Deuteronomy 21:1-9

1If a homicide victim should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, and no one knows who killed him,

2your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse.

3Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

4and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck.

5Then the Levitical priests will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, and to decide every judicial verdict)

6and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

7Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime.

8Do not blame your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

9In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before the Lord.