Expiation of a Crime
1 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to 1Deut 21:1: Lit possess it possess, and it is not known who has struck him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. 3 It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then a Deut 21:5: Deut 17:9-11; 19:17; 1 Chr 23:13 the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every 1Deut 21:5: Lit stroke assault 2Deut 21:5: Lit shall be according to their mouth shall be settled by them. 6All the elders of that city 1Deut 21:6: Lit who are which is nearest to the slain man shall a Deut 21:6: Matt 27:24 wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 81Deut 21:8: Lit Cover over, atone for Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of a Deut 21:8: Num 35:33, 34; Jon 1:14 innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be 2Deut 21:8: Lit covered over, atoned for forgiven them. 9a Deut 21:9: Deut 19:13 So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Domestic Relations
10 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and a Deut 21:10: Josh 21:44 the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall a Deut 21:12: Lev 14:8, 9; Num 6:9 shave her head and 1Deut 21:12: Lit do trim her nails. 13 She shall also 1Deut 21:13: Lit remove from her remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and a Deut 21:13: Ps 45:10 mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go 1Deut 21:14: Lit according to her soul wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not 2Deut 21:14: Or enslave mistreat her, because you have a Deut 21:14: Gen 34:2 humbled her.
15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and a Deut 21:15: Gen 29:33 the other 1Deut 21:15: Lit hated unloved, and both the loved and the 2Deut 21:15: Lit hated unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the 3Deut 21:15: Lit hated unloved, 16 then it shall be in the day he 1Deut 21:16: Lit makes to inherit wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the 2Deut 21:16: Lit hated unloved, who is the firstborn. 17 But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the 1Deut 21:17: Lit hated unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that 2Deut 21:17: Lit is found with him he has, for he is the a Deut 21:17: Gen 49:3 beginning of his strength; b Deut 21:17: Gen 25:31 to him belongs the right of the firstborn.
18 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will a Deut 21:18: Ex 20:12; Lev 19:3; Prov 1:8; Eph 6:1-3 not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city 1Deut 21:19: Lit and to the gate of his place at the gateway of his hometown. 20 They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21a Deut 21:21: Lev 20:2, 27; 24:14-23; Num 15:25, 36 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so b Deut 21:21: Deut 19:19 you shall remove the evil from your midst, and c Deut 21:21: Deut 13:11 all Israel will hear of it and fear.
22 “If a man has committed a sin a Deut 21:22: Deut 22:26; Matt 26:66; Mark 14:64; Acts 23:29 worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23a Deut 21:23: Josh 8:29; 10:26, 27; John 19:31 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for b Deut 21:23: Gal 3:13 he who is hanged is 1Deut 21:23: Lit the curse of God accursed of God), so that you c Deut 21:23: Lev 18:25; Num 35:34 do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.