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Deuteronomy 22 · a question people ask

Why were two kinds of seed, an ox with a donkey, and wool with linen not allowed?

Interpretation

The chapter gives a reason for one of the three only: the vineyard is not to be sown with two kinds of seed, "lest all the fruit be defiled" (22:9). It gives none for the plow (22:10) or the cloth (22:11). Leviticus had given the seed and cloth laws under the words "You shall keep my statutes" (Leviticus 19:19). Christians read the lack of a stated reason in two main ways. Both agree that these were the LORD's statutes for Israel (Leviticus 19:19), and that the chapter states its reason only for the vineyard (22:9). For how laws like these bear on Christians, see the honest question in Leviticus 19.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

They marked Israel as set apart

Those who hold this view read these laws beside the call that opens Leviticus 19, "You shall be holy; for I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2), and beside Leviticus 20, where keeping things distinct in daily life follows from Israel being distinct: "I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples" (Leviticus 20:24), and "You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean" (Leviticus 20:25). On this reading, keeping kinds apart in field, yoke and cloth kept that calling in front of Israel every day.

Leviticus 19:2 · Leviticus 19:19 · Leviticus 20:24-26

The reason was not given, and they were kept because the LORD gave them

Those who hold this view note that the chapter gives a reason only for the vineyard (22:9) and none for the plow or the cloth (22:10-11), and that Leviticus gives only "You shall keep my statutes" (Leviticus 19:19). They read these laws by Moses' words later in Deuteronomy: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (29:29). On this reading, Israel was asked to keep what it was given without being told why.

Deuteronomy 22:9-11 · Leviticus 19:19 · Deuteronomy 29:29

The verses

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.”
Deuteronomy 22:9-11 · World English Bible
““‘You shall keep my statutes. “‘You shall not cross-breed different kinds of animals. “‘You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; “‘Don’t wear a garment made of two kinds of material.”
Leviticus 19:19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 22

Deuteronomy 22: You may not hide yourself

Three times in four verses the law says you may not "hide yourself" from a brother's stray animal, lost thing or fallen donkey (22:1-4), as Exodus had said of an enemy's (Exodus 23:4-5); and letting a mother bird go carries the two promises of "Honor your father and your mother" (22:7; 5:16).

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions