Deuteronomy 21

1 “And if someone is found killed with a sword in the land the Lord your God is giving you to hold, fallen in a field, and nobody knows who struck him down, 2 then your elders and your judges are to go out and measure the distances to the cities around the dead man. 3 And the city nearest the dead man — the elders of that city are to take a heifer from the herd that has not been worked and has not carried a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city are to bring the heifer down to a rough valley that has not been plowed and is not sown, and they are to hamstring the heifer there in the valley. 5 And the priests the Levites are to come, because the Lord your God has chosen them to stand by him and to bless in his name, and by their word every dispute and every injury is settled. 6 And all the elders of that city, the ones nearest the dead man, are to wash their hands over the head of the heifer that was hamstrung in the valley, 7 and they are to say: Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it. 8 Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you ransomed out of the land of Egypt, Lord, so that innocent blood may not be charged against your people Israel. And the blood will be covered over for them. [a] 9 So you are to clear innocent blood out from among you, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.

10 And when you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over into your hands, and you take their spoil, 11 and you see among the spoil a woman beautiful to look at, and you want her and take her for yourself as a wife, 12 and you bring her into your house — then you are to shave her head and cut her nails, 13 and take off the clothes she was captured in; and she is to stay in your house and mourn her father and her mother for a full month. And after that you may go in to her and live with her, and she will be your wife. 14 And if you take no pleasure in her, you are to send her away free; she is on no account to be sold for money, and you are not to treat her as nothing, because you have humbled her. [b]

15 And if a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and both the loved one and the hated one have borne him children, and the son of the hated one is the firstborn, 16 then on the day he divides his goods among his sons as their inheritance, he is not permitted to give the right of the firstborn to the son of the loved one, passing over the son of the hated one, who is the firstborn. 17 He is to acknowledge the firstborn of the hated one and give him a double share of everything he has, because he is the first of his children; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. [c]

18 And if any man has a son who is disobedient and defiant, who does not listen to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they correct him and he does not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of the place, 20 and they are to say to the men of their city: This son of ours is disobedient and defiant. He does not listen to our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. 21 And the men of his city are to stone him with stones, and he is to die; and you are to burn the evil out from among you, and the rest will hear and be afraid.

22 And if there is a sin in anyone and the judgment of death is on him, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body is not to stay on the tree overnight — you are certainly to bury him that same day, for everyone hanged on a tree is cursed by God. And you are not to make the land unclean that the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance.” [d]