Deuteronomy 21

1 “When one is found slain, fallen in a field on the ground which your God YHWH is giving to you to possess it, [and] it is not known 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 then your elderly and yours [of those] judging have gone out and measured to the cities which [are] around the slain one,

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

3 and it has been, the city which [is] near to the slain one, even [the] elderly of that city have taken a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with, which has not drawn in 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] elderly of that city have brought down the heifer to a hard valley, which is not tilled nor sown, and have beheaded the heifer there 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, sons of Levi, have come near—for your God YHWH has fixed on them to serve Him and to bless in the Name of YHWH, and by their mouth is every strife and every stroke—

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] elderly of that city, who are near to the slain one, wash their hands over the heifer which is beheaded 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 have answered and said, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen—

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

8 receive atonement for Your people Israel, whom You have ransomed, O YHWH, and do not permit innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel; and the blood has been pardoned 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 put away the innocent blood out of your midst, for you do that which [is] right in the eyes of YHWH.

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 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and your God YHWH has given them into your hand, and you have taken captive its captivity,

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 have seen a woman of beautiful form in the captivity, and have delighted in her, and have taken [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 then you have brought her into the midst of your household, and she has shaved her head, and prepared her nails,

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

13 and turned aside the raiment of her captivity from off her, and has dwelt in your house, and lamented her father and her mother [for] a month of days, and afterward you go in to her and have married her, and she has been to you for a 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 has been, if you have not delighted in her, that you have sent her away at her desire, and surely you do not sell her for money; you do not tyrannize over her, because that 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 When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they have borne sons to him (the loved one and the hated one), and the firstborn son has been to the hated one,

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 has been, in the day of his causing his sons to inherit that which he has, he is not able to declare firstborn the son of the loved one, in the face of the son of the hated one—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 the firstborn, son of the hated one, he acknowledges, to give to him a double portion of all that is found with him, for he [is] the beginning of his strength; to him [is] the right of the firstborn.

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 When a man has a son apostatizing and being rebellious—he is not listening to the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they have disciplined him, and he does 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 his father and his mother have laid hold on him, and they have brought him out to [the] elderly of his city, and to the gate of his place,

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

20 and have said to [the] elderly of his city, Our son—this one—is apostatizing and being rebellious; he is not listening to our voice—a glutton and drunkard.

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

21 Then all the men of his city have stoned him with stones and he has died, and you have put away the evil out of your midst, and all Israel hears and fears.

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 when there is a sin in a man [with] a judgment of death, and he has been put to death, and you have hanged him on a tree,

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

23 his corpse does not remain on the tree, for you certainly bury him in the day—for he who is hanged [becomes] a curse of God—and you do not defile your ground which your God YHWH is giving to 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.