Ki Teitzei

21:10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, 21:11 if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, 21:12 then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, 21:13 and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 21:14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn 21:15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, 21:16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife. 21:17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father ’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. A Rebellious Son (Luke 15:11–32) 21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, 21:19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown, 21:20 and say to the elders, “ This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21:21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid. Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree

21:22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, 21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God ’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22:1 If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother. 22:2 If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him. 22:3 And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it. 22:4 If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up. 22:5 A woman must not wear men ’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God. 22:6 If you come across a bird ’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. 22:7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

22:8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it. 22:9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled —both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard. 22:10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. 22:11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. 22:12 You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear. Marriage Violations 22:13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, 22:14 and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “ I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.” 22:15 Then the young woman ’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate 22:16 and say to the elders, “ I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her. 22:17 And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘ I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders. 22:18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him. 22:19 They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman ’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. 22:20 If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman ’s virginity can be found, 22:21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you. 22:22 If a man is found lying with another man ’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 22:23 If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, 22:24 you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death — the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor ’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you. 22:25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die. 22:26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 22:27 When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. 22:28 If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 22:29 then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman ’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives. 22:30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed. 23:1 No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD. 23:2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation. 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation. 23:4 For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you. 23:5 Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. 23:6 You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

23:7 Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 23:8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD. Uncleanness in the Camp (Leviticus 15:1–12) 23:9 When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing. 23:10 If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside. 23:11 When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp. 23:12 You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself. 23:13 And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 23:14 For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you. Miscellaneous Laws 23:15 Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you. 23:16 Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him. 23:17 No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute. 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God. 23:19 Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. 23:20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess. 23:21 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 23:22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin. 23:23 Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

23:24 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket. 23:25 When you enter your neighbor ’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor ’s grain. 24:1 If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. 24:2 If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 24:3 and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies, 24:4 then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

24:5 If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married. Additional Laws 24:6 Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one ’s livelihood as security. 24:7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you. 24:8 In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them. 24:9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt. 24:10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security. 24:11 You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you. 24:12 If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession; 24:13 be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.

24:14 Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 24:15 You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 24:16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin. 24:17 Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security. 24:18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this. 24:19 If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 24:20 When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 24:22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this. 25:1 If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned. 25:2 If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants. 25:3 He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight. 25:4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. Widowhood and Marriage 25:5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 25:6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 25:7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother ’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “ My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother ’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “ I do not want to marry her,” 25:9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “ This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.” 25:10 And his family name in Israel will be called “ The House of the Unsandaled.” 25:11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, 25:12 you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity. Standard Weights and Measures (Proverbs 11:1–3; Ezekiel 45:10–12) 25:13 You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. 25:14 You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small. 25:15 You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 25:16 For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God. Revenge on the Amalekites 25:17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt, 25:18 how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God. 25:19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!