Answer:
The biblical parallel exhibited in chapter 17 of the story is the Deuteronomy of the novel. Steinbeck establishes an analogy between the Israelites receiving the new Law in their exodus and the migrants establishing their own laws, "The families learned what rights must be observed -- the right of privacy in the tent; the right to keep the past black hidden in the heart; the right to talk and to listen; the right to refuse help or to accept, to offer help or to decline it; the right of son to court and daughter to be courted; the right of the hungry to be fed; the rights of the pregnant and the sick to transcend all other rights." They also establish what they cannot do, "And the families learned, although on one told them, what rights are monstrous and must be destroyed: the right to intrude upon privacy, the right to be noisy while the camp slept, the right of seduction or rape, the right of adultery and theft and murder."