The Law · Chapter 22 of 34

Deuteronomy 22

A chapter of neighbor-love and ordered living. Return your neighbor's stray animals and lost goods; build a parapet on a new roof; keep distinctions in dress, field, and cloth; wear the appointed fringes. Family law follows: a husband who slanders his bride's honor is punished and bound to her, while genuine unfaithfulness is judged severely, and the woman forced in the field is declared guiltless.

What happens in Deuteronomy 22

Moses commands that a brother's straying ox, sheep, or ass be brought back and restored, and lost property returned; no one may hide himself from a neighbor's need or a fallen animal. Distinctions follow: men and women not to exchange garments; a mother bird spared when eggs are taken; a battlement built so no blood comes on a new house; vineyard, plow-team, and cloth kept unmixed; fringes worn on the vesture.

Then family law: a husband who slanders his bride's virginity is fined and bound to her, but genuine unfaithfulness, adultery, and violation are judged severely. A careful mercy distinguishes the betrothed woman forced in the field, who cried and had none to save her, from consenting sin; she bears no guilt. The chapter closes guarding the father's marriage.

Deuteronomy 22 in context

These statutes belong to Moses' second address on the plains of Moab, expounding covenant life for a people about to enter Canaan. They mingle civil, agricultural, and family law, translating the command to love one's neighbor into concrete duties.

Many reflect ancient Israel's honor culture and its penalties; readers weigh them within that setting and the wider canon, where mercy and equal dignity are more fully unfolded.

Main themes of Deuteronomy 22

Deuteronomy 22 (KJV)

1Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. 2And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. 3In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself. 4Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. 5The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. 6If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: 7But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. 8When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. 9Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. 10Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. 11Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. 12Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself. 13If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: 15Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 16And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 17And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; 19And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 20But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: 21Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. 22If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. 23If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 24Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. 25But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: 26But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: 27For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. 28If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; 29Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. 30A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.

Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 22

“Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.”Deuteronomy 22:1

“When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.”Deuteronomy 22:8

“But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:”Deuteronomy 22:26

Reflection

Where have you seen a need and hidden yourself, telling yourself it was not your concern? The law of the stray ox asks for the harder love that turns aside, picks up what is lost, and carries it home. Today, notice one thing you would rather not see, and do not look away.

A prayer from Deuteronomy 22