Deuteronomy 21

1 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.

If one be found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who has slain him:

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

Then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him that is slain:

3 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.

And it shall be, that the city which is next to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which has not been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

4 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.

And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:

5 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.

And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:

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

And all the elders of that city, that are next to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:

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

And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

8 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.”

Be merciful, O LORD, to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to your people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

9 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.

So shall you put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

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

When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God has delivered them into your hands, and you have taken them captive,

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

And see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire to her, that you would have her to your wife;

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

Then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

13 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.

And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14 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.

And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not make merchandise of her, because you have humbled her.

15 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,

If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:

16 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.

Then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:

17 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.

But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he has: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

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

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not listen to them:

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

Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;

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

And they shall say to the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

21 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.

And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shall you put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

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

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree:

23 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.

His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God; ) that your land be not defiled, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.