Deuteronomy 21

1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

“When there will have been found in the land, which the Lord your God will give to you, the corpse of a man who has been killed, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder,

2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

your judges and those greater by birth shall go out and measure, from the place of the corpse, the distance to each of the surrounding cities.

3 Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,

And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow.

4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

And they shall lead it into a rough and stony valley, one which has never been tilled or sown. And in that place, they shall cut the neck of the calf.

5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

And the priests the sons of Levi shall approach, those whom the Lord your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and to decide every controversy by their word, and to judge which things are clean and which are unclean.

6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken,

And those greater by birth of that city, nearest to the one who was slain, shall go and shall wash their hands over the calf that was killed in the valley.

7 and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

And they shall say: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.

Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not charge them with innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And so the guilt of the blood will be taken away from them.

9 So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

Then you will be free from the blood that was shed against the innocent, when you will have done as the Lord has instructed you.

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,

If you have gone out to fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand, and if, as you are leading away the captives,

11 if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,

you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her, and you are willing to have her as a wife:

12 then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

then you shall lead her into your house. And she shall shave off her hair, and cut her nails short,

13 and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

and remove the garment in which she was captured. And she shall sit in your house and weep for her father and mother, for one month. And after that, you shall enter to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife.

14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

But if afterwards she does not sit well in your mind, you shall set her free. You cannot sell her for money, nor can you oppress her by force. For you have humiliated her.

15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,

If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have produced children by him, and if the son of the hated wife is the firstborn,

16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

and if he wishes to divide his substance among his sons: he cannot make the son of the beloved wife the firstborn, and so prefer him before the son of the hated wife.

17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.

Instead, he shall acknowledge the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and he shall give to him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first among his children, and the rights of the firstborn are owed to him.

18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

If a man produces a disobedient and reckless son, who will not listen to the orders of his father or mother, and, having been corrected, shows contempt for obedience:

19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,

they shall take him and lead him to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment.

20 and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

And they shall say to them: ‘This our son is reckless and disobedient. He shows contempt when listening to our admonitions. He occupies himself with carousing, and self-indulgence, and feasting.’

21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Then the people of the city shall stone him to death. And he shall die, so that you may take away the evil from your midst. And so may all of Israel, upon hearing it, be very afraid.

22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

When a man will have sinned in a matter which is punished by death, and, having been judged unto death, he has been hanged on a gallows:

23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

his corpse shall not remain on the tree. Instead, he shall be buried on the same day. For he who hangs from a tree has been cursed by God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God will give to you as a possession.”