Deuteronomy 21

Expiation of a Crime

1“If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to 1possess, and it is not known who struck him, 2then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. 3And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked 2and 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 they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5Then 3the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and 4violent crime shall be 5settled by them. 6And all the elders of that city 6which is nearest to the person killed shall 7wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. 88Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for 9innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be 10forgiven them. 911So you shall remove the guilt for 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 12the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive, 11and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and are strongly attracted to her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12then you shall bring her into your home, and she shall 13shave her head and 14trim her nails. 13She shall also 15remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and 16weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may have relations with her and become her husband and she shall be your wife. 14But it shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go 17wherever she wishes; and you certainly shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as merchandise, since you have 1819humiliated her.

15“If a man has two wives, the one loved and 20the other 21unloved, and both the loved and the 22unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the 23unloved, 16then it shall be on the day that he wills what he owns as an inheritance to his sons, he is not allowed to treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, 24at the expense of the son of the 25unloved, who actually is the firstborn son. 17On the contrary, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the 26unloved wife, by giving him a double 27portion of everything that 28he owns, for he was the 29beginning of his 30strength; 31to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

18“If any person has a stubborn and rebellious son who does 32not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he does not listen to them, 19then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city 33at the gateway of his hometown. 20And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, he is thoughtless and given to drinking.’ 2134Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so 35you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and 36all Israel will hear about it and fear.

22“Now if 37a person has committed a sin carrying 38a sentence of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on 39a tree, 2340his body is not to be left overnight on the 41tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for 42he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you 43do not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.