Laws for the Land

“This is for someone who kills his neighbor without meaning to, when he hadn’t hated him before. Say two neighbors go into the forest to cut wood, and as one swings his ax at a tree, the head slips off the handle, hits the other, and kills him. The man who swung the ax can run to one of those cities and live.

“Otherwise the avenger of blood might chase him in the heat of his anger. The road is long, so the avenger might catch him and kill him, though the man didn’t deserve to die, because he hadn’t hated his neighbor. That is why I command you to set apart three cities.

“The Lord your God may make your borders wider, as he swore to your ancestors, and give you all the land he promised them. If he does, and if you keep all these commands I give you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk in his ways always, then add three more cities to these three. That way innocent blood won’t be shed in the land he gives you to inherit, and the guilt for it won’t fall on you.

“But suppose a man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him and strikes him dead, and then flees into one of these cities. The elders of his own city are to send for him and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. Don’t pity him. Rid Israel of the guilt of innocent blood, so that things will go well for you.

“When you receive your share of the land the Lord gives you, don’t move your neighbor’s boundary stone, which people set up long ago to mark his land.

“One witness alone is not enough to find anyone guilty of any wrong or any sin. It takes two witnesses, or three, to settle a matter.

“If a dishonest witness accuses someone of a wrong, both men are to stand in the Lord’s presence, before the priests and the judges serving at the time. The judges are to look into it carefully. If the witness has lied about his brother, a fellow Israelite, do to the liar what he meant to have done to his brother. So you will remove the evil from among you.

“The rest will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will ever do such an evil thing again. Don’t pity him: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”

“Before the battle, the priest is to come forward and tell the people, ‘Listen, Israel. Today you are going into battle. Don’t lose heart! Don’t be afraid, don’t tremble, and don’t be scared of them. The Lord your God goes with you, to fight your enemies for you and to save you.’

“Then the officers are to ask, ‘Is there a man here who has built a new house and hasn’t dedicated it? He should go home, or he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it.’ The same is true for a man who has planted a vineyard and hasn’t yet had its fruit, and for a man engaged to a woman he hasn’t yet married.

“Then they are to ask, ‘Is anyone afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go home, or he may make his fellow soldiers lose heart too.’ When the officers have finished, they are to put captains at the head of the army.

“When you come near a city to fight it, first offer it peace. If it accepts and opens its gates to you, all its people are to become your forced laborers and serve you. If it won’t make peace, but fights you, lay siege to it.

“When the Lord puts it in your power, kill every male in it with the sword. But you may take the women, the little ones, the animals and everything else in the city as plunder, and use what the Lord has given you from your enemies. That is how you are to treat the cities very far from you, which don’t belong to the nations here.

“But in the cities of these peoples, which the Lord gives you as your inheritance, leave nothing alive that breathes. Destroy them completely, as the Lord your God has commanded you: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Otherwise they will teach you to do all the detestable things they have done for their gods, and you would sin against the Lord your God.

“When you besiege a city for a long time to take it, don’t take an ax to its trees. You may eat from them, so don’t cut them down. Is a tree in the field a person you should lay siege to? You may cut down only the trees you know don’t give food. Build your siege works against the city that is fighting you, until it falls.”

“They are to bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, land that has never been plowed or planted, and break its neck there. The priests, the sons of Levi, are to come forward. The Lord your God chose them to serve him and to bless people in his name, and they are to decide every quarrel and every case of assault.

“All the elders of that city are to wash their hands over the heifer and say, ‘Our hands didn’t shed this blood, and our eyes didn’t see it. Lord, forgive your people Israel, whom you set free, and don’t let the guilt of innocent blood stay on your people Israel.’ Then they will be forgiven for that death. That is how you will clear the guilt of innocent blood from among you, doing what is right in the Lord’s eyes.

“When you go to war, the Lord may hand your enemies over to you, and you may take captives. Among them you may see a beautiful woman, be drawn to her, and want to marry her. Then bring her home. She is to shave her head, trim her nails, take off the clothes she was captured in, and stay in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month. After that you may sleep with her as her husband, and she will be your wife.

“If she stops pleasing you, let her go where she chooses. But you must never sell her for money, or treat her as a slave, because you have disgraced her.

“Suppose a man has two wives, one he loves and one he doesn’t, and the unloved wife’s son is his firstborn. When he divides his property among his sons, he must not give the firstborn’s rights to the loved wife’s son instead. He must give the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, a double share of all he has. This son is the beginning of his father’s strength, and the right of the firstborn is his.

“A man may have a stubborn and rebellious son, who won’t obey his father or his mother, even when they discipline him. His parents are to take him out to the elders at the gate of his city and say, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He won’t do what we tell him. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’ The men of his city are all to stone him to death. So you will remove the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

“Suppose a man is put to death for a sin that deserves death, and you hang him on a tree. Don’t leave his body on the tree overnight. Bury him the same day, because a man who is hanged is cursed by God. Don’t make the land the Lord your God gives you unclean.”

“If his donkey or ox has fallen on the road, don’t look the other way. Help him get it up again.

“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not put on women’s clothing. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.

“If you find a bird’s nest by the road, up in a tree or on the ground, with a mother bird on her young or her eggs, don’t take her along with the young. Be sure to let the mother go, though you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that things will go well for you and you will live a long life.

“When you build a new house, put a railing around the roof. Then if someone falls off, you won’t bring the guilt of his death on your house.

“Don’t sow two kinds of seed in your vineyard, or the whole crop, both what you planted and the grapes, will be defiled. Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey together. Don’t wear cloth of wool and linen woven together.

“Make yourselves tassels for the four corners of the cloak you cover yourself with.”

“Then her father and mother are to bring proof to the elders at the city gate that she was a virgin, that she had never slept with a man. Her father is to tell them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. He says she wasn’t a virgin, but here is the proof that she was.’ Then they are to spread out the cloth, the proof, in front of the elders.

“The elders are to take the man and punish him. They are to fine him a hundred shekels of silver, a little over two pounds, and give it to her father, because the man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. She is to stay his wife. As long as he lives, he can never divorce her.

“But if the charge is true, and no proof that she was a virgin is found, they are to bring her out to the door of her father’s house. There the men of her city must stone her to death, because she has done a shameful thing in Israel. While she still lived in her father’s house, she slept with a man, as a prostitute does. So you will remove the evil from among you.

“If a man is found sleeping with a woman who has a husband, both of them are to die, the man and the woman. So you will remove the evil from Israel.

“Suppose a young woman, a virgin, is engaged to be married, and a man finds her in the city and sleeps with her. Take them both out to the city gate and stone them to death: the young woman for not crying out, though she was in the city, and the man for disgracing his neighbor’s wife. So you will remove the evil from among you.

“But if a man meets an engaged young woman out in the country and forces himself on her, only the man is to die. Do nothing to her. She has done no sin that deserves death. It is like when a man attacks his neighbor and kills him. Out in the country, where he found her, she cried out, and there was no one to save her.

“Suppose a man meets a young woman who is a virgin and isn’t engaged. He grabs her and sleeps with her, and they are found out. Then he is to pay her father fifty shekels of silver, about a pound. She is to be his wife, because he has disgraced her. As long as he lives, he can never divorce her.

“A man must not marry his father’s wife. That would bring shame on his father.”

“No Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter it, nor any of their descendants, even to the tenth generation. They didn’t come out to meet you with bread and water as you were leaving Egypt, and they hired Balaam, Beor’s son, from Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you. Still, the Lord your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam. He changed the curse into a blessing for you, because he loved you. Never work for their peace or their good, as long as you live.

“Don’t hate an Edomite, because he is your brother. Don’t hate an Egyptian either, because you lived as foreigners in his land. In the third generation, their children may enter the Lord’s assembly.

“When you camp against your enemies, keep away from anything evil. A man who is unclean because of something that happened to him in the night must go outside the camp and stay out of it. As evening comes, he is to wash himself, and once the sun is down he may return to the camp.

“Have a place outside the camp to relieve yourselves, and keep a trowel, a small digging tool, with your weapons. When you relieve yourself, dig with it, and then cover your waste. The Lord your God walks in the middle of your camp, to rescue you and to hand your enemies over to you. That is why your camp must be holy: so that he won’t see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

“If a servant escapes from his master and comes to you, don’t hand him back. Let him live among you in whatever town he chooses, wherever he likes best, and don’t mistreat him.

“No daughter of Israel is to be a prostitute, and no son of Israel a male prostitute. Don’t bring a prostitute’s pay or a male prostitute’s wages into the house of the Lord your God to keep a vow. Both kinds of pay are detestable to the Lord your God.

“When you lend money, food or anything else to your brother, don’t charge him interest, making him pay back more than he borrowed. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the Lord your God will bless all your work in the land you are going in to take as your own.

“If you make the Lord your God a vow, don’t be slow to keep it. The Lord your God will certainly hold you to it, and failing to keep it would be a sin. But if you don’t make a vow, that is no sin. Do what you have said you would do. If you freely promised the Lord your God a freewill offering, a gift you chose to give, you must keep that promise.

“In your neighbor’s vineyard you may eat grapes until you have had enough, but don’t put any in a container. In your neighbor’s grain field you may pick heads of grain with your hand, but don’t use a sickle, a curved blade for cutting grain, on his crop.”

“A newly married man is not to go out with the army or be given any other duty. For one year he is free to stay home and make his new wife happy.

“Don’t take a hand mill or its upper millstone as a pledge to hold until a loan is repaid. A family grinds its grain with those stones, so taking them would be taking what the family lives on.

“If a man is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite, to treat him as a slave or to sell him, that kidnapper must die. So you will remove the evil from among you.

“If leprosy breaks out, be careful to do everything the priests, the Levites, teach you. Do just as I commanded them. And remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam when you were on the road out of Egypt.

“When you lend your neighbor something, don’t go into his house to get his pledge. Wait outside and let him bring it out to you. If he is poor, don’t keep his pledge overnight. Give it back at sunset, so that he can sleep in his garment and bless you. The Lord will count that as doing right.

“Don’t mistreat a poor and needy man you have hired, whether he is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages the same day, before the sun goes down, because he is poor and is counting on them. If you don’t, he may cry to the Lord against you, and the sin will be yours.

“A father must not be put to death for his children, or a child for his father. Each one is to be put to death for his own sin.

“Don’t deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, or take a widow’s clothing as a pledge. Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God rescued you. That is why I give you this command.

“When you harvest your field and forget a sheaf, don’t go back for it. It is for the foreigner, for the fatherless and for the widow, so the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Do the same with your olive trees. When you knock the olives down, don’t go over the branches a second time. And when you harvest your grapes, don’t go back for what is left. That is for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow too. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. That is why I give you this command.”

“Don’t muzzle the ox when he is treading out the grain.

“If brothers live together and one of them dies with no son, the dead man’s wife must not marry a stranger outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and do a brother-in-law’s duty for her. Her first son will carry on the dead brother’s name, so that it won’t be wiped out of Israel.

“But if her husband’s brother doesn’t want to marry her, she is to go up to the gate, to the elders, and tell them, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to keep his brother’s name alive in Israel. He won’t do his duty to me.’ The elders of his city are to call him and speak to him. If he still says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ she is to go up to him in front of the elders, take the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and say, ‘That is what happens to a man who won’t build up his brother’s family.’ And in Israel his family will be called ‘The Family of the Man Whose Sandal Was Taken Off.’

“Suppose two men get into a fight, and one man’s wife comes up to save her husband from the man who is hitting him. If she reaches out and grabs that man by his private parts, you are to cut off her hand. Have no pity.

“Don’t carry two different weights in your bag, a heavy one and a light one, or keep two different measures in your house, a large one and a small one. Use full, honest weights and measures. Then your life will be long in the land the Lord your God gives you. Everyone who does such things, everyone who is dishonest, is detestable to the Lord your God.

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the road when you came out of Egypt. When you were faint and weary, he met you and attacked everyone at the back, all the weak ones straggling behind you. He had no fear of God. So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around you in the land he gives you, blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. Don’t forget.”

“Go to the priest who is serving then and say to him, ‘Today I announce to the Lord your God that I have arrived in the land he swore to our ancestors to give us.’ The priest is to take the basket out of your hand and set it down in front of the Lord’s altar.

“Then you are to say this before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, strong nation of many people. The Egyptians mistreated us, made us suffer and forced hard work on us. Then we called to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us. He saw our suffering, our hard labor and how we were crushed. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and with wonders. He has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, look, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Lord, have given me.’ Then set it down in the presence of the Lord your God, and worship there.

“Then you, the Levite and the foreigner living among you are to be glad for every good thing the Lord your God has given to you and to your household.

“The third year is the year of the tithe. That year, once you have set aside a tenth of all your crops, give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless and to the widow, so they can eat their fill in your towns.

“Then say before the Lord your God, ‘I have taken the holy things out of my house and given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless and to the widow, as you commanded me. I haven’t broken any of your commands or forgotten them. I haven’t eaten any of these holy things while I was mourning, taken any of them away while I was unclean, or given any of them for the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God and done all that you commanded me. Look down from your holy home in heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground you have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as you swore to our ancestors.’

“Today the Lord your God commands you to follow these laws and rules. Obey them carefully, with all your heart and soul. Today you have declared that the Lord is your God, and promised to walk in his ways, keep his laws, his commands and his rules, and listen to his voice. And today the Lord has declared that you are his people, his own possession, as he promised you, and that you should keep all his commands. He will set you high above all the nations he has made, in praise, fame and honor, and you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as he said.”