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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 22

1 When you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; you must return it without fail to your neighbor.⁠ 2 If the owner does not live near you or you do not know who the owner is, then you must corral the animal at your house and let it stay with you until the owner looks for it; then you must return it to him. 3 You shall do the same to his donkey, his clothes, or anything else your neighbor has lost and you have found; you must not refuse to get involved. 4 When you see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen along the road, do not ignore it; instead, you must be sure to help him get the animal on its feet again.⁠ 5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor should a man dress up in women’s clothing, for anyone who does this is offensive to the Lord your God. 6 If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, you must not take away a mother that is with her young. 7 You must be sure to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life. 8 If you build a new house, you must construct a guardrail around your roof to avoid being culpable in the event someone should fall from it.⁠ 9 You must not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed;⁠ otherwise the entire yield, both of the seed you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled. 10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together. 12 You shall make yourselves tassels for the four corners of the clothing you wear.⁠ 13 Suppose a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then rejects her,⁠ 14 accusing her of impropriety and defaming her reputation by saying, “I married this woman but when I approached her for marital relations I discovered she was not a virgin!” 15 Then the father and mother of the young woman must produce the evidence of virginity for the elders of the city at the gate. 16 The young woman’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man and he has rejected her. 17 Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out before the city’s elders. 18 The elders of that city must then seize the man and punish him. 19 They will fine him 100 shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if the accusation is true and the young woman was not a virgin,⁠ 21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge the evil from among you. 22 If a man is discovered in bed with a married woman, both the man lying in bed with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge the evil from Israel.⁠ 23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and goes to bed with her, 24 you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor’s fiancée; in this way you will purge evil from among you. 25 But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die. 26 You must not do anything to the young woman—she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person and murders him, 27 for the man met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her. 28 Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and takes hold of her and sleeps with her and they are discovered. 29 The man who has slept with her must pay her father 50 shekels of silver and she must become his wife. Because he has humiliated her, he may never divorce her as long as he lives. 30 (23:1) A man may not marry his father’s former wife and in this way uncover his father's cloak.57⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Numbers commands making tassels with a blue thread on the corners of garments so that the Israelites remember the commandments. Deuteronomy repeats this in simpler form, requiring tassels on four-cornered garments but without mention of the blue thread.

Passages

Numbers 15:38

Hebrew Bible
36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord commanded Moses. 37 The Lord spoke to Moses: 38 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them to make tassels for themselves on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and put a blue thread on the tassel of the corners. 39 You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness. 40 Thus you will remember and obey all my commandments and be holy to your God.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

Deuteronomy 22:12

Hebrew Bible
10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together. 12 You shall make yourselves tassels for the four corners of the clothing you wear. 13 Suppose a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then rejects her, 14 accusing her of impropriety and defaming her reputation by saying, “I married this woman but when I approached her for marital relations I discovered she was not a virgin!”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

"... Tallit is a prayer shawl, traditionally made of wool or silk, worn by adults during morning worship, on Tisha B’Av in the afternoon, and on Yom Kippur at all services. Each of the prayer shawl’s four corners has a fringe called tzitzit that is knotted in a particular way. These fringes are based on Numbers 15:38–40 and Deuteronomy 22:12, which ordain the making of twisted cords on the four corners of one’s garment as a constant reminder of divine commandments; Numbers 15:38–40 also specify that the fringes should include a blue thread, although this is no longer considered a requirement for the tzitzit. Until recently, only men wore tallitot; in the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is increasingly common for women to wear tallitot during worship, including in some Orthodox settings. In some traditional communities, men wear a smaller, four-cornered garment called a tallit katan or arba kanfot under their clothing as a reminder throughout the day of the obligation to observe divine commandments ..."
Judith R. Baskin, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 582.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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  • Why are fringes no longer required?

    Victor, April 22, 2024

Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12

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