20 When you take the field against your enemies, and see horses and chariots—forces larger than yours—have no fear of them, for the LORD your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2Before you join battle, the priest shall come forward and address the troops. 3He shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel! You are about to join battle with your enemy. Let not your courage falter. Do not be in fear, or in panic, or in dread of them. 4For it is the LORD your God who marches with you to do battle for you against your enemy, to bring you victory.”
5Then the officials shall address the troops, as follows: “Is there anyone who has built a new house but has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it. 6Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard but has never harvested it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another harvest it. 7Is there anyone who has paid the bride-price for a wife,a but who has not yet married her? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another marry her.” 8The officials shall go on addressing the troops and say, “Is there anyone afraid and disheartened? Let him go back to his home, lest the courage of his comrades flag like his.” 9When the officials have finished addressing the troops, army commanders shall assume command of the troops.
10When you approach a town to attack it, you shall b-offer it terms of peace.-b 11If it responds peaceably and lets you in, all the people present there shall serve you at forced labor. 12If it does not surrender to you, but would join battle with you, you shall lay siege to it; 13and when the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. 14You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, the livestock, and everything in the town—all its spoil—and enjoy the use of the spoil of your enemy, which the LORD your God gives you.
15Thus you shall deal with all towns that lie very far from you, towns that do not belong to nations hereabout. 16In the towns of the latter peoples, however, which the LORD your God is giving you as a heritage, you shall not let a soul remain alive. 17No, you must proscribec them— the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hiv-ites and the Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, 18lest they lead you into doing all the abhorrent things that they have done for their gods and you stand guilty before the LORD your God.
19When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? 20Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced.
21 If, in the land that the LORD your God is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, 2your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns. 3The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer which has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke; 4and the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to an everflowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There, in the wadi, they shall break the heifer’s neck. 5The priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to pronounce blessing in the name of the LORD, and every lawsuit and case of assaulta is subject to their ruling. 6Then all the elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi. 7And they shall make this declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8Absolve, O LORD, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel.” And they will be absolved of bloodguilt. 9Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
10When you take the field against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your power and you take some of them captive, 11and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and would take her to wife, 12you shall bring her into your house, and she shall trim her hair, pare her nails, 13and discard her captive’s garb. She shall spend a month’s time in your house lamenting her father and mother; after that you may come to her and possess her, and she shall be your wife. 14Then, should you no longer want her, you must release her outright. You must not sell her for money: since you had your will of her, you must not enslave her.
15If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, but the first-born is the son of the unloved one—16when he wills his property to his sons, he may not treat as first-born the son of the loved one in disregard of the son of the unloved one who is older. 17Instead, he must accept the first-born, the son of the unloved one, and allot to him a double portionb of all he possesses; since he is the first fruit of his vigor, the birthright is his due.
18If a man has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him, 19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the public place of his community. 20They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is disloyal and defiant; he does not heed us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21Thereupon the men of his town shall stone him to death. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst: all Israel will hear and be afraid.
22If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you impale him on a stake, 23you must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God: you shall not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
22 If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow. 2If your fellow does not live near you or you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your fellow claims it; then you shall give it back to him. 3You shall do the same with his ass; you shall do the same with his garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent.
4If you see your fellow’s ass or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must help him raise it.
5A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD your God.
6If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledg-lings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. 7Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.
8When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.
9You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, else the crop—from the seed you have sown—and the yield of the vineyard may not be used. 10You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. 11You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.
12You shall make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.
13A man marries a woman and cohabits with her. Then he takes an aversion to her 14and makes up charges against her and defames her, saying, “I married this woman; but when I approached her, I found that she was not a virgin.” 15In such a case, the girl’s father and mother shall produce the evidence of the girl’s virginity before the elders of the town at the gate. 16And
