Deuteronomy 22:1-12--Various Laws

Deuteronomy 22:1-12
English Standard Version

Various Laws
22 “You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. 4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

5 “A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

6 “If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7 You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

​12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

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This is one of a few passages that will simply list several seemingly unrelated laws that some versions will have a heading of "sundry laws."  The ESV that I'm using here has a more updated heading of "various laws."

The first law here is part of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  If you see someone's livestock escape and you know who it belongs to, take it back to them.  Don't just ignore it.  Isn't that what you'd want someone else to do for you?  The same goes for anything else that you find that you know belongs to your neighbor of "brother" as it says here.  It also applies to helping take care of an injured animal that does not belong to you.  It is always right to do right.

The second one is a timely command for today.  Cross-dressing is strictly forbidden.  This should let us know exactly what the LORD thinks of the idea of transgenderism if we had any doubt about His position.

The next rule has to do with how they were to hunt--they were not to take both the young and the mother at the same time if they came upon a bird's nest with the mother sitting on eggs or young.  They could take the eggs or the young birds, but they must leave the mother so that she could have more babies.

When building a building they were to construct it with the safety of others in mind.  Specifically in the construction here, roofs were flat and it would be easy to stumble or trip off of the roof if you were not careful, so the Hebrews were commanded to build a wall around their roof to make it hard for someone to accidently fall off.

This next one is a little strange and I take it both literally and figuratively.  God doesn't want mixed identities for His people (a little bit of God and a little bit of the world).  This was to be shown by how they planted their crops and the clothes they wore.  They were also not to be unequally yoked like yoking an oxen with a donkey--they would fight against each other just like trying to partner with the Canaanites or the others in the world.  These were physical symbols that I think had a deeper spiritual application.

Last was something that seems pretty specific to the Hebrew people and that the Orthodox Jews still obey to this day.  They are to have tassels on the corners of their garments.  I don't think this applies to us who are Gentile believers today, but it might be important for us to ask what purpose this served and if it was to remind God's people of something about who they were and what He had done for them, then perhaps we should not think this as something "silly" or "backwards," especially since it was the LORD's command for His people.  We may not understand it, but we don't have to understand the LORD's commands, just obey them.