Cross-Dressing Prohibition

The Cross-Dressing Prohibition is a brief rule in Deuteronomy that regulates clothing according to the distinction between women and men and frames crossing that boundary as an offense against the LORD. Its concise wording gives no examples or stated penalty, making the command itself—not a narrated case—the basis for understanding its scope.

The Command

The rule appears among instructions concerning everyday conduct. It prohibits a woman from wearing what pertains to a man and a man from putting on a woman’s garment. The two clauses are parallel and reciprocal: each assigns clothing to one gender and bars its use by the other.

The prohibition concludes by calling such conduct an abomination to the LORD. It does not specify a judicial procedure, penalty, exception, or explanation for the classification.

Place Among Neighboring Laws

The command sits alongside regulations about returning lost property and helping raise a fallen animal, followed by rules concerning a mother bird, a roof parapet, mixed seeds, plowing animals together, and blended wool and linen. This setting places clothing within a wider set of practical directives governing relations among people, animals, property, and customary distinctions.

Scope and Limits

The wording addresses what a person wears, distinguishing clothing associated with a man from a woman’s garment. It does not define those categories further or describe anyone violating the rule. The passage therefore establishes a prohibition and its religious judgment, but supplies no narrative case from which to infer additional circumstances or consequences.