Deuteronomy Chapter 22
1 You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother.
2 If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him.
3 So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself.
4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.
5 A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.
6 If you come across a bird's nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young.
7 You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don't bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there.
9 You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard.
10 You shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together.
11 You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12 You shall make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her,
14 accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity;"
15 then the young lady's father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
16 The young lady's father shall tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her.
17 Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;' and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him.
19 They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20 But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady,
21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you.
22 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.
23 If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her,
24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbour's wife. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you.
25 But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die;
26 but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter;
27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her.
28 If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found,
29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.
30 A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt.
Footnotes
- Verse 12 (fringes)
- or, tassels
- Verse 19 (Shekel)
- A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 100 shekels is about a kilogram or 2.2 pounds.
- Verse 29 (Shekel)
- A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
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Deuteronomy Chapter 22 Guide
Here we have the record of the laws conditioning life in love and neighborliness. Every man was enjoined to take care of his brother's lost things if he found them; and he was also to help the hurt animals of his brethren in the hour of their distress.
All unseemliness in dress was forbidden. Men were charged to act in kindness even toward the birds. In building their houses they were to think of others who later might have to use them, and protect them against the possibility of accident by erecting a parapet around the roof.
Three commandments were uttered forbidding admixture. The land must not be sown with two seeds. Plowing must not be done with an ass and ox together Garments were not to be made of an admixture of wool and linen.
Continuing, the stringency of the Mosaic economy in the matter of chastity is revealed. It may well be carefully studied even today. It may be summarized by declaring that it demands that at all costs the man must be chaste and the woman pure. Moreover, it is made perfectly clear that in the mind of God the sacredness of betrothal is as great as that of the marriage relationship.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Deuteronomy Chapter 22 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- Of humanity towards brethren. -- (1-4)
- Various precepts. -- (5-12)
- Against impurity. -- (13-30)
Verses 1-4
If we duly regard the golden rule of "doing to others as we would they should do unto us," many particular precepts might be omitted. We can have no property in any thing that we find. Religion teaches us to be neighbourly, and to be ready to do all good offices to all men. We know not how soon we may have occasion for help.
Verses 5-12
God's providence extends itself to the smallest affairs, and his precepts do so, that even in them we may be in the fear of the Lord, as we are under his eye and care. Yet the tendency of these laws, which seem little, is such, that being found among the things of God's law, they are to be accounted great things. If we would prove ourselves to be God's people, we must have respect to his will and to his glory, and not to the vain fashions of the world. Even in putting on our garments, as in eating or in drinking, all must be done with a serious regard to preserve our own and others' purity in heart and actions. Our eye should be single, our heart simple, and our behaviour all of a piece.
Verses 13-30
These and the like regulations might be needful then, and yet it is not necessary that we should curiously examine respecting them. The laws relate to the seventh commandment, laying a restraint upon fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.