⁶ All the elders of that city ^[a]which is nearest to the slain man shall ^(A)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 [b]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ^(B)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ^[c]forgiven them. ^9 (C)So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

³¹ The king said to him, “^(A)Do as he has spoken and fall upon him and bury him, ^(B)that you may remove from me and from my father’s house the blood which Joab shed without cause. ^32 (C)The Lord will return his blood on his own head, ^(D)because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he and killed them with the sword, while my father David did not know it: ^(E)Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and ^(F)Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. ^33 (G)So shall their blood return on the head of Joab and on the head of his ^[a]descendants forever; but to David and his ^[b]descendants and his house and his throne, may there be peace from the Lord forever.”