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];
“Suppose someone has been murdered in a field in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you do not know who killed that person.
2 your elders and your judges shall come forth, and shall measure the distances of the cities round about the slain man:
[If that happens], your elders and judges must go out to where that person’s corpse was found and measure the distance from there to each of the nearby 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 in the town that is closest to where the corpse was found must select a young cow that has never been used for doing 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.
They must take it to a place near a stream where the ground has never been plowed or planted. They must break its neck there in that valley.
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 priests must go there also, because Yahweh our God has chosen them from the tribe of Levi to serve him and to be his representatives [MTY] when they bless people. And he has also chosen them to settle disputes in which someone has been injured.
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;
The elders from the closest town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken,
7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen [it].
and they must say, ‘We did not murder this person [MTY], and we did not 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.
Yahweh, forgive us, your Israeli people whom you rescued [from Egypt]. Do not consider (us to be guilty/that we should be punished because) of murdering someone who (is innocent/had not done something that is wrong). Instead, forgive us.’
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.
By doing that, you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right, and you will not be considered to be guilty for murdering that person.”
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 [soldiers] go to fight against your enemies, and Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them [IDM], and (they become your prisoners/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,
one of you may see among them a beautiful woman that he likes, and he may want to marry her.
12 and should bring her within your house: then shall you shave her head, and pare her nails;
He should take her to his home, and there she must shave [all the hair off] her head and cut her fingernails [to signify that now she does not belong to her people-group any more, but instead she is becoming an Israeli].
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.
She must take off the clothes that she was wearing when she was captured, [and put on Israeli clothes]. She must stay in that man’s house and mourn for a month because of [leaving] her parents. After that, he will be allowed to marry her.
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.
Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he will be permitted to allow her to leave him. But because she was forced to have sex with him, he will not be allowed to treat her like a slave [and sell her to someone else].”
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;
“Suppose that a man has two wives, but he likes one of them and dislikes the other one. And suppose that they both give birth to sons, and the oldest son is the child of the woman that he does not like.
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.
On the day when that man decides how he will divide his possessions for his sons to possess [after he dies], he must not favor the son of the wife that he loves by giving him [a bigger share, ] the share that the older son should receive.
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.
He must give to the older son, the son of the wife whom he does not like, twice as much of his possessions. That son is his firstborn son, and he must be given the share that he should receive because of his being that man’s firstborn son.”
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;
“Suppose there is a boy who is very stubborn and always (rebelling against/disobeying) [his parents], and who will not heed what they say to him. And suppose that they punish him but he still does not pay attention to what they tell him [MTY].
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:
If that happens, his parents must take him to the (gate of/central meeting place in) the city where he lives and have him stand in front of the elders of the city.
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.
Then the parents must say to the elders of that city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and always rebelling against us. He will not pay attention to what we tell him [MTY]. He wastes a lot of money (OR, eats too much food) and gets 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 elders of that city must execute him by throwing stones at him. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you. And everyone in Israel will hear [about what happened] and they will be afraid [to do what he did].”
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 is executed for having committed a crime for which he deserves to die, and you hang his corpse on a post,
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.
you must not allow his corpse to remain there all night. You must bury it on the day that he died, because [God] has cursed anyone whose corpse is allowed to remain on a post. [You must bury the corpse that day], in order that you do not defile the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.”
