Read & explore together
War, Family and Community Laws
Deuteronomy 20:1 to 26:19 gathers many laws for Israel’s life in the land, from battle and households to justice, worship and care for vulnerable people. This guide maps the passage’s law units in order.
Understanding the passage
Understanding the setting
The passage repeatedly refers to Yahweh giving the land, being with Israel, and requiring what is right in his sight. Its laws move step by step through warfare, family disputes, sexual case laws, camp holiness, loans, labour, courts, remembrance, firstfruits, tithes and covenant obedience.
Deuteronomy 20:1–26:19Main takeaway
These chapters present Israel’s land-life as ordered by Yahweh in many distinct areas, each addressed through specific law units.
Explore the instructions
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01War laws and innocent bloodChapter 20 separates these units: courage in battle, priestly words, exemptions for house, vineyard, marriage and fearfulness, officers and captains, peace for a distant city, siege if it refuses, different treatment for the named nations, and fruit trees protected in siege.
Explanation
Chapter 20 separates these units: courage in battle, priestly words, exemptions for house, vineyard, marriage and fearfulness, officers and captains, peace for a distant city, siege if it refuses, different treatment for the named nations, and fruit trees protected in siege. Then 21:1 to 9 gives the heifer rite for an unsolved killing.
02Household cases and neighbour dutiesChapter 21 then gives separate cases: a captive woman mourns before marriage and must not be sold; the true firstborn keeps his right; a stubborn son is brought to the elders; a body hung on a tree must be buried that day.
Explanation
Chapter 21 then gives separate cases: a captive woman mourns before marriage and must not be sold; the true firstborn keeps his right; a stubborn son is brought to the elders; a body hung on a tree must be buried that day. Chapter 22:1 to 12 adds lost property, helping animals, clothing, nests, roof railings, mixtures and fringes.
03Sexual case laws and assembly boundariesDeuteronomy 22:13 to 30 divides into distinct cases: false accusation against a wife; adultery; a pledged woman in the city; a pledged woman forced in the field, where only the man dies; an unpledged virgin; and the final ban on taking a father’s wife.
Explanation
Deuteronomy 22:13 to 30 divides into distinct cases: false accusation against a wife; adultery; a pledged woman in the city; a pledged woman forced in the field, where only the man dies; an unpledged virgin; and the final ban on taking a father’s wife. Deuteronomy 23:1 to 8 then lists assembly boundaries and reasons.
04Camp holiness, money, marriage and mercyDeuteronomy 23:9 to 24:22 continues in short units: camp cleanliness; toilet practice; the escaped servant not returned; prostitution and vow money; loans with and without interest; vows; eating by hand from a neighbour’s field; divorce and remarriage; a new husband at home; kidnapping; pledges, wages, personal justice, and gleaning for the vulnerable.
Explanation
Deuteronomy 23:9 to 24:22 continues in short units: camp cleanliness; toilet practice; the escaped servant not returned; prostitution and vow money; loans with and without interest; vows; eating by hand from a neighbour’s field; divorce and remarriage; a new husband at home; kidnapping; pledges, wages, personal justice, and gleaning for the vulnerable.
05Judgments, honest dealing and spoken worshipDeuteronomy 25 gives further units: judges and limited beating; the unmuzzled ox; a brother’s duty to a widow and the sandal-removal refusal rite; a severe assault penalty; honest weights; and Amalek remembered.
Explanation
Deuteronomy 25 gives further units: judges and limited beating; the unmuzzled ox; a brother’s duty to a widow and the sandal-removal refusal rite; a severe assault penalty; honest weights; and Amalek remembered. Deuteronomy 26 then orders firstfruits, the third-year tithe declaration, and ends with wholehearted obedience as Yahweh’s people.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does Deuteronomy 22 separate its sexual case laws instead of treating them as one rule?
Follow each new case marker from the accusation against a wife, to adultery, to the pledged woman in the city, to the pledged woman in the field, to the unpledged virgin, and then the final prohibition in verse 30.
02What different reasons are given for laws in Deuteronomy 23 and 24?
Notice reasons tied to past treatment of Israel, Yahweh walking in the camp, the seriousness of spoken vows, and remembering slavery in Egypt.
03What spoken words are built into worship in Deuteronomy 26?
Observe the confession over firstfruits, the declaration over the third-year tithe, and the closing statements about Yahweh and his people.
Read the Bible passages
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Deuteronomy 20:1–20
1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
2It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,
3and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;
4for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
5The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
6What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit.
7What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.”
8The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.”
9It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.
10When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.
11It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you.
12If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword;
14but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.
15Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;
17but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you;
18that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.
19When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you?
20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Deuteronomy 21:1–23
1If someone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him,
2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.
3It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke.
4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
5The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.
6All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
7They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.
9So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
10When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive,
11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife,
12then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.
13She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated,
16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;
17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them,
19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.
20They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”
21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 22:1–30
1You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother.
2If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him.
3So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself.
4You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.
5A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
6If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young.
7You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
8When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there.
9You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard.
10You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12You shall make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
13If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her,
14accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;”
15then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
16The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her.
17Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him.
19They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady,
21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.
23If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her,
24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
25But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die;
26but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter;
27for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her.
28If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found,
29then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.
30A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
Deuteronomy 23:1–25
1He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
2A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
3An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into Yahweh’s assembly forever,
4because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
6You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.
7You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.
8The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
9When you go out and camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing.
10If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp;
11but it shall be, when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water. When the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.
12You shall have a place also outside of the camp where you go relieve yourself.
13You shall have a trowel among your weapons. It shall be, when you relieve yourself, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover your excrement;
14for Yahweh your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.
15You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you.
16He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him.
17There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
18You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
19You shall not lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest.
20You may charge a foreigner interest; but you shall not charge your brother interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.
21When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.
22But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you.
23You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to Yahweh your God as a free will offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do.
24When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat your fill of grapes at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your container.
25When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
Deuteronomy 24:1–22
1When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
2When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.
3If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife;
4her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
5When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.
6No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge.
7If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
8Be careful in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.
9Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came out of Egypt.
10When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.
11You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you.
12If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.
13You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.
14You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates.
15In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.
16The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
17You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;
18but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
19When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
21When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
22You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
Deuteronomy 25:1–19
1If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.
2It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.
3He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more, lest if he should give more and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight.
4You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
5If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
6It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.
7If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.”
8Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him. If he stands and says, “I don’t want to take her,”
9then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his sandal from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.”
10His name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his sandal removed.”
11When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and grabs him by his private parts,
12then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
13You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light.
14You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small.
15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt,
18how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God.
19Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
Deuteronomy 26:1–19
1It shall be, when you have come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it,
2that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
3You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to Yahweh your God, that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.”
4The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before Yahweh your God’s altar.
5You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
6The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.
7Then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;
9and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me.” You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God.
11You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you.
12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be filled.
13You shall say before Yahweh your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.
14I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to Yahweh my God’s voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
15Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
16Today Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17You have declared today that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.
18Yahweh has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
19He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.