Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Evangelical Heritage Version

Unsolved Murders

21 In the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, if a person who has been killed is found lying in the open country and it is not known who struck him down, ² then your elders and your judges are to go out and measure the distance from the person who was killed to each of the surrounding towns.

³ The elders of the city that is closest to the person who was killed are to take a heifer that has not been worked and has not pulled with a yoke. ⁴ The elders of that city are to bring the heifer down to a gully that has a flowing stream and that has not been plowed and sown, and they are to break the neck of the heifer there in the gully.

⁵ Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, are to come near, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve and to bless you in the name of the Lord, and every dispute and every case of assault is to be decided according to their ruling. ⁶ Then all the elders of the city closest to the person who was killed are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the gully.

⁷ Then they are to testify by saying, “Our hands did not pour out this blood, and our eyes did not observe it. ⁸ Atone, Lord, for your people whom you have redeemed, and do not charge us with taking innocent life among your people Israel.” Then their bloodguilt will be atoned for.

⁹ In this way you will purge away from among you the guilt of shedding the blood of an innocent person by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.