Deuteronomy 21

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

1“If someone is found slain on the ground that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, fallen in the field, and it is not known who struck him, 2then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain person to the cities around him. 3The city nearest to the slain person shall be identified, and the elders of that city shall take a heifer from the herd that has not been worked and has not pulled in a yoke. 4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a perennial valley that has not been plowed or sown, and there in the valley they shall break the heifer’s neck. 5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall approach, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their mouth every dispute and every assault shall be decided. 6All the elders of that city nearest to the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7They shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it. 8Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, O LORD, and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ Then the bloodguilt shall be atoned for them. 9So you shall remove innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

A Woman Captured in War

10“When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, 11and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in form, and you desire her and would take her for yourself as wife, 12then you shall bring her into your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13She shall remove the garment of her captivity from upon her and remain in your house and weep for her father and mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14But if you no longer delight in her, you shall send her free according to her desire. You shall not sell her for silver or treat her as merchandise, because you have humbled her.

The Right of the Firstborn

15“If a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and both the loved and the hated bear sons to him, and the firstborn son belongs to the hated wife, 16then on the day he causes his sons to inherit what he has, he may not treat the son of the loved wife as firstborn before the son of the hated wife, who is the firstborn. 17Rather, he shall recognize the firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double portion of all that is found with him, for he is the first of his strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

A Stubborn and Rebellious Son

18“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they discipline him he will not listen to them, 19then his father and his mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. 20They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones so that he dies. So you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and fear.

A Body Hanged on a Tree

22“And if a man has committed a sin deserving death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 23his corpse shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, for one hanged is a curse of God. You shall not defile your ground that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.