"If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins. "You shall not permit a sorceress to live. "Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. "Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction. "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. "You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people. "You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. "You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
Exodus 22:16-31
We will now look at the other enactments in this passage. The harshness of 18 needs to be understood in the light of two considerations. One is that all trafficking with evil spirits is forbidden upon the strictest penalties (the biblical opposition to spiritualism is not that it is false, but that it is wrong). See Deuteronomy 18:9-14. The other is that what was said earlier about the stringency of the death penalty for crimes other than murder may well be taken to apply here also (see Note on 21:12-19). It was essential for the very existence of this new people of God that they be kept pure from the influences that God had condemned in the nations surrounding them. The strictures in 19 and 20 are surely obvious to all. The case of the stranger (21) is of practical application in numerous situations today, whether in society in general (as in the case of overseas people coming to live among us) or in the life of a congregation. A stranger has often few rights, and is always in danger of being imposed upon. Without friends, and unfamiliar with the customs of a country or a situation, he is often an easy prey. The basis of the compassion that is to be shown, significantly, is the remembrance of what we ourselves once were, and our own experience as strangers: that should be sufficient incentive for us to want to spare others that distressing experience.