Deuteronomy 21:1-9

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.