Reflections on Deuteronomy 22

Deuteronomy 22 (Contemporary English Version)

1. If you see a cow or sheep wandering around lost, take the animal back to its owner.
   
2. If the owner lives too far away, or if you don't know who the owner is, take the animal home with you and take care of it. The owner will come looking for the animal, and then you can give it back.
   
3. That's what you should do if you find anything that belongs to someone else. Do whatever you can to help, whether you find a cow or sheep or donkey or some clothing.
   
4. Oxen and donkeys that carry heavy loads can stumble and fall, and be unable to get up by themselves. So as you walk along the road, help anyone who is trying to get an ox or donkey back on its feet.
   
5. Women must not pretend to be men, and men must not pretend to be women. The LORD your God is disgusted with people who do that.
   
6. As you walk along the road, you might see a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground. If the mother bird is in the nest with either her eggs or her baby birds, you are allowed to take the baby birds or the eggs, but not the mother bird. Let her go free, and the LORD will bless you with a long and successful life.
   
7. (SEE 22:6)
   
8. If you build a house, make sure to put a low wall around the edge of the flat roof. Then if someone falls off the roof and is killed, it won't be your fault.
   
9. If you plant a vineyard, don't plant any other fruit tree or crop in it. If you do plant something else there, you must bring to the place of worship everything you harvest from the vineyard.
   
10. Don't hitch an ox and a donkey to your plow at the same time.
    
11. When you weave cloth for clothing, you can use thread made of flax or wool, but not both together.
    
12. And when you make a coat, sew a tassel on each of the four corners.
    
13. Suppose a man starts hating his wife soon after they are married.
    
14. He might tell ugly lies about her, and say, "I married this woman, but when we slept together, I found out she wasn't a virgin."
    
15. If this happens, the bride's father and mother must go to the town gate to show the town leaders the proof that the woman was a virgin.
    
16. Her father will say, "I let my daughter marry this man, but he started hating her
    
17. and accusing her of not being a virgin. But he is wrong, because here is proof that she was a virgin!" Then the bride's parents will show them the bed sheet from the woman's wedding night.
    
18. The town leaders will beat the man with a whip
    
19. because he accused his bride of not being a virgin. He will have to pay her father one hundred pieces of silver and will never be allowed to divorce her.
    
20. But if the man was right and there is no proof that his bride was a virgin,
    
21. the men of the town will take the woman to the door of her father's house and stone her to death. This woman brought evil into your community by sleeping with someone before she got married, and you must get rid of that evil by killing her.
    
22. People of Israel, if a man is caught having sex with someone else's wife, you must put them both to death. That way, you will get rid of the evil they have done in Israel.
    
23. If a man is caught in town having sex with an engaged woman who isn't screaming for help, they both must be put to death. The man is guilty of having sex with a married woman. And the woman is guilty because she didn't call for help, even though she was inside a town and people were nearby. Take them both to the town gate and stone them to death. You must get rid of the evil they brought into your community.
    
24. (SEE 22:23)
    
25. If an engaged woman is raped out in the country, only the man will be put to death.
    
26. Do not punish the woman at all; she has done nothing wrong, and certainly nothing deserving death. This crime is like murder,
    
27. because the woman was alone out in the country when the man attacked her. She screamed, but there was no one to help her.
    
28. Suppose a woman isn't engaged to be married, and a man talks her into sleeping with him. If they are caught,
    
29. they will be forced to get married. He must give her father fifty pieces of silver as a bride-price and can never divorce her.
    
30. A man must not marry a woman who was married to his father. This would be a disgrace to his father.
    

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    Chapter 22 -  The instructions of this chapter fall into three categories: love toward the neighbor, sexual promiscuity, and miscellaneous.
    
    Love toward the neighbor called upon the Israelites to take action when they saw an ox, sheep, donkey, garment, or anything belonging to another that was lost or straying. The instruction was most concerned with inaction. Doing nothing when an animal belonging to a neighbor was found straying. Though keeping a stray animal for oneself might be a temptation, the greater temptation was to not get involved, thus contributing to the neighbor's loss of his animal. This is not love toward the neighbor nor is it doing what one would wish to have done on their own behalf.
    
    Sexual promiscuity is detestable to God and destructive to a society. As with other destructive actions, capital punishment was prescribed both as a deterrent and to rid society of the "rotten apple" which would spoil the rest of society. Of particular concern in this passage was premarital and extramarital sex and rape.  Promiscuous sex with an engaged woman was treated the same as with one who was married. Stoning was prescribed for both situations. In the case of an unengaged virgin, the man was to marry the woman and had no right of divorce. In the case of rape, two scenarios were considered. If the attack took place in a town where the woman could call out for help and didn't, it was presumed to be consensual. If the woman was married or engaged it called for stoning of both parties. If the attack took place in the open country where no one could hear if the woman called for help, she was presumed to be innocent and the case was considered to be rape. In this case only the man was stoned if the woman was married or engaged. If she was unengaged and unmarried, the man had to pay the bride price to the woman's father and marry her with no recourse for divorce.
    
    Instructions covered under the miscellaneous category addressed such things as forbidding individuals to cross-dress such as a woman wearing men's clothing and vice versa. Also a person was not to take both a bird and it's eggs or chicks to be eaten. Only the eggs or chicks could be taken and the mother left. Construction of a new house should include a railing for the roof so no one would fall off. Vineyards should not be planted with two types of seed, or an ox and donkey yoked together for plowing, or wool and linen woven together to make clothing. The reason behind these prohibitions is not given. It may simply be good advice.