Deuteronomy 22:5-12

Israel Must Avoid All That Is Unseemly (Deuteronomy 22:5)

Israel was to avoid all that was unseemly. That had applied with regard to what living things could be eaten (Deuteronomy 14:3). Now it applies to dressing transexually (Deuteronomy 22:5), to dealings with nature (Deuteronomy 22:6), and to mixing unlike with unlike (Deuteronomy 22:10).

Analysis using the words of Moses:

a A woman shall not wear what pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God (5).

b If a bird's nest chance to be before you in the way, 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, you shall surely let the mother go, but the young you may take to yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days (Deuteronomy 22:6).

c When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof (Deuteronomy 22:8 a).

c So that you do not bring blood on your house, if any man fall from there (Deuteronomy 22:8 b).

b You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited (literally ‘be made holy'), the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard, you shall not plough with an ox and an ass together, you shall not wear a mixed fabric, wool and linen together (Deuteronomy 22:9).

a You shall make yourself tassels on the four borders of your robe with which you cover yourself (Deuteronomy 22:12).

Note that in ‘a' emphasis is laid on the necessity for identification, and the same applies in the parallel. In ‘b' a mother bird and her young must not be put together for the same treatment, and in the parallel other aspects of creation are not to be put together. In ‘c' a parapet must be made for a flat roof, and in the parallel this is so that blood is not brought on the house.