^21:1 If a man is found slain in the land which Jehovah your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field and it not be known who has struck him, ^21:2then your elders and your judges will come forth. And they will measure to the cities which are all around him who is slain, ^21:3 and it will be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city will take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke, ^21:4 and the elders of that city will bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown and will break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

    ^21:5 And the priests the sons of Levi will come near, for Jehovah your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of Jehovah and according to their word will every controversy and every stroke be.

    ^21:6 And all the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, will wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ^21:7and they will answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. ^21:8Forgive, O Jehovah, your people Israel whom you have redeemed and allow no innocent blood to remain in the midst of your people Israel. And the blood will be forgiven them.

    ^21:9 So will you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you when you will do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah.

    ^21:10 When you go forth to battle against your enemies and Jehovah your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, ^21:11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman and you have a desire for her and would take her to you as a wife, ^21:12 then you will bring her home to your house. And she will shave her head and do her nails, ^21:13 and she will put the garments of her captivity from her and will remain in your house and weep for her father and her mother a full month. And after that you will go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife.

    ^21:14 And it will be, if you have no delight in her, then you will let her go where she will, but you will not sell her at all for money. You will not deal with her harshly, because you have humbled her.

    ^21:15 If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated and they have borne him sons, both the beloved and the one hated and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated, ^21:16 then it will be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit what he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the one hated, who is the firstborn.^21:17 But he will acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the one hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, because he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

    ^21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and though they discipline him, will not listen to them, ^21:19 then his father and his mother will lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. ^21:20 And they will say to the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. ^21:21 And all the men of his city will stone him to death with stones. So you will put away the evil from the midst of you and all Israel will hear and fear.

    ^21:22 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, ^21:23 his body will not remain all night upon the tree, but you will surely bury him the same day, because he who is hanged is accursed of God, that you not defile your land which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance.