Deuteronomy 21

1. “If one is found dead in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it is not known who has killed him,

2. Then your elders and your judges shall come forth. And they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is dead.

3. And it shall be, the city nearest to the slain one, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer which has not been worked with, which has not drawn in the yoke.

4. And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to an ever flowing stream, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the stream.

5. And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. For the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him, and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried.

6. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain one, shall wash their hands over the heifer that has been beheaded in the stream.

7. And they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen.

8. Be merciful, O LORD, to Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And the blood shall be forgiven them.

9. So you shall put away innocent blood from among you when you do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

10. When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God has delivered them into your hands and you have taken them captive,

11. And see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire unto her that you would take her for your wife,

12. Then you shall bring her home to your house. And she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

13. And she shall put off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and shall mourn for her father and her mother a full month. And after that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14. And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires. But you shall not sell her at all for silver, you shall not make a slave of her because you have humbled her.

15. If a man has two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have borne him sons, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son was of her that was hated,

16. Then it shall be in the day when he makes his sons to inherit what he has, he may not grant firstborn status to the son of the beloved in preference to the son of the hated one—for he is truly the firstborn.

17. But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the beginning of his strength, and the right of the firstborn is his.

18. If a man has a son who is stubborn and rebels, who will not obey his father’s voice or his mother’s voice, even when they have chastened him he will not hearken to them,

19. Then his father and his mother shall lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place.

20.And they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.

21. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones so that he dies. So shall you put evil away from you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

22. And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and if he is put to death and you hang him on a tree,

23. His body shall not remain all night on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God), so that your land may not be defiled, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.”