Deu 22 | EE | STEP | You may see the cow or sheep of another Israelite when that animal is running away. If you do see that, you must catch the animal. Do not look away from it. Take it back to him.

Deuteronomy 22

Rules for life

1 You may see the cow or sheep of another Israelite when that animal is running away. If you do see that, you must catch the animal. Do not look away from it. Take it back to him. 2 Perhaps the man does not live near you. Perhaps you do not know him. If you do not know him, take the animal to your home. And then keep it safe. When the man comes to look for it, give it to him. 3 You must do the same thing if you find a donkey or some clothes or anything else. Do not think that you do not have to help.

4 Perhaps you see another Israelite‘s animal. It has fallen on the road. Do not think that you do not have to help. You must help the other Israelite to lift it up.

5 A woman must not wear the clothes of a man. A man must not wear the clothes of a woman. For the LORD your God hates people who do this.

6 You may find the home of a bird in a tree or on the ground. You must not take away the bird, whether she is sitting on eggs or on young birds. 7 You can take the young birds. But you must let the mother go free. If you do that, everything will be well with you. And you will have a long life.

8 When you build a new house, you must make a wall round the edge of the roof. Even if you have done that, someone may fall from the roof. But even if that person dies, you will not have done anything wrong.

9 You must not plant two different kinds of seed in your field. If you do that, nothing will grow well in that field. The fruit will not be good.

10 You must not tie a cow and a donkey together to plough your land.

11 You must not mix different materials together to make clothes.

12 You must sow tassels on the four corners of your coat.

Rules for marriage

13 A man may marry a girl. Then he may decide that he does not like her. 14 So he says wrong things about her and gives her a bad name. He even says, ‘I married this girl. Then I discovered that she had already had sex. She had sex before I married her.’ 15 Then the parents of the girl must bring the blanket. It shows that she had not had sex before. They must bring it to the leaders of the town. 16 And the father of the girl will say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But now he does not like her. 17 He says wrong things about her. He says, “Your daughter had sex before I married her.” But here is the blanket. This shows that she had never had sex before.’ Then her parents must hold up the blanket in front of the leaders of the town. 18 Then the leaders must take the man and punish him. 19 They must make him pay 100 shekels of silver to the girl’s father. This man has given a bad name to a young girl in Israel when she has done nothing wrong. She must continue to be his wife. He must continue to be her husband as long as he lives. ^{▼▼22:19 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of silver is equal to 87 shekels. So, 100 shekels was a lot of money.}

20 But perhaps the husband has spoken true words. Perhaps his wife cannot show that she had not had sex before. 21 If she cannot do that, the leaders must bring her to her father’s house. There, the men of the town must throw stones at her until she dies. She has done a very bad thing in Israel. She has had sex before she was married. She did this while she lived in her father’s house. You must remove this kind of bad thing from among you.

22 You may find a man who is having sex with another man’s wife. If you find them, you must kill both the man and the woman. You must remove this bad thing from Israel.

23 Perhaps a man may meet a girl in a town. She has already promised to marry another man, but they have sex together. 24 You must take both of them to the gate of that town. There you must throw stones at both of them until they die. The girl must die because she did not scream for help in the town. The man must die because he had sex with the future wife of another man.

25 But perhaps a man may meet a girl in a country place. He has sex with her because he is too strong for her. But she has already promised to marry another man. Only the man who has done that must die. 26 Do not hurt the girl. She has not done a sin that should cause you to kill her. This thing is like a man who kills another person. 27 This man made the girl have sex with him in a country place. She screamed for help, but there was no one to save her.

28 Perhaps a man may make a girl have sex with him. The girl has not had sex with anyone before and someone discovers them. She has not yet promised to marry anyone. 29 If that has happened, the man must pay 50 shekels of silver to the father of the girl. He must also marry the girl because he has had sex with her. He must be her husband as long as he lives.

30 A man must not marry his father’s wife or have sex with her. This is a bad thing to do against his father.