DEUTERONOMY 21

If a man is found killed* in the land which Yehowah your God gives you for a possession, lying in the fields, and it is not known who struck him, 2 then your elders and judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance from the dead man to the cities which are round about. 3 And the elders of the city which is nearest the dead man shall take a heifer which has not been put to work, which has not pulled under the yoke. 4 Then the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a rough valley which is neither tilled nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for Yehowah your God has chosen them to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yehowah, and by their word shall every dispute and every penalty be decided. 6 Then all the elders of that city, who are the nearest to the dead man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken in the valley; 7 and they shall speak and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 Shield thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed, O Yehowah, and do not bring blood-guilt on the innocent among thy people Israel. So the blood-guilt shall be cleared from them. 9 Thus you shall purge the blood-guilt from the innocent among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yehowah. * lit pierced

10 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yehowah your God delivers them into your hands, and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her, and you would take her to yourself for a wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head and cut her nails; 13 and she shall take off the clothing in which she was captured, and she shall live in your house, and lament her father and mother for a whole month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 But then if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go wherever she wishes, but you must not sell her for silver; you shall not make a profit from her, because you have humiliated her.

15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne sons to him, and if the unloved one had the firstborn son, 16 then on the day when he allows his sons to inherit what he owns, he shall not treat a son of the loved one as the firstborn instead of the son of the unloved one, who is the firstborn. 17 For he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved one, by giving him a double share of all that he owns; for he is the first fruits of his strength; the rights of the firstborn are his.

18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they correct him he will not obey them, 19 then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city at the gateway of that place. 20 Then they shall say to the elders of his city, Our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice, being a glutton and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him to death. So you shall purge this evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear and fear.

22 And if a man has committed a capital offence, and is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree; but you must bury him the same day, for one who is hanged is accursed before God; and you shall not defile your land which Yehowah your God gives you for an inheritance.