Knox Bible

1

Does a man take a wife, and then, after making her his own, find some taint of defilement in her, so that he loves her no longer? He must draw up a writ of separation and hand it to her before he sends her away from his house.

2

Does she, after parting from him, marry a second husband,

3

who also wearies of her and sends her away with a writ, or perhaps is lost to her by death?

4

Her first husband may not take her back again, now that she is contaminated, a thing detestable in the Lord’s eyes.✻ Do not bring guilt on the land which the Lord gives thee for thy home.

5

A man newly married will not serve in the wars, or have any other public duty enjoined upon him; he is free to abide at home and cheer his wife for a year’s space.

6

Thou shalt not accept mill or mill-stone as a debtor’s pledge; that is to let a man pledge his whole livelihood.

7

If anyone is found leading his fellow-Israelite into a trap,✻ and selling him as a slave for profit, he must die; rid thyself of such a plague as that.

8

Be on thy guard against the visitation of leprosy. Do as the priests of Levi’s race instruct thee at my bidding, and be exact in the performance of it;

9

never forget how the Lord thy God punished Mary, on thy way here out of Egypt.

10

When thou wouldst enforce a claim for debt against thy neighbour, do not go into his house to wrest his pledge from him;

11

stand without, and let him bring thee what he can.

12

A poor man’s pledge must not spend the night with thee;

13

give it back to him before set of sun. When he calls down a blessing on thee, glad to have his own cloak to sleep in, it will win thee favour from the Lord thy God.

14

And if thou hast a hired servant that lives from hand to mouth, be he thy fellow-Israelite, or some alien that shares thy land and city, do not withhold his wages;

15

pay him his day’s wages before set of sun. It is all he has, in his poverty, to support life with; cries he to the Lord, thou art a sinner manifest.

16

A father must not die for his son’s guilt, or a son for his father’s; no guilt but his own shall bring a man to death.

17

Do not refuse alien or orphan his rights at law; do not make the widow give thee her cloak as a pledge;

18

remember that thou wast once a slave in Egypt, and the Lord thy God rescued thee; with good right I enjoin so much upon thee.

19

If thou art harvesting the corn in one of thy fields, and a sheaf lies there forgotten, do not go back for it; leave it for the alien, the orphan and the widow; so the Lord thy God will prosper all thy undertakings.

20

Do not go over thy olive-trees again, the fruit once picked, leave the rest to alien, orphan and widow;

21

leave to alien, orphan and widow the clusters that hang on thy vines when the vintage is over, still ungathered.

22

Do not forget that thou wast once a slave in Egypt; not without reason I enjoin this upon thee.