The Living Bible (64 page)

Deuteronomy
20

“When you go to war and see before you vast numbers of horses and chariots, an army far greater than yours, don’t be frightened! The Lord your God is with you—the same God who brought you safely out of Egypt!
²
 Before you begin the battle, a priest shall stand before the Israeli army and say,

    
³
 “‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Don’t be afraid as you go out to fight today!
⁴
 For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you the victory!’

    
⁵
 “Then the officers of the army shall address the men in this manner: ‘Has anyone just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, go home! For you might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate it!
⁶
 Has anyone just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, go home! You might die in battle and someone else would eat it!
⁷
 Has anyone just become engaged? Well, go home and get married! For you might die in the battle, and someone else would marry your fiancée.
⁸
 And now, is anyone afraid? If you are, go home before you frighten the rest of us!’
⁹
 When the officers have finished saying this to their men, they will announce the names of the battalion leaders.

    
¹⁰
 “As you approach a city to fight against it, first offer it a truce.
¹¹
 If it accepts the truce and opens its gates to you, then all its people shall become your servants.
¹²
 But if it refuses and won’t make peace with you, you must besiege it.
¹³
 When the Lord your God has given it to you, kill every male in the city;
¹⁴
 but you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, cattle, and booty.
¹⁵
 These instructions apply only to distant cities, not to those in the Promised Land itself.
*

    
¹⁶
 “For in the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land you are to save no one; destroy every living thing.
¹⁷
 Utterly destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This is the commandment of the Lord your God.
¹⁸
 The purpose of this command is to prevent the people of the land from luring you into idol worship and into participation in their loathsome customs, thus sinning deeply against the Lord your God.

    
¹⁹
 “When you besiege a city, don’t destroy the fruit trees. Eat all the fruit you wish; just don’t cut down the trees. They aren’t enemies who need to be slaughtered!
²⁰
 But you may cut down trees that aren’t valuable for food. Use them for the siege to make ladders, portable towers, and battering rams.
*

Deuteronomy
21

“If, when you arrive in the Promised Land, a murder victim is found lying in a field and no one has seen the murder,
²
 the elders and judges shall measure from the body to the nearest city.
³
 Then the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has never been yoked,
⁴
 and lead it to a valley where there is running water—a valley neither plowed nor sowed—and there break its neck.

    
⁵
 “Then the priests shall come (for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce his blessings and decide lawsuits and punishments),
⁶
 and shall wash their hands over the heifer,
⁷
 and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
⁸
 O Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and do not charge them with murdering an innocent man. Forgive us the guilt of this man’s blood.’
⁹
 In this way you will put away the guilt from among you by following the Lord’s directions.

    
¹⁰
 “When you go to war and the Lord your God delivers your enemies to you,
¹¹
 and you see among the captives a beautiful girl you want as your wife,
¹²
 take her home with you. She must shave her head and pare her nails
¹³
 and change her clothing, laying aside that which she was wearing when she was captured, then remain in your home in mourning for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may marry her.
¹⁴
 However, if after marrying her you decide you don’t like her, you must let her go free—you may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

    
¹⁵
 “If a man has two wives but loves one and not the other, and both have borne him children, and the mother of his oldest son is the wife he doesn’t love,
¹⁶
 he may not give a larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves.
¹⁷
 He must give the customary double portion to his oldest son, who is the beginning of his strength and who owns the rights of a firstborn son, even though he is the son of the wife his father doesn’t love.

    
¹⁸
 “If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they punish him,
¹⁹
 then his father and mother shall take him before the elders of the city
²⁰
 and declare, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and won’t obey; he is a worthless drunkard.’
²¹
 Then the men of the city shall stone him to death. In this way you shall put away this evil from among you, and all the young men of Israel will hear about what happened and will be afraid.

    
²²
 “If a man has committed a crime worthy of death, and is executed and then hanged on a tree,
²³
 his body shall not remain on the tree overnight. You must bury him the same day, for anyone hanging on a tree is cursed of God. Don’t defile the land the Lord your God has given you.

Deuteronomy
22

“If you see someone’s ox or sheep wandering away, don’t pretend you didn’t see it; take it back to its owner.
²
 If you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your farm and keep it there until the owner comes looking for it, and then give it to him.
³
 The same applies to donkeys, clothing, or anything else you find. Keep it for its owner.

    
⁴
 “If you see someone trying to get an ox or donkey onto its feet when it has slipped beneath its load,
*
don’t look the other way. Go and help!

    
⁵
 “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. This is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

    
⁶
 “If a bird’s nest is lying on the ground, or if you spy one in a tree, and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting in the nest, don’t take the mother with the young.
⁷
 Let her go, and take only the young. The Lord will bless you for it.

    
⁸
 “Every new house must have a guardrail around the edge of the flat rooftop to prevent anyone from falling off and bringing guilt to both the house and its owner.

    
⁹
 “Do not sow other crops in the rows of your vineyard. If you do, both the crops and the grapes shall be confiscated by the priests.
*

    
¹⁰
 “Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

    
¹¹
 “Don’t wear clothing woven from two kinds of thread: for instance, wool and linen.

    
¹²
 “You must sew tassels on the four corners of your cloaks.

    
^13-14
 “If a man marries a girl, then after sleeping with her accuses her of having had premarital intercourse with another man, saying, ‘She was not a virgin when I married her,’
¹⁵
 then the girl’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city judges.

    
¹⁶
 “Her father shall tell them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he despises her
^17-18
 and has accused her of shameful things, claiming that she was not a virgin when she married; yet here is the proof.’ And they shall spread before the judges the blood-stained sheet from her marriage bed. The judges shall sentence the man to be whipped,
¹⁹
 and fine him one hundred dollars
*
to be given to the girl’s father, for he has falsely accused a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife and he may never divorce her.
²⁰
 But if the man’s accusations are true, and she was not a virgin,
²¹
 the judges shall take the girl to the door of her father’s home where the men of the city shall stone her to death. She has defiled Israel by flagrant crime, being a prostitute while living at home with her parents; and such evil must be cleansed from among you.

    
²²
 “If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the other man’s wife must be killed; in this way evil will be cleansed from Israel.
^23-24
 If a girl who is engaged is seduced within the walls of a city, both she and the man who seduced her shall be taken outside the gates and stoned to death—the girl because she didn’t scream for help, and the man because he has violated the virginity of another man’s fiancée.
^25-27
 In this way you will reduce crime among you. But if this deed takes place out in the country, only the man shall die. The girl is as innocent as a murder victim; for it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to hear and rescue her out in the field.
^28-29
 If a man rapes a girl who is not engaged and is caught in the act, he must pay a fine
*
to the girl’s father and marry her; he may never divorce her.
³⁰
 A man shall not sleep with his father’s widow
*
since she belonged to his father.