,[d] and a man comes upon her in the city and lies with her, 24 you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the young woman because she did not cry out though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. 25 But if it is in the open fields that a man comes upon the betrothed young woman, seizes her and lies with her, only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 You shall do nothing to the young woman, since the young woman is not guilty of a capital offense. As when a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, so in this case:[e](J) 27 it was in the open fields that he came upon her, and though the betrothed young woman may have cried out, there was no one to save her.
28 (K)If a man comes upon a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29 the man who lay with her shall give the young woman’s father fifty silver shekels and she will be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her as long as he lives.
Footnotes
- 22:9–11 Some understand these laws as serving to preserve distinctions set by God in the creation. Become forfeit: to the sanctuary; lit., “be holy”; cf. Lv 19:19; Jos 6:19.
- 22:15 The evidence of her virginity: the bridal garment or sheet stained with blood from the first nuptial relations.
- 22:18 Discipline him: whip him, as prescribed in 25:1–3.
- 22:23 A young woman, a virgin who is betrothed: a girl who is married but not yet brought to her husband’s home and whose marriage is therefore still unconsummated.
- 22:26 So in this case: in the absence of witnesses (“in the open field”), the presumption must be that the woman is the victim, and so guiltless.