Protect neighbor’s property
1If you see a neighbor’s cattle or sheep straying, don’t ignore it. Take the strays back to your neighbor. 2And if the owner doesn’t live close to you, take the strays home with you and keep them safe until the owner comes to get them. Then give them back. 3Do the same with stray donkeys, clothing left behind, or any other property that belongs to your neighbor. Don’t ignore what you find and leave it where you found it. 4And if you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox injured and lying on the road, don’t walk off and leave it. Stop and help get the animal back up.No cross-dressing
5You’re not allowed to cross-dress. Women shouldn’t wear men’s clothes and men shouldn’t wear women’s clothes. The LORD your God finds that disgusting.Baby birds are fair game
6Let’s say you’re traveling along and see a bird’s nest. Maybe it’s in a tree or on the ground. You see a mother bird sitting on her eggs or with her young. 7Don’t scoop them all up and go. Leave the mother. You can take the eggs and the young birds. But if you want to live a long a prosperous life, don’t take the mother. [1]Building code and other codes
8When you build a house, put a wall around the top of your flat roof. [2] This will help keep people from falling off the roof. And if they do fall, it won’t be your fault. 9Don’t mix plants in a vineyard. That’s forbidden. If you grow different crops together or different kinds of vines, you’re going to lose the entire harvest. [3] You’ll have to donate it to the worship center. 10If you want to plow, don’t team a donkey with an ox. [4] 11Don’t mix and match wool and linen. You can’t wear something woven from both. [5] 12Wear tassels on the four corners of your coats. [6]“My wife was not a virgin”
13Let’s say a man grows to hate his wife. 14So he starts a rumor. He says he didn’t marry a virgin—or at least he didn’t find any evidence she was a virgin. 15That cues the woman’s father and mother to bring the evidence to the city leaders who meet at the city gate. 16The father’s speech to the leaders might go something like this: “I gave my daughter to this guy as a wife. What does he do? He turns against her. 17He goes public with charges that she shamed herself. He tells people, ‘I didn’t find any evidence she was a virgin.’ But look at what I’m holding. This is the evidence.” And he spreads out the cloth. [7]18City leaders need to condemn the lying husband. 19Hit him with a fine of 100 silver shekels, [8] which is two and a half pounds. He publicly shamed an Israelite virgin. For that, he’s not allowed to divorce her for as long as he lives. [9] 20But what if the husband’s charge is true? What if there’s no evidence the woman was a virgin when she got married? 21In that case, take the woman to the front door of her father’s house. That’s where men in the city will stone her to death. She has disgraced herself by having premarital sex in her own father’s house. Eliminate this kind of evil from your community so it doesn’t spread.
More laws about sex
22If you catch a man having sex with a married woman, both need to die. Eliminate that evil before it catches on. 23If a man comes to town and has sex with a girl engaged to someone else, 24stone them both to death at the city gate. Kill her for not crying rape or calling for help. She was in the city. Someone would have heard her. Kill the man because he took someone else’s future wife. Eliminate that evil from your community.25But if a man finds an engaged girl out in a field and rapes her, execute only the man. 26Don’t hurt the girl. She did nothing wrong. This rape is like a murder case. 27The girl was a helpless victim out in the field where no one could hear her or save her. 28If a man is caught having sex with a virgin who isn’t engaged 29Fine the guy 50 silver shekels, which is one and a fourth pounds. [10] Then make him marry the girl because he ruined her reputation. He’s never allowed to divorce her. [11] 30A man is not allowed to marry his father’s wife. [12] That’s a dishonorable way to treat your own dad.
