1. Thu: Revelation 9-11
  2. Fri: Zechariah 1-4
  3. Sat: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Sunday · Week 49
The Books of the Law

Deuteronomy 22-25

Week 49 · about 18 min
  1. Mon: Acts 20-21
  2. Tue: Jeremiah 51
  3. Wed: Nehemiah 1-7

Laws for everyday life: lost animals, safety, marriage, loans, wages, and fair dealing.

Don’t Hide Yourself

Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.

Deuteronomy 22:1 (KJV)

If you see your neighbor’s ox wandering off, don’t “hide thyself” and pretend you didn’t see it. Take it back. Build a railing around your flat roof so no one falls off. A slave who escapes to you shouldn’t be handed back to his master. You can pick grain by hand as you walk through a neighbor’s field, but you can’t bring a sickle. A newly married man stays home from war for a year “and shall cheer up his wife.” Don’t take a man’s millstone as collateral, because “he taketh a man’s life to pledge.” Leave the forgotten sheaf for the poor. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.”

Reflect: Where are you tempted to “hide thyself” from a need you’ve noticed?

Deuteronomy 22

1If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.

2If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

3And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

4If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

5A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

6If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.

7You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

9Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled —both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

10Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

12You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

13Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

14and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

15Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate

16and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her.

17And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

18Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.

19They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

21she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

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

23If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

24you must take 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 has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

25But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

26Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

27When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

29then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

30A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Deuteronomy 23

1No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

2No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

3No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

4For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

5Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

6You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

7Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

8The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

9When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.

10If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside.

11When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp.

12You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself.

13And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

14For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

15Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you.

16Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.

17No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.

18You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

19Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.

20You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.

21If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.

22But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin.

23Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

24When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

25When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

Deuteronomy 24

1If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

2If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

3and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies,

4then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

5If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.

6Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

7If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

8In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.

9Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.

10When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.

11You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you.

12If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;

13be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.

14Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

15You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

16Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.

17Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

18Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

19If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

22Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

1If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

2If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants.

3He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

4Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

5When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

6The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

8Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”

9his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”

10And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”

11If two men are fighting, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

12you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.

13You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

14You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

15You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

16For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

17Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,

18how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God.

19When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.