'Law' in the Bible

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place,

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and produce offspring for your brother.”

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me?”

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”“Bring her out!” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death!”

As she was being brought out, she sent her father-in-law this message: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and staff are these?”

So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living.”Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

The same law will apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the Lord’s instruction may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken in Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God.

He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and then kissed him. They asked each other how they had been and went into the tent.

Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that confronted them on the way, and how the Lord delivered them.

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in God’s presence.

When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this thing you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

Moses replied to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’ father-in-law said to him.

Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, and he journeyed to his own land.

If it gores a son or a daughter, he is to be dealt with according to this same law.

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

“Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering; the burnt offering itself must remain on the altar’s hearth all night until morning, while the fire of the altar is kept burning on it.

“Now this is the law of the grain offering: Aaron’s sons will present it before the Lord in front of the altar.

“Tell Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the sin offering. The sin offering is most holy and must be slaughtered before the Lord at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.

“Now this is the law of the restitution offering; it is especially holy.

“The restitution offering is like the sin offering; the law is the same for both. It belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it.

“Now this is the law of the fellowship sacrifice that someone may present to the Lord:

This is the law for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the restitution offering, the ordination offering, and the fellowship sacrifice,

“This is the law concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in the water, and all creatures that swarm on the ground,

He will present them before the Lord and make atonement on her behalf; she will be clean from her discharge of blood. This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or female.

“This is the law concerning a mildew contamination in wool or linen fabric, warp or woof, or any leather article, in order to pronounce it clean or unclean.”

“This is the law concerning the person afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing. He is to be brought to the priest,

This is the law for someone who has a skin disease and cannot afford the cost of his cleansing.”

“This is the law for any skin disease or mildew, for a scaly outbreak,

to determine when something is unclean or clean. This is the law regarding skin disease and mildew.”

This is the law for someone with a discharge: a man who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean by it;

You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her.

If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own hands.

You are to have the same law for the foreign resident and the native, because I am Yahweh your God.”

“This is the law regarding jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority,

“This is the law of the Nazirite: On the day his time of consecration is completed, he must be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Moses said to Hobab, son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite: “We’re setting out for the place the Lord promised: ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”

The same law and the same ordinance will apply to both you and the foreigner who resides with you.”

You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you.

“This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,

Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:

And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

This is the law Moses gave the Israelites.

“Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

“When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she must go to the elders at the city gate and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He isn’t willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.’

then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’

Write all the words of this law on the stones after you cross to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

Write clearly all the words of this law on the plastered stones.”

‘The one who sleeps with his mother-in-law is cursed.’And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

‘Anyone who does not put the words of this law into practice is cursed.’And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

“If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name—Yahweh, your God—

The Lord will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed.

and single him out for harm from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

when you obey the Lord your God by keeping His commands and statutes that are written in this book of the law and return to Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.

when all Israel assembles in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He chooses, you are to read this law aloud before all Israel.

Gather the people—men, women, children, and foreigners living within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law.

Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law,

“Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God so that it may remain there as a witness against you.

he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

There on the stones, Joshua copied the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the Israelites.

Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings as well as the curses—according to all that is written in the book of the law.

“Be very strong and continue obeying all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you do not turn from it to the right or left

Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God; he also took a large stone and set it up there under the oak next to the sanctuary of the Lord.

The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, had gone up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah, which was in the Negev of Arad. They went to live among the people.

Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the sons of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law, and pitched his tent beside the oak tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

His father-in-law, the girl’s father, detained him, and he stayed with him for three days. They ate, drank, and spent the nights there.

On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have something to eat to keep up your strength and then you can go.”

The man got up to go, but his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed and spent the night there again.

The man got up to go with his concubine and his servant, when his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, night is coming. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, enjoy yourself, then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey and go home.”

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food.

She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know.

She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.

Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”

Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not forsaken his kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.”

So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”

Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find security for you, so that you will be taken care of?

She went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her.