21 ¶ When one is found dead in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit, lying in the field, and it is not known who has slain him,

² then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is dead;

³ and it shall be that the elders of the city which is next unto the dead man shall take a heifer, which has not served, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which has neither been plowed nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

⁵ And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for the LORD thy God has chosen them to minister unto him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be determined.

⁶ And all the elders of that closest city next to the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.

⁷ And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸ Reconcile thy people Israel, whom thou hast ransomed, O LORD, and impute not the innocent blood shed in the midst of thy people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹ So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰ ¶ When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God has delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

¹¹ and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her that thou would have her to thy wife,

¹² then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails,

¹³ and she shall put off the clothing of her captivity and shall remain in thine house and bewail her father and her mother a full month, and after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

¹⁴ And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go free, but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of her because thou hast humbled her.

¹⁵ ¶ When a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have born him sons, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is of the one that was hated,

¹⁶ then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the right of the firstborn unto the son of the beloved in preference over the son of the hated, who is indeed the firstborn;

¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸ ¶ When anyone has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them,

¹⁹ then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place;

²⁰ and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not hear our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.

²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.

²² And when a man shall have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and thou shall have hung him on a tree,

²³ his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt without fail bury him that same day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God) that thy land not be defiled, which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance.