5.Mose 22,2 | New International Reader’s Version

1 Suppose you see your neighbour’s ox or sheep wandering away. Then don’t act as if you didn’t see it. Instead, make sure you take it back to its owner. 2 Its owner might not live near you. Or you might not know who owns it. So take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then give it back to them. 3 Do the same thing if you find their donkey, coat or anything they have lost. Don’t act as if you didn’t see it. 4 Suppose you see your neighbour’s donkey or ox that has fallen down on the road. Then don’t act as if you didn’t see it. Help the owner get it up on its feet again. 5 A woman must not wear men’s clothes. And a man must not wear women’s clothes. The LORD your God hates it when anyone does this. 6 Suppose you happen to find a bird’s nest beside the road. It might be in a tree or on the ground. And suppose the mother bird is sitting on her little birds or on the eggs. Then don’t take the mother along with the little ones. 7 You can take the little ones. But make sure you let the mother go. Then things will go well with you. You will live for a long time. 8 If you build a new house, put a low wall around the edge of your roof. Then you won’t be responsible if someone falls off your roof and dies. 9 Don’t plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard. If you do, the crops you grow there will be impure. Your grapes will also be impure. 10 Don’t let an ox and a donkey pull the same plough together. 11 Don’t wear clothes made out of wool and linen woven together. 12 Make tassels on the four corners of the coat you wear.

Breaking marriage laws

13 Suppose a man marries a woman and sleeps with her. But then he doesn’t like her. 14 So he tells lies about her and says she’s a bad woman. He says, ‘I married this woman. But when I slept with her, I discovered she wasn’t a virgin.’ 15 Then the young woman’s parents must bring proof that she was a virgin. They must give the proof to the elders at the gate of the town. 16 Her father will speak to the elders. He’ll say, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But he doesn’t like her. 17 So now he has told lies about her. He has said, “I discovered that your daughter wasn’t a virgin.” But here’s the proof that my daughter was a virgin.’ Then her parents will show the elders of the town the cloth that has her blood on it. 18 The elders will punish the man. 19 They’ll make him weigh out 1.2 kilograms of silver. They’ll give it to the young woman’s father. That’s because the man has said an Israelite virgin is a bad woman. She will continue to be his wife. He must not divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But suppose the charge is true. And there isn’t any proof that the young woman was a virgin. 21 Then she must be brought to the door of her father’s house. There the people of her town will put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a very terrible thing in Israel. She has slept with a man before she was married. Get rid of that evil person. 22 Suppose a man is seen sleeping with another man’s wife. Then the man and the woman must both die. Get rid of those evil people. 23 Suppose a man happens to see a virgin in a town. And she has promised to marry another man. But the man who happens to see her sleeps with her. 24 Then you must take both of them to the gate of that town. You must put them to death by throwing stones at them. You must kill the young woman because she was in a town and didn’t scream for help. And you must kill the man because he slept with another man’s wife. Get rid of those evil people. 25 But suppose a man happens to see a young woman out in the country. And she has promised to marry another man. But the man who happens to see her rapes her. Then only the man who has done that will die. 26 Don’t do anything to the woman. She hasn’t committed a sin worthy of death. That case is like the case of someone who attacks and murders a neighbour. 27 The man found the young woman out in the country. And she screamed for help. But there wasn’t anyone around who could save her. 28 Suppose a man happens to see a virgin who hasn’t promised to marry another man. And the man who happens to see her rapes her. But someone discovers them. 29 Then the man must weigh out 600 grams of silver. He must give it to her father. The man must marry the young woman, because he raped her. And he can never divorce her as long as he lives. 30 A man must not marry his stepmother. He must not bring shame on his father by sleeping with her.

English Standard Version

Various Laws

1 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. 4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. 5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. 6 “If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7 You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long. 8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it. 9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,* the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together. 12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip* him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels* of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin* of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. 20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in 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 an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets 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 for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes 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; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her. 28 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days. 30 * “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.*

5.Mose 22,2 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Breaking marriage laws

Various Laws

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality