Deuteronomy 22:5-12

A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment;¹ for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.²

If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.³

When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.⁴

You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, or the whole yield will have to be forfeited, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.⁵

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.⁶

You shall make tassels on the four corners of the cloak with which you cover yourself.⁷

1 To hold strictly to this would mean that it could not be done even as a joke, which few would hold.

2 Cross-dressing is abhorrent to God, for there should be strict boundaries between men and women which can be designated by clothing. I would assume that this is in reference to intentionally appearing like a man/woman, and not simply things such as women wearing women's pants. Study Bible states that the word “abhorrent” suggests that cross-dressing may have been a part of pagan practices.

3 And also, I assume, that the mother may live long and living off the land be sustainable.

4 Quite a simple command meant for the physical protection of anyone on your roof.

5 Suddenly practical commands are followed with a command that makes less sense. In many places sowing other seeds within vineyards is a good and sustainable practice. So why forbid it? It seems to be another attempt to keep things in order and forbid “mixing”, like the Israelites were forbidden to mix among other peoples.

6 Two more commands that seem to be against “mixing”. These commands are obviously all ignored by Christians today. A Study Bible suggests that these commands are related to the idea that humans were not to blur “distinctions in the created order”, an idea expressed by Jewish philosophers such as Philo and Josephus.

7 In Numbers 15:38-41, this command was given as a method of reminder to follow the commands of the Lord.

Take-home: A series of commands are given for quite disparate-appearing reasons, including physical safety, sustainability in the land, possibly avoiding pagan practices, remembering the commands of the Lord, and not mixing disparate things.