Weekly Torah Readings: Ki-Tetse
(from One New Man Bible translated by William Morford)
Ki-Tetse
Treatment of Captive Woman
21:10. When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD* your God has delivered them into your hands and you have taken them captive, 11. and see a beautiful woman among the captives and have a desire for her, that you would have her for your wife, 12. then you will bring her home to your house and she will shave her head and pare her nails, 13. and she will take off the garments of her captivity and will remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month, and after that you will go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. 14. And it will be, if you have no delight in her, then you will let her go where she will, but you will not sell her at all for money, you will not make a slave of her, because you have humbled her.”
Right of Firstborn
21:15. “If a man has two wives, one beloved and another hated and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and the firstborn son is hers who was hated, 16. then it will be when he makes his sons to inherit what he has, he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated who is indeed the firstborn. 17. But he will acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, 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.”
Rebellious Son
21:18. “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19. then his father and his mother will lay hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place 20. and they will say to 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.” 21. And all the men of his city will stone him with stones, so he dies. So will you put the malignant away from among you, and all Israel will hear and respect.
21:22. “And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 23. his body will not remain on the tree all night, but you will bury him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God, (Gal. 3:13) so you do not defile your land which the LORD* your God gives you for an inheritance.”
You May Not Hide Yourself
22.1. “You will not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You will in any case bring them again to your brother. 2. And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you will bring it to your own house and it will be with you until your brother looks for it, and you will restore it to him again. 3. In like manner will you do with his donkey and so will you do with his clothing and with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found. You will do likewise. You may not hide yourself.
22:4. “You will not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fall down by the road and hide yourself from them. You will surely help him to lift them up again.”
Other Guidelines
22:5. “The woman will not wear that which pertains to a man, neither will a man put on a woman’s garment, for all that do so are an abomination to the LORD* your God.
22:6. “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, you will not take the mother with the young. 7. You will send the mother away and take the young for yourself so it may be well with you, and you may prolong your days.
22:8. “When you build a new house, then you will make a railing for your roof, so you do not bring blood upon your house if someone falls from there.
22:9. “You will not sow your vineyard with diverse, two or more kinds of seeds, lest the fruit of your seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
22:10. “You will not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
22:11. “You will not wear a garment of mixed fabrics, of wool and linen together.
22:12. “You will make for yourself fringes upon the four corners of your prayer shawl with which you cover yourself.
22:13. “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and hates her, 14. and speaks against her and brings up a bad name over her and says, I took this woman and when I came to her, I found her not a virgin. 15. Then the father and mother of the girl will take and bring forth the tokens of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate 16. and the girl’s father will say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her 17. and, see, he has given occasions of speech against her saying, I did not find your daughter a virgin, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they will spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18. And the elders of that city will take that man and punish him. 19. And they will fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the girl, because he has brought up a bad name upon a virgin of Israel, and she will be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
22:20. “But if this thing is true, and the tokens of virginity are not found for the girl, 21. then they will bring out the girl to the door of her father’s house and the men of her city will stone her with stones so she dies, because she has wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you will put away evil from your midst.
22:22. “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they will both of them die, the man that lay with the woman and the woman. So you will put away evil from Israel.
22:23. If a young woman is a virgin, betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24. then you will bring them both out to the gate of that city and you will stone them with stones so they die: the girl, because she did not cry, being in the city and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife: so you will put away evil from your midst.
22:25. “But if a man finds a betrothed girl in the field and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lays with her will die, 26. but to the girl you will do nothing. There is in the girl no sin worthy of death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and slays him, even so is this matter, 27. for he found her in the field, and the betrothed girl cried, and there was no one to save her.
22:28. “If a man finds a girl that is a virgin, who is not betrothed and lays hold on her and lies with her and they are found, 29. then the man that lays with her will give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver and she will be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.”
23.1. “A man will not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s skirt.
23:2. “He who is wounded in the testicles, or has his privy member cut off, will not enter the congregation of the LORD*.
23:3. “A bastard will not enter into the congregation of the LORD*. Even to his tenth generation he will not enter the congregation of the LORD*.
23:4. “An Ammonite or Moabite will not enter the congregation of the LORD*, even to their tenth generation they will not enter the congregation of the LORD* forever, 5. because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Aram Naharaim against you, to curse you. 6. Nevertheless the LORD* your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD* your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD* your God loved you. 7. You will not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
23:8. “You will not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You will not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land. 9. The children that are begotten by them will enter the congregation of the LORD* in their third generation.
23:10. “When you go to camp against your enemies, then keep from every wicked thing. 11. If there is among you any man that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that happens to him at night, then he will go abroad out of the camp, he will not come within the camp. 12. But it will be when evening comes on, he will immerse in water and when the sun is down, he will come into the camp.
23:13. “You will also have a place outside the camp where you will go outside, 14. and you will have a shovel with you and will ease yourself out of the camp, you will dig with it and will turn back and cover that which comes from you, 15. for the LORD* your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp will be holy, so He sees no unclean thing in you and turns away from you.
23:16. “You will not deliver to his master the servant who escaped from his master to you. 17. He will stay with you, in your midst, in that place which he will choose in one of your gates, where it is best for him. You will not oppress him.
23:18. “There will not be a promiscuous woman of the daughters of Israel, nor a promiscuous man of the sons of Israel.
23:19. “You will not bring the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog into the House of the LORD* your God for any vow, for even both of these are an abomination to the LORD* your God.
23:20. “You will not lend at interest to your brother. Not interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent at interest. 21. You may lend at interest to a stranger, but you will not lend at interest to your brother, so the LORD* your God can bless you in all that you set your hand to in the land where you go to possess it.”
A Vow
23:22. “When you vow, you will not be slow to pay it, for the LORD* your God will surely require it of you and it would be sin for you. (Matt. 5:33, Jcb. 5:12) 23. But if you refrain from vowing, it will not be a sin for you. 24. That which has gone out of your lips you will keep and perform, a freewill offering, according as you have vowed to the LORD* your God, which you have promised with your mouth.
23:25. “When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes to your fill, at your own pleasure, but you will not put any in your vessel.
23:26. “When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, then you may pluck the grains with your hand, (Matt. 12:1, Mark 2:23, Luke 6:1) but you will not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.”
Divorce
24.1. “When a man has taken a wife and married her and it happens that she does not find favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorce and give it in her hand, then send her out of his house. (Matt. 5:31) 2. And when she has left from his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3. And if the latter husband hates her and writes her a bill of divorce and gives it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, 4. her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled, for that is abomination before the LORD*: and you will not cause the land to sin, which the LORD* your God gives you for an inheritance.”
Various Rules
24:5. “When a man has taken a new wife, he will not go out to war, nor will he be charged with any business: he will be free at home one year and will cheer up his wife whom he has taken.
24:6. “No man will take the lower or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a man’s life for a pledge.
24:7. “If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel and treats him cruelly or sells him, then that thief will die and you will put badness away from among you. (1 Cor. 5:13)
24:8. “Take heed in the plague of leprosy that you observe diligently and do according to all that the priests the Levites will teach you, as I commanded them, so you will observe to do. 9. Remember what the LORD* your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt. (Num. 12:10)
24:10. “When you lend your brother anything, you will not go into his house to get his pledge. 11. You will stand outside and the man to whom you lend will bring the pledge outside to you. 12. And if the man is poor, you will not sleep with his pledge: 13. in any case you will deliver him the pledge again when the sun goes down, so he may sleep in his own garment and bless you: and it will be acts of loving kindness for you before the LORD* your God.
24:14. “You will not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he is of your brothers or of your strangers that are within your gates in your land. 15. At his day you shall give him his hire, nor will the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to the LORD*, and it would be sin for you.
24:16. “The fathers will not be put to death for the children, nor will the children be put to death for the fathers: every man will be put to death for his own sin.
24:17. “You will not pervert the judgment of the stranger or of the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment for a pledge, 18. but you will remember that you were a bondman in Egypt and the LORD* your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
24:19. “When you cut down your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you will not go again to fetch it: it will be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow so the LORD* your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it will be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you will not glean afterward: it will be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22. And you will remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command to do this thing.”
25.1. “If there is a controversy between men and they come to judgment, so the judges may judge them, then they will justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2. And it will be if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. 3. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed, lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.
25:4. “You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain. (1 Cor. 9:9,
1 Tim. 5:18)
25:5. “If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no child, the wife of the dead will not marry outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother will go in to her and take her for his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother for her. 6. And it will be the firstborn that she bears will succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, so his name is not put out of Israel. 7. And if the man does not like to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name in Israel for his brother, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’ 8. Then the elders of his city will call him and speak to him, and if he stands fast and says, ‘I choose not to take her.’ 9. Then his brother’s wife will come to him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face, and will answer and say, ‘So will it be done to that man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ 10. And his name will be called in Israel, ‘The house of him that had his shoe loosed.’
25:11. “When men strive together one with another and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who is hitting him and puts forth her hand and takes him by the privy parts, 12. then you will cut off her hand, your eye will not pity.
25:13. “You will not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small. 14. You will not have in your house different measures, a great and a small. 15. You will have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure will you have, so your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD* your God gives you. 16. For all who do such things, and all who do unrighteously are an abomination to the LORD* your God.
25:17. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you came out of Egypt, 18. how he met you on the way and struck those in the rear of you, all that were feeble behind you when you were faint and weary, and he did not revere God. 19. Therefore it will be when the LORD* your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD* your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess it, you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You will not forget it.”
Next week’s Torah readings: Ki-Tavo