Fragmenda

Scripture

Deuteronomy 23–26

Deuteronomy 23

Who may and who may not enter into the church: uncleanness to be avoided: other precepts concerning fugitives, fornication, usury, vows, and eating other men’s grapes and corn.

1 

An eunuch, whose testicles are broken or cut away, or yard cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord.

2 

A mamzer, that is to say, one born of a prostitute, shall not enter into the church of the Lord, until the tenth generation.

3 

The Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation shall not enter into the church of the Lord for ever:

4 

Because they would not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came out of Egypt: and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor, from Mesopotamia in Syria, to curse thee.

5 

And the Lord thy God would not hear Balaam, and he turned his cursing into thy blessing, because he loved thee.

6 

Thou shalt not make peace with them, neither shalt thou seek their prosperity all the days of thy life for ever.

7 

Thou shalt not abhor the Edomite, because he is thy brother: nor the Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land.

8 

They that are born of them, in the third generation shall enter into the church of the Lord.

9 

When thou goest out to war against thy enemies, thou shalt keep thyself from every evil thing.

10 

If there be among you any man, that is defiled in a dream by night, he shall go forth out of the camp,

11 

And shall not return, before he be washed with water in the evening: and after sunset he shall return into the camp.

12 

Thou shalt have a place without the camp, to which thou mayst go for the necessities of nature,

13 

Carrying a paddle at thy girdle. And when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about, and with the earth that is dug up thou shalt cover

14 

That which thou art eased of: (for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies to thee:) and let thy camp be holy, and let no uncleanness appear therein, lest he go away from thee.

15 

Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to thee.

16 

He shall dwell with thee in the place that shall please him, and shall rest in one of thy cities: give him no trouble.

17 

There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among the sons of Israel.

18 

Thou shalt not offer the hire of a strumpet, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord thy God, whatsoever it be that thou hast vowed: because both these are an abomination to the Lord thy God.

19 

Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing:

20 

But to the stranger. To thy brother thou shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

21 

When thou hast made a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it: because the Lord thy God will require it. And if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin.

22 

If thou wilt not promise, thou shalt be without sin.

23 

But that which is once gone out of thy lips, thou shalt observe, and shalt do as thou hast promised to the Lord thy God, and hast spoken with thy own will and with thy own mouth.

24 

Going into thy neighbour’s vineyard, thou mayst eat as many grapes as thou pleasest: but must carry none out with thee:

25 

If thou go into thy friend’s corn, thou mayst break the ears, and rub them in thy hand: but not reap them with a sickle.


Deuteronomy 24

Divorce permitted to avoid greater evil: the newly married must not go to war: of men stealers, of leprosy, of pledges, of labourers’ hire, of justice, and of charity to the poor.

1 

If a man take a wife, and have her, and she find not favour in his eyes, for some uncleanness: he shall write a bill of divorce, and shall give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

2 

And when she is departed, and marrieth another husband,

3 

And he also hateth her, and hath given her a bill of divorce, and hath sent her out of his house or is dead:

4 

The former husband cannot take her again to wife: because she is defiled, and is become abominable before the Lord: lest thou cause thy land to sin, which the Lord thy God shall give thee to possess.

5 

When a man hath lately taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall any public business be enjoined him, but he shall be free at home without fault, that for one year he may rejoice with his wife.

6 

Thou shalt not take the nether, nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he hath pledged his life to thee.

7 

If any man be found soliciting his brother of the children of Israel, and selling him shall take a price, he shall be put to death, and thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee.

8 

Observe diligently that thou incur not the stroke of the leprosy, but thou shalt do whatsoever the priests of the Levitical race shall teach thee, according to what I have commanded them, and fulfil thou it carefully.

9 

Remember what the Lord your God did to Mary, in the way when you came out of Egypt.

10 

When thou shalt demand of thy neighbour any thing that he oweth thee, thou shalt not go into his house to take away a pledge:

11 

But thou shalt stand without, and he shall bring out to thee what he hath.

12 

But if he be poor, the pledge shall not lodge with thee that night,

13 

But thou shalt restore it to him presently before the going down of the sun: that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee, and thou mayst have justice before the Lord thy God.

14 

Thou shalt not refuse the hire of the needy, and the poor, whether he be thy brother, or a stranger that dwelleth with thee in the land, and is within thy gates:

15 

But thou shalt pay him the price of his labour the same day, before the going down of the sun, because he is poor, and with it maintaineth his life: lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it be reputed to thee for a sin.

16 

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers, but every one shall die for his own sin,

17 

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger nor of the fatherless, neither shalt thou take away the widow’s raiment for a pledge.

18 

Remember that thou wast a slave in Egypt, and the Lord thy God delivered thee from thence. Therefore I command thee to do this thing.

19 

When thou hast reaped the corn in thy field, and hast forgot and left a sheaf, thou shalt not return to take it away: but thou shalt suffer the stranger, and the fatherless and the widow to take it away: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thy hands.

20 

If thou have gathered the fruit of thy olive trees, thou shalt not return to gather whatsoever remaineth on the trees: but shalt leave it for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow.

21 

If thou make the vintage of thy vineyard, thou shalt not gather the clusters that remain, but they shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

22 

Remember that thou also wast a bondman in Egypt, and therefore I command thee to do this thing.


Deuteronomy 25

Stripes must not exceed forty. The ox is not to be muzzled. Of raising seed to the brother. Of the immodest woman. Of unjust weight. Of destroying the Amalecites.

1 

If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.

2 

And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they shall lay him down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be:

3 

Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.

4 

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.

5 

When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother:

6 

And the first son he shall have of her he shall call by his name, that his name be not abolished out of Israel.

7 

But if he will not take his brother’s wife, who by law belongeth to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the ancients, and say: My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up his brother’s name in Israel: and will not take me to wife.

8 

And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:

9 

The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take off his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother’s house:

10 

And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.

11 

If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and the other’s wife willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets,

12 

Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.

13 

Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:

14 

Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.

15 

Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall be equal and true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.

16 

For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all injustice.

17 

Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:

18 

How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat down, being weary, when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he feared not God.

19 

Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall have subdued all the nations round about in the land which he hath promised thee: thou shalt blot out his name from under heaven. See thou forget it not.


Deuteronomy 26

The form of words with which the firstfruits and tithes are to be offered. God’s covenant.

1 

And when thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee to possess, and hast conquered it, and dwellest in it:

2 

Thou shalt take the first of all thy fruits, and put them in a basket, and shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may be invocated there:

3 

And thou shalt go to the priest that shall be in those days, and say to him: I profess this day before the Lord thy God, that I am come into the land, for which he swore to our fathers, that he would give it us.

4 

And the priest taking the basket at thy hand, shall set it before the altar of the Lord thy God:

5 

And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: The Syrian pursued my father, who went down into Egypt, and sojourned there in a very small number, and grew into a nation great and strong and of an infinite multitude.

6 

And the Egyptians afflicted us, and persecuted us, laying on us most grievous burdens:

7 

And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: who heard us, and looked down upon our affliction, and labour, and distress:

8 

And brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders:

9 

And brought us into this place, and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.

10 

And therefore now I offer the firstfruits of the land which the Lord hath given me. And thou shalt leave them in the sight of the Lord thy God, adoring the Lord thy God.

11 

And thou shalt feast in all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given thee, and thy house, thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is with thee.

12 

When thou hast made an end of tithing all thy fruits, in the third year of tithes thou shalt give it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled:

13 

And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: I have taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, as thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments nor forgotten thy precepts.

14 

I have not eaten of them in my mourning, nor separated them for any uncleanness, nor spent any thing of them in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all things as thou hast commanded me.

15 

Look from thy sanctuary, and thy high habitation of heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

16 

This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these commandments and judgments: and to keep and fulfil them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

17 

Thou hast chosen the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways and keep his ceremonies, and precepts, and judgments, and obey his command.

18 

And the Lord hath chosen thee this day, to be his peculiar people, as he hath spoken to thee, and to keep all his commandments:

19 

And to make thee higher than all nations which he hath created, to his own praise, and name, and glory: that thou mayst be a holy people of the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.

Catechism

An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Lesson 8, Question 85

85 Q. Whither did Christ's soul go after His death?

A. After Christ's death His soul descended into hell.