Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God gives you to ^[a]possess, and it is not known who has struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. ³ It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then ^(A)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every ^[b]assault ^[c]shall be settled by them. ⁶ All the elders of that city ^[d]which is nearest to the slain man shall ^(B)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ^8 [e]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ^(C)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ^[f]forgiven them. ^9 (D)So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(E)the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, ¹¹ and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(F)shave her head and ^[g]trim her nails. ¹³ She shall also ^[h]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(G)mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go ^[i]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not ^[j]mistreat her, because you have ^(H)humbled her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^(I)the other ^[k]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[l]unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ^[m]unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be in the day he ^[n]wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ^[o]unloved, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷ But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[p]unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ^[q]he has, for he is the ^(J)beginning of his strength; ^(K)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸ “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^(L)not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ^[r]at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ^21 (M)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ^(N)you shall remove the evil from your midst, and ^(O)all Israel will hear of it and fear.

²² “If a man has committed a sin ^(P)worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ^23 (Q)his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for ^(R)he who is hanged is ^[s]accursed of God), so that you ^(S)do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

The Majesty of the Lord.

Peter’s Arrest and Deliverance

12 Now about that time ^[a]Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. ² And he ^(A)had James the brother of John ^(B)put to death with a sword. ³ When he saw that it ^(C)pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now ^[b]it was during ^(D)the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four ^[c](E)squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after ^(F)the Passover to bring him out before the people. ⁵ So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

⁶ On ^[d]the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, ^(G)bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. ⁷ And behold, ^(H)an angel of the Lord suddenly ^(I)appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And ^(J)his chains fell off his hands. ⁸ And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and ^[e]put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he *said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹ And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing ^(K)a vision. ¹⁰ When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which ^(L)opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. ¹¹ When Peter ^(M)came ^[f]to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that ^(N)the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all ^[g]that the Jewish people were expecting.” ¹² And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of ^(O)John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and ^(P)were praying. ¹³ When he knocked at the door of the gate, ^(Q)a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, ^(R)because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is ^(S)his angel.” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But ^(T)motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to ^[h](U)James and ^(V)the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place.

¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to ^[i]what could have become of Peter. ¹⁹ When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they ^(W)be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to ^(X)Caesarea and was spending time there.

Death of Herod

²⁰ Now he was very angry with the people of ^(Y)Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because ^(Z)their country was fed by the king’s country. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the ^[j]rostrum and began delivering an address to them. ²² The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” ²³ And immediately ^(AA)an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and ^[k]died.

²⁴ But ^(AB)the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.

²⁵ And ^(AC)Barnabas and ^(AD)Saul returned ^[l]from Jerusalem ^(AE)when they had fulfilled their ^[m]mission, taking along with them ^(AF)John, who was also called Mark.