Deuteronomy 21

1 And if one be found slain with the sword in the land, which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, having fallen in the field, and they do not know who has struck [him];

Someone may be found murdered, lying in a field in the country that the Lord your God is giving you to own, and nobody knows who killed them.

2 your elders and your judges shall come forth, and shall measure the distances of the cities round about the slain man:

Your elders and judges must come and measure the distance from the body to the surrounding towns.

3 and it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not laboured, and which has not borne a yoke.

Then the elders of the town that's found to be nearest to the body shall take a cow that has never been put under a yoke or used for work.

4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer into a rough valley, which has not been tilled and is not sown, and they shall kill the heifer in the valley.

Take the cow to a valley that has a stream running through it and whose ground has never been plowed or sown. Break the cow's neck there beside the stream.

5 And the priests the Levites shall come, because the Lord God has chosen them to stand by him, and to bless in his name, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be [decided].

The Levitical priests must be there too, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to give blessings in his name, and to decide on legal disputes and cases of assault.

6 And all the elders of that city who draw near to the slain man shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer which was slain in the valley;

Then all the elders of the town nearest the body are to wash their hands in the stream over the dead cow, saying,

7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen [it].

“We had nothing to do with this murder, and we didn't see who did it.

8 Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, that innocent blood may not be charged on your people Israel: and the blood shall be atoned for to them.

Lord, please forgive your people Israel who you rescued, and do not hold them guilty of shedding of innocent blood In this way the guilt for shedding blood will be forgiven.”

9 And you shall take away innocent blood from amongst you, if you should do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.

This is how you are to remove from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the Lord's sight.

10 And if when you go out to war against your enemies, the Lord your God should deliver them into your hands, and you should take their spoil,

When you go to war with your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you in defeat, and you capture them,

11 and should see amongst the spoil a woman beautiful in countenance, and should desire her, and take her to yourself for a wife,

you may see that one of them is a beautiful woman who you like and want to marry.

12 and should bring her within your house: then shall you shave her head, and pare her nails;

Take her home and have her shave her head, cut her nails,

13 and shall take away her garments of captivity from off her, and she shall abide in your house, and shall bewail her father and mother the days of a month; and afterwards you shall go in to her and dwell with her, and she shall be your wife.

and get rid of the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. After she has lived in your home and has finished her month of mourning for her father and mother, you may sleep with her and marry her, and she shall be your wife.

14 And it shall be if you do not delight in her, you shall send her out free; and she shall not by any means be sold for money, you shall not treat her contemptuously, because you have humbled her.

However, if you are not happy with her, you must let her leave and go wherever she wants. You are not allowed to sell her for money or treat her like a slave, because you have brought shame on her.

15 And if a man have two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and both the loved and the hated should have born him [children], and the son of the hated should be firstborn;

If a man has two wives, one he loves and one he doesn't, and both have sons by him, but the firstborn son is from the wife he doesn't love,

16 then it shall be that whenever he shall divide by inheritance his goods to his sons, he shall not be able to give the right of the firstborn to the son of the loved one, having overlooked the son of the hated, which is the firstborn.

when the time comes for the man to decide what each son will inherit from him, he must not prefer the son of wife he loves and treat him as the firstborn instead of the son of the wife he doesn't love.

17 But he shall acknowledge the firstborn of the hated one to give to him double of all things which shall be found by him, because he is the first of his children, and to him belongs the birthright.

No. He is to recognize the firstborn, the son of the wife he doesn't love through the usual custom of giving him a double portion of all that he owns. The firstborn son is the firstfruits of his father's strength, and so the rights of the firstborn are his.

18 And if any man has a disobedient and contentious son, who hearkens not to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they should correct him, and he should not listen to them;

If someone has a obstinate and rebellious son who doesn't obey his parents and doesn't obey them even when he's punished,

19 then shall his father and his mother take hold of him, and bring him forth to the elders of his city, and to the gate of the place:

his parents must take him to the town elders, to the court in his hometown,

20 and they shall say to the men of their city, This our son is disobedient and contentious, he hearkens not to our voice, he is a reveler and a drunkard.

and tell them, “Our son is obstinate and rebellious, He doesn't obey us. He's a worthless drunk!”

21 And the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; and you shall remove the evil one from yourselves, and the rest shall hear and fear.

Then all the men of his home town will stone him to death. You must eliminate the evil from among you, and every Israelite will hear about it and be afraid.

22 And if there be sin in any one, [and] the judgement of death [be upon him], and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree:

If someone commits a crime punishable by death, and the person is executed by hanging on a tree,

23 his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall by all means bury it in that day; for every one that is hanged on a tree is cursed of God; and you shall by no means defile the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.

don't leave the body hanging there overnight. Make sure you bury the body the same day, because anyone who is hung is under God's curse. Don't defile the country that the Lord your God is giving you to own.