Deuteronomy 20-22

New Century Version

Laws for War

20 When you go to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army that is bigger than yours, don’t be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you. ² The priest must come and speak to the army before you go into battle. ³ He will say, “Listen, Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don’t lose your courage or be afraid. Don’t panic or be frightened, ⁴ because the Lord your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies and to save you.”

⁵ The officers should say to the army, “Has anyone built a new house but not given it to God? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would get to give his house to God. ⁶ Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would enjoy his vineyard. ⁷ Is any man engaged to a woman and not yet married to her? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would marry her.” ⁸ Then the officers should also say, “Is anyone here afraid? Has anyone lost his courage? He may go home so that he will not cause others to lose their courage, too.” ⁹ When the officers finish speaking to the army, they should appoint commanders to lead it.

¹⁰ When you march up to attack a city, first make them an offer of peace. ¹¹ If they accept your offer and open their gates to you, all the people of that city will become your slaves and work for you. ¹² But if they do not make peace with you and fight you in battle, you should surround that city. ¹³ The Lord your God will give it to you. Then kill all the men with your swords, ¹⁴ and you may take everything else in the city for yourselves. Take the women, children, and animals, and you may use these things the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. ¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are far away, that do not belong to the nations nearby.

¹⁶ But leave nothing alive in the cities of the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁷ Completely destroy these people: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you what they do for their gods, and if you do these hateful things, you will sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ If you surround and attack a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not destroy its trees with an ax. You can eat the fruit from the trees, but do not cut them down. These trees are not the enemy, so don’t make war against them. ²⁰ But you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build devices to attack the city walls, until the city is captured.

A Person Found Murdered

21 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person. ² Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities. ³ The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke, ⁴ and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow’s neck. ⁵ The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord’s name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks. ⁶ Then all the elders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ They should declare: “We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen. ⁸ Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don’t blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person.” And so the murder will be paid for. ⁹ Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

Captive Women as Wives

¹⁰ When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive. ¹¹ If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. ¹² Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails ¹³ and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor.

The Oldest Son

¹⁵ A man might have two wives, one he loves and one he doesn’t. Both wives might have sons by him. If the older son belongs to the wife he does not love, ¹⁶ when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love. ¹⁷ He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son.

Sons Who Refuse to Obey

¹⁸ If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn’t obey them or listen when they correct him, ¹⁹ his parents must take him to the elders at the city gate. ²⁰ They will say to the elders, “Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much, and he is always drunk.” ²¹ Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because then all the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid.

Other Laws

²² If someone is guilty of a sin worthy of death, he must be put to death and his body displayed on a tree. ²³ But don’t leave his body hanging on the tree overnight; be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone whose body is displayed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not ruin the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

22 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep wandering away, don’t ignore it. Take it back to its owner. ² If the owner does not live close to you, or if you do not know who the owner is, take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it; then give it back. ³ Do the same thing if you find a donkey or coat or anything someone lost. Don’t just ignore it.

⁴ If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, don’t ignore it. Help the owner get it up.

⁵ A woman must not wear men’s clothes, and a man must not wear women’s clothes. The Lord your God hates anyone who does that.

⁶ If you find a bird’s nest by the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on the young birds or eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young birds. ⁷ You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go free. Then things will go well for you, and you will live a long time.

⁸ When you build a new house, build a low wall around the edge of the roof^[a] so you will not be guilty if someone falls off the roof.

⁹ Don’t plant two different kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, both crops will be ruined.

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

¹¹ Don’t wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

¹² Tie several pieces of thread together; then put these tassels on the four corners of your coat.

Marriage Laws

¹³ If a man marries a girl and has sexual relations with her but then decides he does not like her, ¹⁴ he might talk badly about her and give her a bad name. He might say, “I married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her, I did not find that she was a virgin.” ¹⁵ Then the girl’s parents must bring proof that she was a virgin to the elders at the city gate. ¹⁶ The girl’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her. ¹⁷ This man has told lies about my daughter. He has said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin,’ but here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin.” Then her parents are to show the sheet to the elders of the city, ¹⁸ and the elders must take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They must make him pay about two and one-half pounds of silver to the girl’s father, because the man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. The girl will continue to be the man’s wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰ But if the things the husband said about his wife are true, and there is no proof that she was a virgin, ²¹ the girl must be brought to the door of her father’s house. Then the men of the town must put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations before she was married. You must get rid of the evil among you.

²² If a man is found having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the woman and the man who had sexual relations with her must die. Get rid of this evil from Israel.

²³ If a man meets a virgin in a city and has sexual relations with her, but she is engaged to another man, ²⁴ you must take both of them to the city gate and put them to death by throwing stones at them. Kill the girl, because she was in a city and did not scream for help. And kill the man for having sexual relations with another man’s wife. You must get rid of the evil among you.

²⁵ But if a man meets an engaged girl out in the country and forces her to have sexual relations with him, only the man who had sexual relations with her must be put to death. ²⁶ Don’t do anything to the girl, because she has not done a sin worthy of death. This is like the person who attacks and murders a neighbor; ²⁷ the man found the engaged girl in the country and she screamed, but no one was there to save her.

²⁸ If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged to be married and forces her to have sexual relations with him and people find out about it, ²⁹ the man must pay the girl’s father about one and one-fourth pounds of silver. He must also marry the girl, because he has dishonored her, and he may never divorce her for as long as he lives.

³⁰ A man must not marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father in this way.