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.