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 slanders his wife, as also of adultery and rape.

¹ “If you see your brother’s ox or sheep wander astray, you shall not pass by. Instead, you shall lead them back to your brother.

² But if your brother is not near, or you do not know him, you shall lead them to your house, and they shall be with you until your brother seeks them and receives them.

³ You shall act in a similar manner with his donkey, and his clothing, and all the belongings of your brother that have been lost. If you find it, you shall not neglect it, as if it belonged to a stranger.

⁴ If you see that your brother’s donkey or ox has fallen along the way, you shall not disregard it. Instead, you shall lift it up with him.

⁵ A woman shall not be clothed with manly apparel, nor shall a man make use of feminine apparel. For whoever does these things is abominable with God.

⁶ If, as you are walking along the way, you find a bird’s nest, in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is nurturing the young or the eggs, you shall not take her with her young.¹

1. 22:6you shall not take, etc.: This was to show 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.(Challoner)

⁷ Instead, you shall permit her to go, retaining the young that you have caught, so that it may be well with you, and you may live for a long time.

⁸ When you build a new house, you shall make a wall around the roof. Otherwise, someone may slip and fall down violently, and so blood would be shed at your house, and you would be guilty.¹

1. 22:8Battlement: This precaution was necessary, because all their houses had flat tops, and it was usual to walk and to converse together upon them.(Challoner)

⁹ You shall not sow your vineyard with another seed, lest both the seed that you have sown and what springs forth from the vineyard be sanctified together.

¹⁰ You shall not till with an ox and a donkey at the same time.

¹¹ You shall not wear a vestment which has been woven from both wool and linen.

¹² You shall make strings along the hem, at the four corners of your cloak, which covers you.

¹³ If a man takes a wife, and afterwards he has hatred for her,

¹⁴ and so he seeks opportunities to dismiss her, imputing a very wicked name to her by saying, ‘I received this woman as a wife, and upon entering to her, I found her not to be a virgin,’

¹⁵ then her father and mother shall take her, and they shall bring with them the signs of her virginity, to the elders of the city who are at the gate.

¹⁶ And the father shall say: ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife. And because he hates her,

¹⁷ he accuses her with a very wicked name, by saying: “I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.” But behold, these are the signs of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the clothing before the elders of the city.

¹⁸ And the elders of that city shall apprehend that man and beat him.

¹⁹ Moreover, they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, which he will give to the father of the girl, because he has committed slander, with a very wicked name, against a virgin of Israel. And he shall have her as a wife, and he cannot dismiss her throughout all the days of his life.

²⁰ But if what he has claimed is true and virginity is not found in the girl,

²¹ then they shall throw her down, outside the doors of her father’s house, and the men of that city shall stone her to death, and she shall die. For she has acted wickedly in Israel, in that she fornicated in her father’s house. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

²² If a man sleeps with the wife of another, then they shall both die, that is, the adulterer and the adulteress. And so shall you take away the evil from Israel.

²³ If a man has betrothed a girl who is a virgin, and if someone finds her in the city and he lies with her,

²⁴ then you shall lead them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be stoned to death: the girl, because she did not cry out though she was in the city; the man, because he has humiliated the wife of his neighbor. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

²⁵ But if a man discovers, in the countryside, a girl who has been betrothed, and, apprehending her, he lies with her, then he alone shall die.

²⁶ The girl shall suffer nothing, nor is she guilty unto death. For just as a robber rises up against his brother and slays his life, so also did the girl suffer greatly.

²⁷ She was alone in the field. She cried out, and there was no one nearby, who might deliver her.

²⁸ If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who does not have a betrothal, and, taking her, he lies with her, and the matter is brought to judgment,

²⁹ then he who slept with her shall give to the father of the girl fifty shekels of silver, and he shall have her as a wife, because he has humiliated her. He cannot dismiss her, throughout all the days of his life.

³⁰ No man shall take his father’s wife, nor remove her covering.”