When you see ¹  your neighbor’s ²  ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; ³  you must return it without fail ⁴  to your neighbor.

When you see ¹  your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen along the road, do not ignore it; ²  instead, you must be sure ³  to help him get the animal on its feet again. ⁴ 

‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his sister, the daughter of either his father or mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

A blacksmith could not be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “This will prevent the Hebrews from making swords and spears.”

If I had acted at risk of my own life ¹  – and nothing is hidden from the king! – you would have abandoned me.” ² 

Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet ¹  he will be master over all the fruit of ²  my labor ³  for which I worked so wisely ⁴  on earth! ⁵  This also is futile!

The Beloved to the Maidens: I adjure you, ¹  O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does ²  of the open fields: ³  Do not awaken or arouse ⁴  love ⁵  until it pleases! ⁶ 

My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. ¹  Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the window, peering through the lattice.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Until the dawn arrives ¹  and the shadows flee, turn, ²  my beloved – be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges. ³ 

The Adjuration Refrain The Beloved to the Maidens: ¹ I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

“Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, ¹  so we may examine them ²  and see how they were fulfilled. ³  Or decree for us some future events!

“Or suppose I were to bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through the land,’ and I were to kill both people and animals.

“Or suppose I were to send a plague into that land, and pour out my rage on it with bloodshed, killing both people and animals.

It is sharpened for slaughter, it is polished to flash like lightning! “‘Should we rejoice in the scepter of my son? No! The sword despises every tree! ¹ 

Now, if you will show faithful love to my master, tell me. But if not, tell me as well, so that I may go on my way.” ¹ 

Laban replied ¹  to Jacob, “These women ²  are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, ³  and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today ⁴  or the children to whom they have given birth?

And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey ¹  into the desert so that we may sacrifice ²  to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” ³ 

No hand will touch him ¹  – but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; ²  he must not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast they may ³  go up on the mountain.”

¹ “If an ox ²  gores a man or a woman so that either dies, ³  then the ox must surely ⁴  be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, ¹  and he did not take the necessary precautions, ²  and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.