1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities. 3 Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, 4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream. 5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. 6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, 7 and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for. 9 So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD. 10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, 11 if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, 12 then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, 13 and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. 15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, 16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife. 17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. 18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, 19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his homet…
Deuteronomy 21:1–23
Semantically similar passages
Deuteronomy 17:4–6
4 and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel, 5 you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that perso…
Deuteronomy 22:17–19
17 And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and…
Deuteronomy 13:8–10
8 you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him. 9 Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death for trying…
Deuteronomy 19:12–14
12 the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you. 14 You must not move your neighb…
Deuteronomy 22:24–26
24 you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you. 25 But if the man encounte…
Deuteronomy 25:7–9
7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 8 Then the… 9 …
Numbers 19:2–4
2 “This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke. 3 Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp a…
Numbers 5:30–31
30 or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to apply to her this entire law. 31 The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
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