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Deuteronomy 22

1If you see your brother’s ox or sheep or goat straying, do not ignore them. You must bring them back to your brother. 2If your brother does not live near you or you do not know him, bring the animal into your house. It must stay with you until your brother searches for it; then return it to him. 3Do the same with his donkey, his clothing, and anything your brother loses and you find. You must not ignore it. 4If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore them. You must help him lift them up.

5A woman must not wear a man’s gear, and a man must not put on a woman’s garment, for everyone who does these things is detestable to Yahweh your God.

6If you happen upon a bird’s nest along the way, in a tree or on the ground, with chicks or eggs and the mother sitting on the chicks or the eggs, do not take the mother along with the young. 7You must let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself, so that it may go well for you and you may live a long time.

8When you build a new house, make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt upon your house if someone falls from it.

9Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or the whole yield—the seed you sow and the produce of the vineyard—will become forfeited as holy. 10Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11Do not wear cloth of mixed material, wool and linen together. 12Make tassels for yourself on the four corners of the garment you cover yourself with.

13If a man takes a wife, goes in to her, and then hates her, 14accusing her of shameful conduct and giving her a bad name, saying, “I took this woman, but when I approached her I found no evidence of virginity,” 15the young woman’s father and mother must take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the elders of the city at the gate. 16The young woman’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her. 17Now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I found no evidence of virginity in your daughter.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” They must spread out the cloth before the elders of the city. 18Then the elders of that city must take the man and discipline him. 19They must fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because he has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. She must remain his wife; he may not divorce her all his days. 20But if the accusation is true, and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found, 21they must bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house. The men of her city must stone her to death, because she has committed an outrage in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

22If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both must die: the man who lay with the woman and the woman. You must purge the evil from Israel.

23If a virgin young woman is engaged to a man, and another man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24you must bring both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death: the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. 25But if the man meets the engaged young woman in the open country, overpowers her, and lies with her, only the man who lay with her must die. 26You must do nothing to the young woman. The young woman has committed no sin deserving death, for this case is like a man attacking his neighbor and murdering him. 27He met her in the open country; the engaged young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28If a man meets a virgin young woman who is not engaged, seizes her, and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29the man who lay with her must give the young woman’s father fifty pieces of silver. She must become his wife, because he violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

30A man must not take his father’s wife and must not uncover his father’s skirt.

Translation notes 8

22:1–4 — Your brother. Here the family term concerns a fellow Israelite, including someone the finder does not personally know. The repeated command forbids looking away from another person’s loss or difficulty.

22:5 — Clothing and gear. The first Hebrew word can refer broadly to equipment or articles associated with a man; the second specifically names a garment. The verse does not name particular garments or supply an explanation involving a particular cult or modern identity category.

22:9 — Forfeited as holy. The verb literally means “become holy.” Here mixing the planting makes the yield unavailable for ordinary use. The verse does not spell out what must then be done with it.

22:13–21 — Evidence and penalty. The parents present a cloth as evidence of the woman’s virginity. The text states the ancient legal procedure and its severe penalties; it does not explain how reliable that procedure was. “Pieces of silver” supplies an English counting word; the Hebrew gives the number and “silver” without naming a unit.

22:23–27 — Two cases. The city case assigns guilt because the woman did not cry out; the country case describes overpowering and compares the attack to murder. The text explicitly absolves the woman in the latter case. These are the stated legal scenarios, rather than a complete account of how every assault occurs.

22:23–29 — The young woman. Several written Hebrew forms spell the word for “young woman” without its usual final letter. The traditional reading supplies the feminine form, in agreement with the feminine grammar and the whole context. The spelling does not make the victim male. “Young woman” does not specify an exact age.

22:28–29 — Seizure and marriage. The verb is “seize,” different from “overpower” in verse 25. Its precise force in this case is debated; translating it as “seduce” would erase its grasping language. The text does not state the woman’s consent or grant her a choice about the required marriage. “Violated” preserves the degrading sexual force of the following verb.

22:30 — His father’s skirt. This bodily and clothing image concerns taking the father’s wife and violating the father’s marital claim. This verse is numbered 23:1 in the Hebrew text.