Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[a]possess, and it is not known who struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. ³ And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked ^[b]and 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 forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and ^[c]violent crime shall be ^[d]settled by them. ⁶ And all the elders of that city ^[e]which is nearest to the person killed shall ^(B)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. ^8 [f]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for ^(C)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be ^[g]forgiven them. ^9 (D)So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.