This chapter starts by exhorting the people to be holy as the Lord is holy, before giving examples of how this could be done. It starts by requiring respect for parents and the need for sabbath day observance before going on to say: do not practice idolatry, carry out the fellowship/peace offering correctly, at harvest time leave the left-overs for the poor, don't steal, don't lie, don't deceive, don't swear by God's name, don't defraud, don't hold back workers' wages, don't ill-treat the deaf and blind, don't pervert justice, don't spread malicious gossip, don't endanger your neighbour's life, don't hate your brother, rebuke your neighbour frankly, don't harbour grudges but love your neighbour as yourself, don't interbreed different races of cattle, don't plant two crops in the same field, and don't wear clothes made from two kinds of material.
If a man has sex with a slave girl engaged to another man he must be punished and must offer a ram as a guilt offering. Newly planted fruit trees must only be picked in the 4th year and given to God, and then the fruit can be the owner's from the 5th year onwards.
It was also stressed to not eat meat with blood in it, don't practice divination or sorcery, don't cut your hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard, don't carry out pagan mourning practices like cutting the body or tattooing yourself, don't make your daughter a prostitute, observe the sabbath and reverence God's house, don't resort to mediums or spiritists, stand up for the aged and respect the elderly, treat foreigners kindly, and use honest scales and measurements. These are God's decrees for his people to follow.
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