DeuteronomyChapter 21

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¹Someone may be found killed and lying in a field. It may be in the land the LORD your God is giving you to own. And no one may know who killed him. ²Then your elders and judges must come out. They must measure how far it is from the body to the cities around it. ³Then the elders of the city closest to the body must take a young cow. It must be one that has never worn a yoke or been used for work. ⁴They must bring the cow down to a valley with a flowing stream. The valley must be one that has never been plowed or planted. There by the stream they must break the cow's neck. ⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, must come forward. The LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to speak blessings in his name. They also decide every argument and every case of attack. ⁶Then all the elders of the city closest to the body must wash their hands by the stream. They must wash them over the cow whose neck was broken. ⁷And they must say, "Our hands did not spill this blood. Our eyes did not see it happen. ⁸LORD, accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed. Do not hold the killing of an innocent person against them." And the killing will be atoned for. ⁹So you must get rid of the guilt of killing an innocent person from among you. You will have done what is right in the LORD's eyes. ¹⁰You will go to war against your enemies. The LORD your God will hand them over to you, and you will take them as prisoners. ¹¹You may see a beautiful woman among the prisoners. You may want her and want to make her your wife. ¹²If so, bring her into your house. She must shave her head and cut her nails. ¹³She must take off the clothes she wore when she was captured. She must live in your house a full month and mourn for her father and mother. After that you may sleep with her and be her husband. And she will be your wife. ¹⁴But you may not be pleased with her. If so, let her go wherever she wants. You must not sell her for money or treat her like a slave, because you have shamed her. ¹⁵A man may have two wives. He loves one and does not love the other. Both wives may have sons by him. But the firstborn son may belong to the wife he does not love. ¹⁶When that man divides up his property for his sons, he must not treat the son of the wife he loves as the firstborn. He must not put him ahead of the son of the wife he does not love. ¹⁷Instead, he must accept the son of the wife he does not love as the firstborn. He must give that son a double share of everything he owns. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The rights of the firstborn belong to him.a ¹⁸A man may have a stubborn son who rebels. The son does not obey his father and mother. He does not listen to them even when they correct him. ¹⁹Then his father and mother must take hold of him. They must bring him to the elders at the gate of his city. ²⁰They must say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebels. He does not obey us. He eats too much and gets drunk." ²¹Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. So you must get rid of the evil among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid. ²²A man may commit a sin that deserves death. He is put to death, and you hang his body on a tree. ²³Do not leave his body on the tree all night. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not make the land unclean. The LORD your God is giving you this land as your own.