19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he 1 is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, 19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities 2 in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. 19:3 You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent 3 of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. 19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, 4 if he has accidentally killed another 5 without hating him at the time of the accident. 6 19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else 7 to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax 8 to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose 9 from the handle and strikes 10 his fellow worker 11 so hard that he dies. The person responsible 12 may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. 13 19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, 14 and kill him, 15 though this is not a capital case 16 since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. 19:7 Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. 19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors 17 and gives you all the land he pledged to them, 18 19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments 19 I am giving 20 you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities 21 to these three. 19:10 You must not shed innocent blood 22 in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. 23 19:11 However, suppose a person hates someone else 24 and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, 25 and then flees to one of these cities. 19:12 The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger 26 to die. 19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent 27 from Israel, so that it may go well with you.
19:14 You must not encroach on your neighbor’s property, 28 which will have been defined 29 in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 30
19:15 A single witness may not testify 31 against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established 32 only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 19:16 If a false 33 witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, 34 19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges 35 who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, 36 19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge 37 evil from among you. 19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. 19:21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. 38
20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry 39 and troops 40 who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 20:2 As you move forward for battle, the priest 41 will approach and say to the soldiers, 42 20:3 “Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them, 20:4 for the Lord your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory.” 43 20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, 44 “Who among you 45 has built a new house and not dedicated 46 it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else 47 dedicate it. 20:6 Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it. 20:7 Or who among you 48 has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her.” 20:8 In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s 49 heart as fearful 50 as his own.” 20:9 Then, when the officers have finished speaking, 51 they must appoint unit commanders 52 to lead the troops.
20:10 When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. 20:11 If it accepts your terms 53 and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. 54 20:12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 20:13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you 55 and you must kill every single male by the sword. 20:14 However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city – all its plunder – you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. 20:15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.
20:16 As for the cities of these peoples that 56 the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing 57 to survive. 20:17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them 58 – the Hittites, 59 Amorites, 60 Canaanites, 61 Perizzites, 62 Hivites, 63 and Jebusites 64 – just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 20:18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship 65 their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God. 20:19 If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, 66 you must not chop down its trees, 67 for you may eat fruit 68 from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! 69 20:20 However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, 70 and you may use it to build siege works 71 against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.
21:1 If a homicide victim 72 should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, 73 and no one knows who killed 74 him, 21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. 75 21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse 76 must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke – 21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, 77 to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. 78 There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests 79 will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, 80 and to decide 81 every judicial verdict 82 ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse 83 must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 84 21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we 85 witnessed the crime. 86 21:8 Do not blame 87 your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” 88 Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. 21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before 89 the Lord.
21:10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail 90 and you take prisoners, 21:11 if you should see among them 91 an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, 21:12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, 92 trim her nails, 21:13 discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, 93 and stay 94 in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations 95 with her and become her husband and she your wife. 21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go 96 where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell 97 her; 98 you must not take advantage of 99 her, since you have already humiliated 100 her.
21:15 Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, 101 and they both 102 bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife. 21:16 In the day he divides his inheritance 103 he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other 104 wife’s son who is actually the firstborn. 21:17 Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved 105 wife as firstborn and give him the double portion 106 of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power 107 – to him should go the right of the firstborn.
21:18 If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail, 108 21:19 his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city. 21:20 They must declare to the elders 109 of his city, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say – he is a glutton and drunkard.” 21:21 Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out 110 wickedness from among you, and all Israel 111 will hear about it and be afraid.
21:22 If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse 112 on a tree, 21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury 113 him that same day, for the one who is left exposed 114 on a tree is cursed by God. 115 You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22:1 When you see 116 your neighbor’s 117 ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; 118 you must return it without fail 119 to your neighbor. 22:2 If the owner 120 does not live 121 near you or you do not know who the owner is, 122 then you must corral the animal 123 at your house and let it stay with you until the owner looks for it; then you must return it to him. 22:3 You shall do the same to his donkey, his clothes, or anything else your neighbor 124 has lost and you have found; you must not refuse to get involved. 125 22:4 When you see 126 your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen along the road, do not ignore it; 127 instead, you must be sure 128 to help him get the animal on its feet again. 129
22:5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, 130 nor should a man dress up in women’s clothing, for anyone who does this is offensive 131 to the Lord your God.
22:6 If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, 132 you must not take the mother from the young. 133 22:7 You must be sure 134 to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
22:8 If you build a new house, you must construct a guard rail 135 around your roof to avoid being culpable 136 in the event someone should fall from it.
1 tn Heb “the
2 sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).
3 tn Heb “border.”
4 tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”
5 tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”
6 tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”
7 tn Heb “his neighbor” (so NAB, NIV); NASB “his friend.”
8 tn Heb “and he raises his hand with the iron.”
9 tn Heb “the iron slips off.”
10 tn Heb “finds.”
11 tn Heb “his neighbor.”
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person responsible for his friend’s death) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “and live.”
14 tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”
15 tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.
16 tn Heb “no judgment of death.”
17 tn Heb “fathers.”
18 tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.
19 tn Heb “all this commandment.” This refers here to the entire covenant agreement of the Book of Deuteronomy as encapsulated in the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).
20 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today.”
21 sn You will add three more cities. Since these are alluded to nowhere else and thus were probably never added, this must be a provision for other cities of refuge should they be needed (cf. v. 8). See P. C. Craigie, Deuteronomy (NICOT), 267.
22 tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).
23 tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”
24 tn Heb “his neighbor.”
25 tn Heb “rises against him and strikes him fatally.”
26 tn The גֹאֵל הַדָּם (go’el haddam, “avenger of blood”) would ordinarily be a member of the victim’s family who, after due process of law, was invited to initiate the process of execution (cf. Num 35:16-28). See R. Hubbard, NIDOTTE 1:789-94.
27 sn Purge out the blood of the innocent. Because of the corporate nature of Israel’s community life, the whole community shared in the guilt of unavenged murder unless and until vengeance occurred. Only this would restore spiritual and moral equilibrium (Num 35:33).
28 tn Heb “border.” Cf. NRSV “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker.”
29 tn Heb “which they set off from the beginning.”
30 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.” This phrase has been left untranslated to avoid redundancy.
31 tn Heb “rise up” (likewise in v. 16).
32 tn Heb “may stand.”
33 tn Heb “violent” (חָמָס, khamas). This is a witness whose motivation from the beginning is to do harm to the accused and who, therefore, resorts to calumny and deceit. See I. Swart and C. VanDam, NIDOTTE 2:177-80.
34 tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).
35 tn The appositional construction (“before the
36 tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).
37 tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).
38 sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.
39 tn Heb “horse and chariot.”
40 tn Heb “people.”
41 sn The reference to the priest suggests also the presence of the ark of the covenant, the visible sign of God’s presence. The whole setting is clearly that of “holy war” or “Yahweh war,” in which God himself takes initiative as the true commander of the forces of Israel (cf. Exod 14:14-18; 15:3-10; Deut 3:22; 7:18-24; 31:6, 8).
42 tn Heb “and he will say to the people.” Cf. NIV, NCV, CEV “the army”; NRSV, NLT “the troops.”
43 tn Or “to save you” (so KJV, NASB, NCV); or “to deliver you.”
44 tn Heb “people” (also in vv. 8, 9).
45 tn Heb “Who [is] the man” (also in vv. 6, 7, 8).
46 tn The Hebrew term חָנַךְ (khanakh) occurs elsewhere only with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 8:63 = 2 Chr 7:5). There it has a religious connotation which, indeed, may be the case here as well. The noun form (חָנֻכָּה, khanukah) is associated with the consecration of the great temple altar (2 Chr 7:9) and of the postexilic wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27). In Maccabean times the festival of Hanukkah was introduced to celebrate the rededication of the temple following its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Macc 4:36-61).
47 tn Heb “another man.”
48 tn Heb “Who [is] the man.”
49 tn Heb “his brother’s.”
50 tn Heb “melted.”
51 tn The Hebrew text includes “to the people,” but this phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
52 tn Heb “princes of hosts.”
53 tn Heb “if it answers you peace.”
54 tn Heb “become as a vassal and will serve you.” The Hebrew term translated slaves (מַס, mas) refers either to Israelites who were pressed into civil service, especially under Solomon (1 Kgs 5:27; 9:15, 21; 12:18), or (as here) to foreigners forced as prisoners of war to become slaves to Israel. The Gibeonites exemplify this type of servitude (Josh 9:3-27; cf. Josh 16:10; 17:13; Judg 1:28, 30-35; Isa 31:8; Lam 1:1).
55 tn Heb “to your hands.”
56 tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”
57 tn Heb “any breath.”
58 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “utterly.” Cf. CEV “completely wipe out.”
59 sn Hittite. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200
60 sn Amorite. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200
61 sn Canaanite. These were the indigenous peoples of the land of Palestine, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000
62 sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).
63 sn Hivite. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on “Horites” in Deut 2:12).
64 tc The LXX adds “Girgashites” here at the end of the list in order to list the full (and usual) complement of seven (see note on “seven” in Deut 7:1).
65 tn Heb “to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods.”
66 tn Heb “to fight against it to capture it.”
67 tn Heb “you must not destroy its trees by chopping them with an iron” (i.e., an ax).
68 tn Heb “you may eat from them.” The direct object is not expressed; the word “fruit” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
69 tn Heb “to go before you in siege.”
70 tn Heb “however, a tree which you know is not a tree for food you may destroy and cut down.”
71 tn Heb “[an] enclosure.” The term מָצוֹר (matsor) may refer to encircling ditches or to surrounding stagings. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 238.
72 tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).
73 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
74 tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”
75 tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”
76 tn Heb “slain [one].”
77 tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.
78 sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.
79 tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”
80 tn Heb “in the name of the
81 tn Heb “by their mouth.”
82 tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”
83 tn Heb “slain [one].”
84 tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.
85 tn Heb “our eyes.” This is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part (the eyes) is put for the whole (the entire person).
86 tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
87 tn Heb “Atone for.”
88 tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”
89 tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).
90 tn Heb “gives him into your hands.”
91 tn Heb “the prisoners.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
92 sn This requirement for the woman to shave her head may symbolize the putting away of the old life and customs in preparation for being numbered among the people of the
93 tn Heb “she is to…remove the clothing of her captivity” (cf. NASB); NRSV “discard her captive’s garb.”
94 tn Heb “sit”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “remain.”
95 tn Heb “go unto,” a common Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations.
96 sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.
97 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”
98 tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
99 tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”
100 sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).
101 tn Heb “one whom he loves and one whom he hates.” For the idea of שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) meaning to be rejected or loved less (cf. NRSV “disliked”), see Gen 29:31, 33; Mal 1:2-3. Cf. A. Konkel, NIDOTTE 3:1256-60.
102 tn Heb “both the one whom he loves and the one whom he hates.” On the meaning of the phrase “one whom he loves and one whom he hates” see the note on the word “other” earlier in this verse. The translation has been simplified for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
103 tn Heb “when he causes his sons to inherit what is his.”
104 tn Heb “the hated.”
105 tn See note on the word “other” in v. 15.
106 tn Heb “measure of two.” The Hebrew expression פִּי שְׁנַיִם (piy shÿnayim) suggests a two-thirds split; that is, the elder gets two parts and the younger one part. Cf. 2 Kgs 2:9; Zech 13:8. The practice is implicit in Isaac’s blessing of Jacob (Gen 25:31-34) and Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim (Gen 48:8-22).
107 tn Heb “his generative power” (אוֹן, ’on; cf. HALOT 22 s.v.). Cf. NAB “the first fruits of his manhood”; NRSV “the first issue of his virility.”
108 tn Heb “and he does not listen to them.”
109 tc The LXX and Smr read “to the men,” probably to conform to this phrase in v. 21. However, since judicial cases were the responsibility of the elders in such instances (cf. Deut 19:12; 21:3, 6; 25:7-8) the reading of the MT is likely original and correct here.
110 tn The Hebrew term בִּעַרְתָּה (bi’artah), here and elsewhere in such contexts (cf. Deut 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:9), suggests God’s anger which consumes like fire (thus בָעַר, ba’ar, “to burn”). See H. Ringgren, TDOT 2:203-4.
111 tc Some LXX traditions read הַנִּשְׁאָרִים (hannish’arim, “those who remain”) for the MT’s יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra’el, “Israel”), understandable in light of Deut 19:20. However, the more difficult reading found in the MT is more likely original.
112 tn Heb “him.”
113 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”
114 tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”
115 sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).
116 tn Heb “you must not see,” but, if translated literally into English, the statement is misleading.
117 tn Heb “brother’s” (also later in this verse). In this context it is not limited to one’s siblings, however; cf. NAB “your kinsman’s.”
118 tn Heb “hide yourself.”
119 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail.”
120 tn Heb “your brother” (also later in this verse).
121 tn Heb “is not.” The idea of “residing” is implied.
122 tn Heb “and you do not know him.”
123 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox or sheep mentioned in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
124 tn Heb “your brother” (also in v. 4).
125 tn Heb “you must not hide yourself.”
126 tn Heb “you must not see.” See note at 22:1.
127 tn Heb “and (must not) hide yourself from them.”
128 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “be sure.”
129 tn Heb “help him to lift them up.” In keeping with English style the singular is used in the translation, and the referent (“the animal”) has been specified for clarity.
130 tn Heb “a man’s clothing.”
131 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “offense”) speaks of anything that runs counter to ritual or moral order, especially (in the OT) to divine standards. Cross-dressing in this covenant context may suggest homosexuality, fertility cult ritual, or some other forbidden practice.
132 tn Heb “and the mother sitting upon the chicks or the eggs.”
133 tn Heb “sons,” used here in a generic sense for offspring.
134 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “be sure.”
135 tn Or “a parapet” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “a battlement”; NLT “a barrier.”
136 tn Heb “that you not place bloodshed in your house.”