Old/New Testament
Chapter 22
Helping Your Neighbor. 1 If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep straying away, do not ignore it, but take it back to your neighbor. 2 If your neighbor does not live nearby or you do not know whose animal it is, take it to your own home and keep it there until your neighbor comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. 3 You are to do the same if you find his donkey or his cloak or anything that your neighbor loses. You are not to ignore it. 4 If you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fall on the road, do not ignore it. Help him to get it up again.
Incidental Rules. 5 A woman is not to wear a man’s clothing, nor is a man to wear a woman’s clothing. The Lord, your God, detests all who do such things.[a]
6 If you come across a bird’s nest with young ones or eggs along the way, either in a tree or lying on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting upon the young ones or the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7 You can take the young ones, but let the mother go, so that things may go well with you and you may live a long life.
8 When you build a new house, place a parapet around your roof so that you do not bring blood guilt upon your house if anyone should fall from it.
9 You should not plant two different types of seed in your vineyard. If you do, the fruit of the seed you planted and the fruit in your vineyard will both be defiled.
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11 Do not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.
12 You are to make fringes on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.[b]
13 Rules for Sexual Relationships. If a man takes a woman and has sex with her, but then he grows to hate her 14 and he charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her name saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her I discovered that she was not a virgin,” 15 have the father and mother of the young woman give proof of the young woman’s virginity to the elders at the town gate.[c] 16 The young woman’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and he has grown to hate her. 17 Now he has slandered her saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ Here is proof of my daughter’s virginity.” They will then spread the cloth out before the elders. 18 The elders will take the man and punish him. 19 They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman because this man defamed the name of one of the virgins of Israel. She will continue to be his wife, and he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. 20 If, however, the charge is true and there is no proof of the young woman’s virginity, 21 she is to be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of the town will stone her to death. She did a disgraceful thing in Israel, committing fornication in her father’s house. You must purge this evil from your midst.[d]
22 If a man is discovered sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with the woman and the woman must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man encounters a young woman who is betrothed to another man and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the city gate and stone them to death, the young woman because she was inside of the city and did not cry out, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if a man encounters a young woman betrothed to another man in the countryside and he overcomes her and has sex with her, then only the man who has done this is to die. 26 Do nothing to the young woman, for she has not committed a sin deserving death. This matter is just like when a man attacks and murders his neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman in the countryside, and though the betrothed might have screamed out, there was no one there to rescue her.
28 If a man encounters a young woman who is a virgin but she is not betrothed, and he overcomes her and has sex with her and they are discovered, 29 he must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her, and he can never divorce her for as long as he lives.
Chapter 23
1 A man shall not marry his father’s wife; he is not to dishonor his father’s bed.[e]
Membership Exclusions. 2 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting can enter the assembly of the Lord.[f] 3 No one who is illegitimate[g] can enter the assembly of the Lord, nor can his descendants to the tenth generation enter the assembly of the Lord. 4 No Ammonite or Moabite can enter the assembly of the Lord, even their descendants to the tenth generation cannot enter the assembly of the Lord 5 for they did not greet you with bread and water as you were on your way when you came forth out of Egypt. They hired Balaam, the son of Beor who came from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you. 6 However, the Lord, your God, would not listen to Balaam. The Lord, your God, turned a curse upon you into a blessing, for the Lord, your God, loved you. 7 Do not establish a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
8 Do not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not detest an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land. 9 The third generation of children born to them can enter the assembly of the Lord.
10 Camp Sanitation. When you are encamped against your enemies, stay away from everything that is impure. 11 If one of your men among you is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, let him move outside of the camp. He is not to enter the camp. 12 When evening arrives, he is to wash himself with water, and he can come back inside of the camp.
13 Designate a place outside of the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 14 You shall have an implement with your equipment so that when you relieve yourself, you can dig a hole and cover over your excrement.
15 The Lord, your God, walks among you in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies up to you, so your camp must be holy, lest he see something unclean among you and turn away from you.
16 Incidental Rules. If a slave has taken refuge from his master with you, you are not to hand him over to his master. 17 Let him live with you wherever he chooses, in whatever town he chooses. You are not to oppress him.
18 No Israelite woman is to become a sacred prostitute, nor is an Israelite man to be a sacred prostitute. 19 You are not to bring the wages of a female prostitute or a male prostitute[h] into the shrine of the Lord, your God, to pay for any vow. Both of these are abominations to the Lord, your God.
20 [i]Do not charge your brother interest, whether it be on money or food or anything else that could earn interest. 21 You can charge a foreigner interest, but you cannot charge a brother interest. For this you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in everything that you undertake in the land that you are entering to possess.
22 If you make a vow to the Lord, your God, do not be lax in paying it off, for the Lord, your God, will certainly require it of you, and you would be guilty of a sin. 23 But if you fail to make a vow, there is no sin. 24 Whatever your lips utter, you must do, for you have vowed a freewill offering to the Lord, your God, with your own mouth.
25 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat as many grapes as you want, but you are not to put any in a basket. 26 If you enter your neighbor’s grain fields, you can pluck the kernels with your hands, but you are not to take a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
Chapter 24
Marriage Laws.[j] 1 If a man marries a woman, and after they are married she becomes displeasing to him because he has discovered something indecent about her, and he writes a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand, and he sends her forth from his house, 2 then after she has left his house, she can become the wife of another man. 3 If this second husband is displeased with her and writes her a bill of divorce and he puts it in her hand and he sends her forth from his house, or if the second man who took her to be his wife should die, 4 then her first husband who had sent her away cannot take her back to be his wife again, for she has been defiled. This would be an abomination to the Lord. You shall not cause the sin to come upon the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently been married, he is not to go off to battle nor have any other duty laid on him. He will be free to stay at home for one year so that he can bring happiness to the wife whom he has married.
Additional Laws. 6 Do not take a lower or upper millstone as a pledge against a debt, for that would mean that you were taking the man’s livelihood as a pledge.[k]
7 If anyone kidnaps one of his fellow Israelites, mistreating him and selling him, then that kidnapper is to be put to death, and you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 During an outbreak of leprosy, take heed to observe and carefully fulfill all that the priests, the Levites, tell you to do. Observe what they command of you and do it. 9 Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Miriam on the way after you came up out of Egypt.
10 Be willing to lend your brother anything, and do not go to his house to obtain his pledge against the loan. 11 Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you made the loan will bring the pledge out to you. 12 If a man is poor, you are not to keep his pledge overnight. 13 You are to return his pledge to him when the sun goes down so that he can sleep in his own garment and bless you. This is righteous to the Lord, your God.
14 You shall not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he be one of your brethren or a foreigner who lives on the land within your town gates. 15 You are to give him his wages on the same day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and he has his heart set on it. Otherwise he might cry out against you to the Lord and it would be your sin.
16 Fathers are not to be put to death in the place of their sons, nor are sons to be put to death in place of their fathers. Each man is to be put to death for his own sin.
17 You are not to pervert justice toward a foreigner or an orphan, nor are you to take a widow’s garment as a pledge against a loan. 18 Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and the Lord, your God, redeemed you from there. This is why I command you to do this.
19 When you reap a harvest in the field and you miss a sheaf of grain, do not turn around to take it. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Then you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings. 20 When you beat your olive trees, do not go back over the branches a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. 21 When you harvest grapes in your vineyard, do not go back over it a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. 22 Remember that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt. This is why I command you to do this.
The Mystery Is Fully Manifested in the Passion and Resurrection[a]
Chapter 14
The Plot against Jesus.[b] 1 It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking to arrest Jesus by deceit and put him to death. 2 They said, “It must not occur during the feast, or the people may begin to riot.”
A Woman of Bethany Anoints Jesus.[c] 3 When Jesus was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, made of pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured the ointment over his head. 4 Some of those present said to one another indignantly, “Why was this ointment wasted in such a manner? 5 It could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii,[d] with the money given to the poor.” And they began to rebuke her sharply.
6 However, Jesus said, “Let her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has performed a good action toward me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could. She has anointed my body to prepare for my burial. 9 Amen, I say to you, wherever in the whole world this gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
10 Judas Betrays Jesus.[e] Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests and offered to hand him over to them. 11 They were delighted when they heard his proposal, and they promised to give him money. Then he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
12 The Preparations for the Passover.[f] On the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, the disciples said to Jesus, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13 He sent forth two of his disciples, instructing them: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him! 14 Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: “Where is the room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’ 15 Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” 16 The disciples went forth, entered the city, and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
17 The Treachery of Judas Foretold.[g] Now when evening came, he arrived with the Twelve. 18 And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 On hearing this they began to be distressed and to say to him, one after another, “Is it I?”
20 He said to them, “It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
22 The Last Supper.[h] While they were eating he took bread, and after he had pronounced the blessing, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after offering thanks he gave it to them. After they all drank from it, 24 he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many. 25 Amen, I say to you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I shall drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”
26 And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
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