^1. «IF a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to [1] 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. «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 shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

^5. «Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every [3] assault [2] shall be settled by them.

^6. «All the elders of that city [4] which is nearest to the slain man shall 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. " [6] Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be [5] forgiven them.

^9. « So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

^10. «When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,

^11. and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,

^12. then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and [7] trim her nails.

^13. «She shall also [8] remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

^14. «It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go [10] wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not [9] mistreat her, because you have humbled her.

^15. «If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other [13] unloved, and both the loved and the [12] unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the [11] unloved,

^16. then it shall be in the day he [15] wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the [14] unloved, who is the firstborn.

^17. «But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the [17] unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that [16] he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

^18. «If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,

^19. then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city [18] at the gateway of his home town.

^20. «They shall say to the elders of his city, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

^21. « Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

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

^23. his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is [19] accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.