Atonement for Innocent Blood

21 “If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh 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 And 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 they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then ^(A)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every ^[b]assault ^[c]shall be settled by them. ⁶ And all the elders of that city ^[d]who are 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 Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of ^(C)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them. ^9 (D)So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

Statutes About Domestic Relations

¹⁰ “If you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(E)Yahweh your God gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive, ¹¹ and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on 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 ^[e]trim her nails. ¹³ She shall also ^[f]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and ^(G)weep for 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 And it will be that, if you do not desire her, then you shall let her go ^[g]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money; you shall not ^[h]mistreat her because you have ^(H)humbled her.

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

¹⁸ “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^(L)not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline 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 ^[p]at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰ Then they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ^21 (M)Then all the men of his city shall stone him, and he will die; so ^(N)you shall purge the evil from your midst, and ^(O)all Israel will hear of it and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

²² “And if a man has committed a sin, ^(P)the judgment of which is 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 (because ^(R)cursed of God is he who is hanged), so that you ^(S)do not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.