Deuteronomy 21
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 ▼▼ Lit possess it
possess, and it is not known who has struck him, 2then 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; 4and 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 bthe 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 ▼▼ Lit stroke
assault ▼▼ Lit shall be according to their mouth
shall be settled by them. 6“All the elders of that city ▼▼ Lit who are
which is nearest to the slain man shall fwash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8‘ ▼▼ Lit Cover over, atone for
Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of hinnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ▼▼ Lit covered over, atoned for
forgiven them. 9 j“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 kthe Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, 11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall lshave her head and ▼▼ Lit do
trim her nails. 13“She shall also ▼▼ Lit remove from her
remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and omourn 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 ▼▼ Lit according to her soul
wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not ▼▼ Or enslave
mistreat her, because you have rhumbled her. 15“If a man has two wives, the one loved and sthe other ▼▼ Lit hated
unloved, and both the loved and the ▼▼ Lit hated
unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ▼▼ Lit hated
unloved, 16then it shall be in the day he ▼▼ 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 ▼▼ Lit hated
unloved, who is the firstborn. 17“But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ▼▼ Lit hated
unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ▼▼ Lit is found with him
he has, for he is the aabeginning of his strength; abto him belongs the right of the firstborn. 18“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will acnot obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ▼▼ 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.’ 21 ae“Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so afyou shall remove the evil from your midst, and agall Israel will hear of it and fear. 22“If a man has committed a sin ahworthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 aihis corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for ajhe who is hanged is ▼▼ Lit the curse of God
accursed of God), so that you aldo not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
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