Deuteronomy 22:9--23:19
Illustrations of the Principle of Purity
22:9 You must not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed; otherwise the entire yield, both of the seed you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled.
22:10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.
22:11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together.
22:12 You shall make yourselves tassels for the four corners of the clothing you wear.
Purity in the Marriage Relationship
22:13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and then rejects her,
22:14 accusing her of impropriety and defaming her reputation by saying, “I married this woman but when I had sexual relations with her I discovered she was not a virgin!”
22:15 Then the father and mother of the young woman must produce the evidence of virginity for the elders of the city at the gate.
22:16 The young woman’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man and he has rejected her.
22:17 Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out before the city’s elders.
22:18 The elders of that city must then seize the man and punish him.
22:19 They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
22:20 But if the accusation is true and the young woman was not a virgin,
22:21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge evil from among you.
22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations with a married woman both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge evil from Israel.
22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and has sexual relations with her,
22:24 you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor’s fiancée; in this way you will purge evil from among you.
22:25 But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die.
22:26 You must not do anything to the young woman – she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person and murders him,
22:27 for the man met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.
22:28 Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes her and they are discovered.
22:29 The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
22:30 (23:1) A man may not marry his father’s former wife and in this way dishonor his father.
Purity in Public Worship
23:1 A man with crushed or severed genitals may not enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:2 A person of illegitimate birth may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so.
23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever do so,
23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.
23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves you.
23:6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come.
23:7 You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land.
23:8 Children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Purity in Personal Hygiene
23:9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure.
23:10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately.
23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.
23:12 You are to have a place outside the camp to serve as a latrine.
23:13 You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself outside you must dig a hole with the spade and then turn and cover your excrement.
23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.
Purity in the Treatment of the Nonprivileged
23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you.
23:16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him.
Purity in Cultic Personnel
23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute among the young women of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute among the young men of Israel.
23:18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute or the wage of a male prostitute into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
Respect for Others’ Property
23:19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest.