Humanity towards neighbours. Neither sex may use the apparel of the
other. Cruelty to be avoided even to birds. Battlements about the roof
of a house. Things of divers kinds not to be mixed. The punishment of
him that slandereth his wife, as also of adultery and rape.
22:1. Thou shalt not pass by if thou seest thy brother's ox, or his
sheep go astray: but thou shalt bring them back to thy brother.
22:2. And if thy brother be not nigh, or thou know him not: thou shalt
bring them to thy house, and they shall be with thee until thy brother
seek them, and receive them.
22:3. Thou shalt do in like manner with his ass, and with his raiment,
and with every thing that is thy brother's, which is lost: if thou find
it, neglect it not as pertaining to another.
22:4. If thou see thy brother's ass or his ox to be fallen down in the
way, thou shalt not slight it, but shalt lift it up with him.
22:5. A woman shall not be clothed with man's apparel, neither shall a
man use woman's apparel: for he that doth these things is abominable
before God.
22:6. If thou find as thou walkest by the way, a bird's nest in a tree,
or on the ground, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs:
thou shalt not take her with her young:
Thou shalt not take, etc. This was to shew them to exercise a certain
mercy even to irrational creatures; and by that means to train them up
to a horror of cruelty; and to the exercise of humanity and mutual
charity one to another.
22:7. But shalt let her go, keeping the young which thou hast caught:
that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst live a long time.
22:8. When thou buildest a new house, thou shalt make a battlement to
the roof round about: lest blood be shed in thy house, and thou be
guilty, if any one slip, and fall down headlong.
Battlement. . .This precaution was necessary, because all their houses
had flat tops, and it was usual to walk and to converse together upon
them.
22:9. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest both the
seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of the vineyard, be sanctified
together.
22:10. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.
22:11. Thou shalt not wear a garment that is woven of woollen and linen
together.
22:12. Thou shalt make strings in the hem at the four corners of thy
cloak, wherewith thou shalt be covered.
22:13. If a man marry a wife, and afterwards hate her,
22:14. And seek occasions to put her away, laying to her charge a very
ill name, and say: I took this woman to wife, and going in to her, I
found her not a virgin:
22:15. Her father and mother shall take her, and shall bring with them
the tokens of her virginity to the ancients of the city that are in the
gate:
22:16. And the father shall say: I gave my daughter unto this man to
wife: and because he hateth her,
22:17. He layeth to her charge a very ill name, so as to say: I found
not thy daughter a virgin: and behold these are the tokens of my
daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the
ancients of the city:
22:18. And the ancients of that city shall take that man, and beat him,
22:19. Condemning him besides in a hundred sicles of silver, which he
shall give to the damsel's father, because he hath defamed by a very
ill name a virgin of Israel: and he shall have her to wife, and may not
put her away all the days of his life.
22:20. But if what he charged her with be true, and virginity be not
found in the damsel:
22:21. They shall cast her out of the doors of her father's house, and
the men of the city shall stone her to death, and she shall die:
because she hath done a wicked thing in Israel, to play the whore in
her father's house: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst
of thee.
22:22. If a man lie with another man's wife, they shall both die, that
is to say, the adulterer and the adulteress: and thou shalt take away
the evil out of Israel.
22:23. If a man have espoused a damsel that is a virgin, and some one
find her in the city, and lie with her,
22:24. Thou shalt bring them both out to the gate of that city, and
they shall be stoned: the damsel, because she cried not out, being in
the city: the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife. And
thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee.
22:25. But if a man find a damsel that is betrothed, in the field, and
taking hold of her, lie with her, he alone shall die:
22:26. The damsel shall suffer nothing, neither is she guilty of death:
for as a robber riseth against his brother, and taketh away his life,
so also did the damsel suffer:
22:27. She was alone in the field: she cried, and there was no man to
help her.
22:28. If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who is not espoused,
and taking her, lie with her, and the matter come to judgment:
22:29. He that lay with her shall give to the father of the maid fifty
sicles of silver, and shall have her to wife, because he hath humbled
her: he may not put her away all the days of his life.
22:30. No man shall take his father's wife, nor remove his covering.