The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 22

¹Don't see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You must surely return them to your brother. ²If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then bring it home to your house, and keep it with you until your brother comes looking for it, then restore it to him. ³Do this with his donkey. Do this with his garment. Do this with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. ⁴Don't hide yourself from your brother's donkey or his ox you see fallen down on the road. You must surely help him to lift them up again.

⁵A woman mustn't wear men's clothing, nor may a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

⁶If you come across a bird's nest on the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, don't take the hen with the young. ⁷You must surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.

⁸When you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don't bring blood [guilt] on your house if anyone falls from there.

⁹Don't sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise all the fruit will be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the produce of the vineyard. ¹⁰Don't plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹Don't wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

¹²Make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.

¹³If any man gets a wife, and goes in to her, [but then] hates her, ¹⁴accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find her [to be a] virgin;" ¹⁵then the young lady's father and mother are to go and get [the evidence] of the young lady's virginity and bring [it] to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶The young lady's father is to tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. ¹⁷Look, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find your daughter to be a virgin;' and yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity." They are to spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ¹⁸The elders of that city are to take the man and chastise him. ¹⁹They must fine him one hundred [shekels] of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She will be his wife. He may not send her away all his days.

²⁰But if this matter is true, that the evidence of virginity was not found with the young lady, ²¹then they are to bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city will stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house. This is how you are to purge the evil from among you.

²²If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they must both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. This is how you are to purge the evil from Israel. ²³If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, ²⁴then bring them both out to the gate of that city, and stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry [out], being in the city; and the man, because he has humiliated his neighbor's wife. This is how you are to purge the evil from among you. ²⁵But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her is to die; ²⁶but do nothing to the lady. There is no sin worthy of death in the lady. This matter is just the same as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him; ²⁷for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried [out], and there was no one to save her. ²⁸If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her is to give to the lady's father fifty [shekels] of silver. She will be his wife, because he has humiliated her. He may not send her away all his days. ³⁰A man must not have his father's wife, and must not uncover his father's skirt.