Deuteronomy 22, On Adultery

We have spent several chapters on items related to murder, manslaughter and warfare. Now appear a variety of decrees moving towards the Seventh Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:18), prohibitions on adultery.

Deuteronomy 22:1-4, Your neighbor's flock

If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him.

Do the same if you find your brother's donkey or his cloak or anything he loses. Do not ignore it.

If you see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet.

 

We are to care for our neighbor's property. This seems to be a collection of ad-hoc decrees pointing out one's communal responsibilities. It does not seem to be related to adultery or, more generally, human sexuality.

Deuteronomy 22:5, Dress for your gender

A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.

In a society that emphasized fertility and large families, it was important that one wore clothes that clarified their gender.

Deuteronomy 22:6-7, Release the mother

If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

Even as one hunted for eggs or nestlings, one was to recognize that the mother bird should be free to build a nest again and to propagate the species.

Deuteronomy 22:8, Railing on your roof

When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.

Protect your neighbors with a railing on the roof! This example is one of several that argue that one should be a thoughtful, compassionate citizen in Israel. It seems to be representative -- a person who meditates on these decrees could surely think of other places where they would need to protect their neighbors and family.  

We now begin to explore principles related to the Seventh Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:18), prohibition against adultery. In its most general setting, to adulterate something is to water it down, to thin and reduce its concentration. What follows are some strange decrees that appear to be related to depleting and weakening the power of a process. 

Deuteronomy 22:9-11, Mixed messages

Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.

Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

These instructions prohibit the mixing together of unequal things, things that will tear or come apart because of this inequality. Elsewhere Israelites are prohibited from marrying someone outside of Israel for this reason; the pagan partner gives an "unequal yoke."

Deuteronomy 22:12, Tassels

Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

While we are discussing clothes, we have a strange statement about tassels.  This command is clearer when we look at an expansion of this statement in Numbers 15:37-41. There the tassels represent the various decrees of YHWH, fitting in with the instructions of Deuteronomy 6:8, to keep these commands ever tied before one. The tassels become a physical statement of one's identity with the decrees of YHWH. (A modern version of using beads or tassels as a reminder of spiritual words would be the rosary.)

 

Deuteronomy 22:13-19, Slandering one's bride

If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, "I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity," then the girl's father and mother shall bring proof that she was a virgin to the town elders at the gate.

The girl's father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, `I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.' But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity." 

Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,  and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the girl's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

What a strange and culturally weighted example! In a society relying on fertility, on large families and large flocks, the woman's virginity was viewed as a valuable contribution to the family and there were significant penalties for slandering her sexual character.

The elders typically met at the gates of the town; this would be the location for some type of judicial hearing. Currid argues that the elders would have added an additional penalty, beyond the one hundred shekels of silver, for the dishonest husband, and that the one hundred shekels was probably twice the standard bride price (see verse 29, below.)

Currid argues that evidence of the woman's virginity, blood preserved from the perforation of the woman's hymen, was part of the ritual of the wedding night. 

 

Deuteronomy 22:20-21, 

If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you.

Although adultery was technically defined as sex with a partner who is married to someone else, this passage makes it clear that any sex outside of marriage is condemned. In this case, the woman presumably has had a sex partner who is unknown. (What proof is demanded here? What if a woman is a virgin but does not bleed from her first sexual intercourse?)

Deuteronomy 22:22, 

If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

Here the woman is married and both partners are condemned for their adultery. 

So far, these examples, three of them, have described moral issues involving a woman who is married. We now move to three examples that involve an unmarried woman.

Deuteronomy 22:23-27, Premarital sex

If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death--the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor, for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

This passage distinguishes between "in town" where the woman could presumably call for help but did not and "out of town" where the woman could not call out and so was unprotected.  

Hopefully our culture has proceeded beyond this -- but we will notice a number of passages further along in the Old Testament in which these issues of seduction, rape and a woman's vulnerability lead to conflict and even murder.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29, Rape

If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Is this accepting of rape? Or seduction? In the patriarchal society this provides some small protection to the woman but we do not see the harsh penalties of other examples. (Our modern culture certainly cringes with a paragraph like this. An example from Old Testament history occurs in II Samuel 13, where Amnon, son of David, rapes his half-sister Tamar. There Tamar pleads with Amnon to first marry her, but he refuses to stop and suffers no immediate legal penalty.)

According to Exodus 22:16-17, the father (hopefully after listening to his daughter?) can reject the marriage but still collect the bride price of fifty shekels.

Deuteronomy 22:30, 

A man is not to marry his father's wife; he must not dishonor his father's bed.

This verse appears to be a somewhat tangential decree that forbids incest, echoing back to Reuben's crime in Genesis 35:22. This decree repeats the earlier decree of Leviticus 18:7. In the Hebrew Bible, says Currid, this verse was part of the next chapter, where it may fit in a little better.

Some Hebrew vocabulary

Our Hebrew word for the day is taphas,

תָּפַשׂ

a verb meaning "to seize" or "to capture". It is used in verse 28, above, before a Hebrew phrase that translate as "and lies with her," to describe sexual assault on a virgin. The NIV merely translates the entire phrase (two Hebrew words) as "rape."

Some Random Thoughts

Among all the stuff about adultery, sex, rape, one strange verse jumps out at me. In verse 8 the people are instructed to extend their walls to form a barrier on their roof! Clearly this decree is not useful today, unless it merely represents a principle of this book: 

Think about the implications of the Law; 

think about how to love God and love your neighbor!

In the ancient Near East, houses were single story, with a flat roof.  People often congregated on the roof; on hot nights people slept on the roof.  If you care about your neighbor, make sure to protect them when you congregate there.  Verse 8, which seems bizarre at first, is merely an example of an underlying principle that appears in modern law as issues related to negligence.

Once I see these many decrees as mere examples of deeper underlying principles, suddenly a lot of this makes sense.  Look not to the details of the decrees but to the underlying principles!

First published May 11, 2023; updated May 11, 2026

Deuteronomy and the Mandalorian

[This post was originally written in 2023 and it's only been slightly updated.]

"This is the way."

That phrase is embedded in my brain after streaming 3 seasons of The Mandalorian. In this Star Wars saga, our attention focuses on an individual Mandalorian, Din Djarin, a bounty hunter whose trail crosses that of the child Grogu (baby Yoda.)

As Jan and I have been lately dealing with some illnesses, we have been binge-watching these Star Wars sagas. At the same time, I've been studying and blogging on the book of Deuteronomy. On one level, the Torah's fifth book is nothing like the TV series The Mandalorian.  But on a different level, every episode seems to remind me of the atmosphere of Deuteronomy, of the feelings (many negative) as I read through this repetition of the Law of the Covenant.

Deuteronomy appears to be a long sequence of decrees. (I argue, on the basis of Currid's commentary, that this is inaccurate -- that Deuteronomy is a "meditation" on the effect of the Ten Commandments.  Regardless...) The text of Deuteronomy has a lot of "Do this", "Do that", without immediate motivation.  One can almost hear Moses responding to questions with "This is the way." 

Much of Deuteronomy does seem similar to a military code. "Do this." "Followers of YHWH do this." "Penalties for failure are... " Occasionally there is an order to "Show no mercy."  Embedded in the instructions are statements about redemption, whether in fleeing to sanctuary cities (if one has committed manslaughter) or in offering sacrifices to cleanse a community. Deuteronomy emphasizes teaching children the Code and raising them to follow it. The Mandalorians also have a code of conduct. (For example, see here.)  The Code of the Mandalore also emphasizes raising children correctly within the community and its code. And as the Torah offers a path to redemption, there is even a path for redemption for an apostate Mandalorian.

Most military units have some type of code of conduct. As the nation of Israel leaves the Wilderness, it is an army on a military campaign into Canaan. The lectures of Moses in Deuteronomy reflect that.

In the background of all of this is an issue of optics. We find the seriousness of the Mandalorians to be attractive, especially if it leads them to be effective fighters. In the same way, the Law of Deuteronomy was intended to be attractive to other ancient Near East cultures. The people on the outside were to look into the kingdom of Israel and say, "I want to be part of that Way."

These similarities are not surprising. Much of fantasy and science fiction has evolved out of medieval settings, through The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), Camber of Culdi (Kurtz), The Game of Thrones (Martin) and the Star Wars universe. Also Foundation (Asimov) and Dune (Herbert). And the medieval atmosphere (such as the Holy Roman Empire) was deeply steeped in the culture of the Bible, especially the Old Testament.

When I think more carefully about this, the similarities between Deuteronomy and The Mandalorian are superficial. In the Star Wars saga, one redeems oneself by immersing in the waters of Mandalore.  No explanation for this rule is given. Nothing is motivated. "This is the way." People like me (and many small children) would not last long in the Mandalorian community as we want to always ask, "Why?"  I'm not sure Mandalorian children get an answer to that question.

There is motivation and explanation for Deuteronomy.  It is hard for modern our ears to hear it, three millennia later, but the reason for The Way of the Torah is to create a nation with an attractive civil code and an active liturgy of worship of the One God.

Off on a tangent

Due to illness, I've not been thinking very deeply this past week, so this Sunday essay is more about TV than the Old Testament. Sorry. I will see if I can return to serious stuff soon!

... but ... on the other hand ... I'm sorta enjoying this tangential piece. Maybe I should look at other TV shows?  

The Rockford Files?  In that classic old show, every time James Rockford takes a case, he ends up helping people. Sometimes even some pretty broken people. (One of them is even named Angel.) Yet Rockford is always the one getting beaten up! 

Question: Does James Rockford represent a messianic model??  

👀 😁

Put reactions in the comments ...

... back to Deuteronomy tomorrow!

First published May 14, 2023; updated May 10, 2026

Deuteronomy 21, Blood Guilt

We continue expanding on killing, murder and manslaughter, on principles related to the Sixth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:17.) One aspect of murder is "blood guilt", the desecration that murder brings to the land and its people.

Deuteronomy 21:1-9, Unsolved murder

If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck.

The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.

Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for. So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

If a murder is unsolved, the leaders of the nearest town take on the burden of seeking atonement for the blood guilt caused by the murder. This all appears to be a symbolic acts, separate from identifying the murderer, recognizing that sin occurred and thus the community needed forgiveness.

Hand-washing is a symbolic statement regarding a desire to be clean. David claims to have washed his hands "in innocence" in Psalm 26:6 and Pilate washes his hands in Matthew 27:24 when he gives in to the crowd regarding the crucifixion of Jesus.

Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Captured women

When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

Women captured in war can be given in an arranged marriage, but they must have some basic humane treatment (allowed to grieve) and if the man does not want the woman, she is free to go.  (There are to be no slaves created by warfare.) The actions within the home (head-shaving, trimming nails, changing into different clothes) are presumably acts representing the woman's change of status. She now has a life starting over as a woman of Israel but is allowed a month to grieve this change. (Apparently a month was a standard length of time for public mourning, see Numbers 20:29 and Deuteronomy 34:8.)

Currid, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, argues that the middle portion of the book describes implications of the Ten Commandments and that this chapter falls under the sixth commandment, regarding murder. He admits that this section on captured women doesn't quite fit into that pattern -- it is either a tangential passage caused by discussions about murder, killing, and warfare, or it is a transitional passage looking towards the next commandment, laying out standards for human sexuality.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17, Fairness with two wives

If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

A man is not to give preference to one wife over the other. In the ancient Near East (as we saw in Genesis) the firstborn had special status and the man was not to change that status merely because he loved one woman more than another. 

Deuteronomy 21:18-21, A rebellious son

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard."

Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

Ouch!  I am glad that this is not applied today! (One might observe the son is not just rebellious, but is "a prolifigate" and also "a drunkard" – the rebelliousness is deep, degenerative and longlasting.)

In the patriarchal society of the day, the system of justice involved a hierarchy, from tribes to clans to families. The smallest unit in which justice was to be applied -- and where honor was required -- was the family.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23, Hanging on a tree

If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Execution and then hanging (or hanging by execution) should end in the body coming down before nightfall. Even murderers were to be treated with some dignity.  

The curse of one hanging on a tree will be quoted later in the New Testament, since Jesus himself was hung on a tree (Galatians 3:13.)

First published May 10, 2023; updated May 9, 2026

Deuteronomy 20, On War

We continue to expand on principles implied by the Sixth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:17) dealing with murder. In war, enemies kill each other. This is not murder, but is related to it.

Deuteronomy 20:1-4, Warfare

When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."
 

As Israel inhabits the Promised Land, their wars will be a holy war.

Deuteronomy 20:5-9, Life projects not completed

The officers shall say to the army: "Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it. 

Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.

Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her."

Then the officers shall add, "Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too."

When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.

The holy warfare of the Promised Land is apparently for those called to it. Those with life projects yet to be completed are to go home and complete them. This commandment includes men engaged to a woman; they are to go home and marry her!

In Judges 7:1-3, YHWH instructs Gideon to send home anyone that does not want to fight. (The motivation for that instruction to Gideon is to reduce the army to a much smaller size, in preparation for a victory that only YHWH can give.)

Deuteronomy 20:10-15, Conquering a city

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.

If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

Besieged cities, during the upcoming conquest of the Canaan, will have two choices. They may completely surrender and become slaves or they may resist, in which case the men will be killed and the women and children (and property) in those stubborn cities will be turned over to the armies of Israel.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18, But totally destroy these...

However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

Unlike the previous paragraph, the people of six pagan tribes of Canaan are to be destroyed. This passage echoes Deuteronomy 7:2, which lists the same six nations but adds a seventh, the Girgashites. Despite this command, we still see evidence, later, of people being submissive and following the process of verses 10-15, even when they are part of the named pagan nations.

Deuteronomy 20:19-20, Trees for siege works

When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.

These strange verses give guidance on which trees to save for the future, and which to cut down for siege works! The siege works are to respect a longterm view of the environment around the besieged city, on the presumption of eventual victory.

First published May 9, 2023; updated May 282026

Deuteronomy 19, Murder and Manslaughter

The Sixth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:17) prohibits murder. For the next four chapters we look at decrees related to this commandment.

Deuteronomy 19:1-3, Refugee cities

When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, then set aside for yourselves three cities centrally located in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. Build roads to them and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that anyone who kills a man may flee there.

Death caused by accident, that is, manslaughter, will be handled in the new country by designated cities of refuge. (The cities of refuge were previously described in Numbers 35. The first three cities have been set up east of the Jordan in Deuteronomy 4:41-43; the next three will be set up west of the Jordan in Joshua 20:7.)

Deuteronomy 19:4-7, Manslaughter

This is the rule concerning the man who kills another and flees there to save his life--one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought.

For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life.

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

The woodsman and the ax is given as an (interesting) example. In this case, angry relatives of the dead man may pursue the wielder of the ax, but he may flee to a refugee city.

Deuteronomy 19:8-10, More cities

If the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your forefathers, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today--to love the LORD your God and to walk always in his ways--then you are to set aside three more cities.

Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

As the country grows, there will be more cities of refuge.

Deuteronomy 19:11-13, First degree murder

But if a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, assaults and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die.

Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.

In the case of murder, if the killing is premeditated, then the cities of refuge provide no protection.

Deuteronomy 19:14, Boundary deceit

Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 

This sentence seems out of place, as it focuses on deceit, not murder. (Was this type of deceit likely to lead to bloodshed?)

Deuteronomy 19:15, Two or three witnesses

One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

One witness is not enough! At least two witnesses (or better, three!) are required for a conviction.

Deuteronomy 19:16-20, Malicious witness

If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime, the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time.

The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you.

The punishment for bearing false witness is to have the penalty rebound back on the witness. (My father once told me that this was, at one time, Texas law.) So if one falsely testifies about murder, they themselves could face the death penalty.

Deuteronomy 19:21, No pity

Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Justice is to be clear, black and white. In the cases of murder, there is to be no sympathy or pity. Currid calls this "the law of retaliation", lex talionis. In the ancient Near East (ANE), on occasions in which one deliberately harmed another, the guilty often received retribution equal to the original act.

First published May 8, 2023; updated May 7, 2026

Deuteronomy 18, Priests and Prophets

We continue to explore concepts of citizenship, authority, justice and honor, in reflection on the Fifth Commandment. We have examined the role of judges and kings; now we look at instructions for priests and then prophets.

Deuteronomy 18:1-5, Inheritance of Levite

The priests, who are Levites--indeed the whole tribe of Levi--are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the LORD by fire, for that is their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts. You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD's name always.

The tribe of Levi is special. The Levites do not have a special land and the priests are to be supported by the sacrifices.

Deuteronomy 18:6-8, If a Levite moves

If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

The ministry of a Levite moves with him. Wherever he goes, he is to be supported, even if he has additional resources.

Craigie argues that there is some confusion here in interpreting this passage, as not all Levites were priests. (Priests were male Levites of a certain age.) Parts of this passage presumably apply to all Levites, including wives and children of one who is a priest.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Detestable ways of the nations

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 

The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

While we are discussing the priests, we are warned, once again, of the religious practices of other ancient Near Eastern tribes and peoples. Sorcery, witchcraft, casting of spells were all practices intended to convince the gods to take certain actions. Particularly abominable was the sacrificing of children to incur a god's favor. (Currid says that archealogical sites at Carthage include the charred remains of hundreds of children.)

Deuteronomy 18:15-19, A future prophet

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." The LORD said to me: "What they say is good.

'I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

The people of Israel are not to engage in witchcraft or other types of magic but will instead, from time to time, be given genuine prophets to guide them. This passage seems to allude to a special future Prophet, one like Moses. (In Acts 3:22, the apostle Peter identifies this special prophet as Yeshua/Jesus.)

Deuteronomy 18:20-22, False prophets

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.

"You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Some may claim to be a prophet when they are not. A prophet is one who communicates the message of God and, in some cases, makes predictions about a future event. So a false prophet will be one whose proclamations are false, either because the words conflict with the given Law or because they predict events that do not come to pass.

First published May 6, 2023; updated May 6, 2026

Deuteronomy 17, Seeking Justice

This material amplifies the Fifth Commandment (about honoring one's parents) by examining issues of order, honor and authority. The text will look at four leaders: judge, king, priest and prophet. Here we continue to look at instructions to judges.

Deuteronomy 17:1, No defects

Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.

We are reminded (once again) that sacrifices are to involve perfect, flawless animals. The prophet Malachi (Malachi 1:6-8) will later report that YHWH considers deliberately offering a flawed animal is one way of profaning His name. We are reminded that taking YHWH's name in vain (prohibited by the Third Commandment) need not be done verbally, but can be done by improper actions of those who bear His name.

Deuteronomy 17:2-5, Worshiping sun, moon or stars

If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky, and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.
 

Worshiping objects of creation, in place of the Creator, is unacceptable. This issues falls, in some sense, under the organization of society and the courts.

Deuteronomy 17:6-7, Two or three witnesses

On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.

There must be several witnesses and they need to be "all in"; they are the first to throw stones. This is intended to prevent false accusations caused simply by the anger of a neighbor. (See, for example, the blasphemy accusations common even today in places like Pakistan.) Obviously two or three witnesses could collude to give false testimony... but this, at least, is a first hedge.

Deuteronomy 17:8-11, Take most difficult cases to YHWH

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge--whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults--take them to the place the LORD your God will choose. Go to the priests, who are Levites, and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.

You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they direct you to do. Act according to the law they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

Somehow the priests are supposed to find a solution by calling on YHWH.

Deuteronomy 17:12-13, No contempt for those in charge!

The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.
   

Contempt of the judicial system, just like contempt of one's parents, is evil and must be eradicated.

Deuteronomy 17:14-15, Appointing a king

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.

If the people choose a king, they are to follow YHWH's instructions, choosing an Israelite from among them.

Deuteronomy 17:16-20, Standards for kings

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

The king is not to rely on his horse cavalry or his wives or his riches. Even kings -- especially kings -- must be just. 

Once the people of Israel enter Canaan, they will be ruled by a series of individuals called "judges". But the people will eventually seek a king. Their desire for a king in anticipated here and prepares us for I Samuel 8, where Saul is chosen king and is given instructions by the prophet/judge Samuel. 

In the case of a king, we have clear instruction on how they are to promote the Law among the people -- and what they are to avoid, such as a reliance on many horses and many wives. (If you've been reading along with me in these Old Testament chapters, you probably have an idea of how well the kings will follow these instructions! See I Kings 10:26, I Kings 11:1-3.)

The Septuagint (see chapter 17 here) translates the word "copy" in verse 18 as  δευτερονόμιον,  deuteronomion, that is, "second law", and it is from that word that this book gets its name.

First published May 5, 2023; updated May 5, 2026