21
1 And if one be found slain with the sword in the land, which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, having fallen in the field, and they do not know who has struck him; 2 your elders and your judges shall come forth, and shall measure the distances of the cities round about the slain man: 3 and it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not laboured, and which has not * borne a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer into a rough valley, which has not been tilled and is not sown, and they shall † kill the heifer in the valley. 5 And the priests the Levites shall come, because the Lord God has chosen them to stand by him, and to ‡ bless in his name, and § by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be decided. 6 And all the elders of that city who draw near to the slain man shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer which was slain in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it. 8 Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, that innocent blood ** may not be charged on your people Israel: and the blood shall be atoned for to them. 9 And you shall take away innocent blood from among you, if you should do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord your God. 10 And if when you go out to war against your enemies, the Lord your God should deliver them into your hands, and you should take their spoil, 11 and should see among the spoil a woman beautiful in countenance, and should †† desire her, and take her to yourself for a wife, 12 and should bring her within your house: then shall you shave her head, and pare her nails; 13 and shall take away her garments of captivity from off her, and she shall abide in your house, and shall bewail her father and mother the days of a month; and afterwards you shall go in to her and dwell with her, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it shall be if you do not delight in her, you shall send her out free; and she shall not by any means be sold for money, you shall not treat her contemptuously, because you have humbled her. 15 And if a man have two wives, the one loved and ‡‡ the other hated, and both the loved and the hated should have born him children, and the son of the hated should be firstborn; 16 then it shall be that whenever he shall divide by inheritance his goods to his sons, he shall not be able to give the right of the firstborn to the son of the loved one, having overlooked the son of the hated, which is the firstborn. 17 But he shall acknowledge the firstborn of the hated one to give to him double of all things which shall be found by him, because he is the §§ first of his children, and to him belongs the birthright. 18 And if any man has a disobedient and contentious son, who hearkens not to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they should correct him, and he should not listen to them; 19 then shall his father and his mother take hold of him, and bring him forth to the elders of his city, and to the gate of the place: 20 and they shall say to the men of their city, This our son is disobedient and contentious, he hearkens not to our voice, he is a reveler and a drunkard. 21 And the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; and you shall remove the evil one from yourselves, and the rest shall hear and fear. 22 And if there be sin in any one, and the judgment of death be upon him, and he be put to death, and you⌃ hang him on a tree: 23 his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you⌃ shall by all means bury it in that day; for ✡ every one that is hanged on a tree is cursed of God; and you⌃ shall by no means defile the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.
* 21:3 Gr. drawn. † 21:4 Gr. cut the sinews. i.e. of the neck. ‡ 21:5 Gr. his name. Hebraism. § 21:5 Gr. at their mouth. ** 21:8 Gr. may not be in your people. †† 21:11 Gr. think about her. ‡‡ 21:15 Gr. one of them. §§ 21:17 Gr. the beginning or chief. ✡ 21:23 Gal 3:13