DE-21:1 If [one] be found slain in the land which the LORD thy
God giveth
thee to possess it, lying in the field, [and] it be not known
who hath slain
him:
DE-21:2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and
they shall
measure unto the cities which [are] round about him that is
slain:
DE-21:3 And it shall be, [that] the city [which is] next unto
the slain man,
even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath
not been wrought
with, [and] which hath not drawn in the yoke;
DE-21:4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer
unto a rough
valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off
the heifer's
neck there in the valley:
DE-21:5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for
them the LORD
thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the
name of the
LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke
be [tried]:
DE-21:6 And all the elders of that city, [that are] next unto
the slain
[man], shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded
in the valley:
DE-21:7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed
this blood,
neither have our eyes seen [it].
DE-21:8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou
hast redeemed,
and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge.
And the blood
shall be forgiven them.
DE-21:9 So shalt thou put away the [guilt of] innocent blood
from among you,
when thou shalt do [that which is] right in the sight of the
LORD.
DE-21:10 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies,
and the LORD thy
God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken
them captive,
DE-21:11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and
hast a desire
unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
DE-21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she
shall shave
her head, and pare her nails;
DE-21:13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from
off her, and
shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her
mother a full
month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her
husband, and she
shall be thy wife.
DE-21:14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then
thou shalt let
her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for
money, thou
shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
DE-21:15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another
hated, and they
have born him children, [both] the beloved and the hated; and
[if] the
firstborn son be hers that was hated:
DE-21:16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit
[that] which he
hath, [that] he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn
before the son
of the hated, [which is indeed] the firstborn:
DE-21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated [for]
the firstborn,
by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he [is]
the beginning
of his strength; the right of the firstborn [is] his.
DE-21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which
will not obey the
voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and [that],
when they have
chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
DE-21:19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him,
and bring him
out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
DE-21:20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This
our son [is]
stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; [he is] a
glutton, and a
drunkard.
DE-21:21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with
stones, that he
die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel
shall hear,
and fear.
DE-21:22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and
he be to be
put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
DE-21:23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but
thou shalt in
any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed
of God;) that
thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee
[for] an
inheritance.
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