The Wilderness Years

receive atonement for Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast ransomed, O Jehovah, and suffer not innocent blood in the midst of Thy people Israel; and the blood hath been pardoned to them,

and thou dost put away the innocent blood out of thy midst, for thou dost that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah.

`When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and Jehovah thy God hath given them into thy hand, and thou hast taken captive its captivity,

and hast seen in the captivity a woman of fair form, and hast delighted in her, and hast taken to thee for a wife,

then thou hast brought her in unto the midst of thy household, and she hath shaved her head, and prepared her nails,

and turned aside the raiment of her captivity from off her, and hath dwelt in thy house, and bewailed her father and her mother a month of days, and afterwards thou dost go in unto her and hast married her, and she hath been to thee for a wife:

`And it hath been--if thou hast not delighted in her, that thou hast sent her away at her desire, and thou dost not at all sell her for money; thou dost not tyrannize over her, because that thou hast humbled her.

`When a man hath two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they have borne to him sons (the loved one and the hated one), and the first-born son hath been to the hated one;

then it hath been, in the day of his causing his sons to inherit that which he hath, he is not able to declare first-born the son of the loved one, in the face of the son of the hated one--the first-born.

But the first-born, son of the hated one, he doth acknowledge, to give to him a double portion of all that is found with him, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him is the right of the first-born.

`When a man hath a son apostatizing and rebellious--he is not hearkening to the voice of his father, and to the voice of his mother, and they have chastised him, and he doth not hearken unto them--

then laid hold on him have his father and his mother, and they have brought him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place,

and have said unto the elders of his city, Our son--this one--is apostatizing and rebellious; he is not hearkening to our voice--a glutton and drunkard;

and all the men of his city have stoned him with stones, and he hath died, and thou hast put away the evil out of thy midst, and all Israel do hear and fear.

`And when there is in a man a sin--a cause of death, and he hath been put to death, and thou hast hanged him on a tree,

his corpse doth not remain on the tree, for thou dost certainly bury him in that day--for a thing lightly esteemed of God is the hanged one--and thou dost not defile thy ground which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance.

`Thou dost not see the ox of thy brother or his sheep driven away, and hast hidden thyself from them, thou dost certainly turn them back to thy brother;

and if thy brother is not near unto thee, and thou hast not known him, then thou hast removed it unto the midst of thy house, and it hath been with thee till thy brother seek it, and thou hast given it back to him;

and so thou dost to his ass, and so thou dost to his garment, and so thou dost to any lost thing of thy brother's, which is lost by him, and thou hast found it; thou art not able to hide thyself.

`Thou dost not see the ass of thy brother, or his ox, falling in the way, and hast hid thyself from them; thou dost certainly raise them up with him.

`The habiliments of a man are not on a woman, nor doth a man put on the garment of a woman, for the abomination of Jehovah thy God is any one doing these.

`When a bird's nest cometh before thee in the way, in any tree, or on the earth, brood or eggs, and the mother sitting on the brood or on the eggs, thou dost not take the mother with the young ones;

thou dost certainly send away the mother, and the young ones dost take to thyself, so that it is well with thee, and thou hast prolonged days.

`When thou buildest a new house, then thou hast made a parapet to thy roof, and thou dost not put blood on thy house when one falleth from it.

`Thou dost not sow thy vineyard with divers things, lest the fulness of the seed which thou dost sow, and the increase of the vineyard, be separated.