Deuteronomy 21
1 “If someone is found dead in the open country, in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, lying in a field, and it is not known who killed him,
2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the dead man to the surrounding cities.
3 The elders of the city nearest the dead man shall take a young cow that has never been put to work or yoked.
4 The elders of that city shall bring the young cow down to a valley with a flowing stream, where no plowing or sowing has been done, and there in the valley they shall break the young cow’s neck.
5 The priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of the LORD. Their ruling shall settle every dispute and every case of assault.
6 All the elders of the city nearest the dead man shall wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.
7 They shall declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it.
8 Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, LORD, and do not let innocent blood remain among your people Israel.’ Then the blood will be atoned for on their behalf.
9 So you will remove innocent blood from among you, because you will have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take captives,
11 you may see among the captives a beautiful woman, desire her, and take her as your wife.
12 Bring her into your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.
13 She shall take off the clothes she wore in captivity, stay in your house, and mourn her father and mother for a full month. After that, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14 If you no longer want her, you shall set her free. You must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.
15 A man may have two wives, one loved and the other unloved. Both the loved wife and the unloved wife may bear him sons, and the firstborn son may be the son of the unloved wife.
16 When he divides his property among his sons, he may not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved wife, who is the firstborn.
17 He must recognize the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn and give him a double share of everything he owns, because that son is the first sign of his strength. The rights of the firstborn belong to him.
18 A man may have a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother, and who will not listen to them even when they discipline him.
19 His father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of the place where he lives.
20 They shall say to the elders of the city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’
21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death. So you will remove the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
22 A man may commit a crime deserving the death sentence, be put to death, and be hanged by you on a wooden post.
23 His body must not remain on the post overnight. Bury him that same day, because anyone hung on a post is under God’s curse. Then you will not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
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