Ulangan 22:5-12

22:5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, ¹  nor should a man dress up in women’s clothing, for anyone who does this is offensive ²  to the Lord your God.

22:6 If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, ³  you must not take the mother from the young. ⁴  22:7 You must be sure ⁵  to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

22:8 If you build a new house, you must construct a guard rail ⁶  around your roof to avoid being culpable ⁷  in the event someone should fall from it.

Illustrations of the Principle of Purity

22:9 You must not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed; otherwise the entire yield, both of the seed you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled. ⁸  22:10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 22:11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together. ⁹  22:12 You shall make yourselves tassels ¹⁰  for the four corners of the clothing you wear.

[22:5]  ¹ tn Heb “a man’s clothing.”

[22:5]  ² tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “offense”) speaks of anything that runs counter to ritual or moral order, especially (in the OT) to divine standards. Cross-dressing in this covenant context may suggest homosexuality, fertility cult ritual, or some other forbidden practice.

[22:6]  ³ tn Heb “and the mother sitting upon the chicks or the eggs.”

[22:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “sons,” used here in a generic sense for offspring.

[22:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “be sure.”

[22:8]  ⁶ tn Or “a parapet” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “a battlement”; NLT “a barrier.”

[22:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “that you not place bloodshed in your house.”

[22:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “set apart.” The verb קָדַשׁ (qadash) in the Qal verbal stem (as here) has the idea of being holy or being treated with special care. Some take the meaning as “be off-limits, forfeited,” i.e., the total produce of the vineyard, both crops and grapes, have to be forfeited to the sanctuary (cf. Exod 29:37; 30:29; Lev 6:18, 27; Num 16:37-38; Hag 2:12).

[22:11]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term שַׁעַטְנֵז (sha’atnez) occurs only here and in Lev 19:19. HALOT 1610-11 s.v. takes it to be a contraction of words (שַׁשׁ [shash, “headdress”] + עַטְנַז [’atnaz, “strong”]). BDB 1043 s.v. שַׁעַטְנֵז offers the translation “mixed stuff” (cf. NEB “woven with two kinds of yarn”; NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “woven together”). The general meaning is clear even if the etymology is not.

[22:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “twisted threads” (גְּדִלִים, gÿdilim) appears to be synonymous with צִיצִת (tsitsit) which, in Num 15:38, occurs in a passage instructing Israel to remember the covenant. Perhaps that is the purpose of the tassels here as well. Cf. KJV, ASV “fringes”; NAB “twisted cords.”