Deuteronomy 21 · Parashot Shoftim–Ki Teitzei

If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who has slain him:

then thy elders and thy judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him that is slain:

and it shall be, that as for the city which is nearest to the slain man, the elders of that city shall take a heifer, which has not been put to work, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a rough ravine, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the ravine:

and the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the Lord thy God has chosen 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:

and all the elders of that city, that are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the ravine:

and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.

Be merciful, O Lord, to thy people Yisra᾽el, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of thy people Yisra᾽el. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

So shalt thou put away the innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

When thou goest forth to war against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God has delivered them into thy hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

and thou seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire to her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife;

then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go where she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not treat her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her.

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:

then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the preference to the son of the beloved wife, over the son of the hated wife who is the firstborn:

but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he has: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them:

then shall his father and his mother lay hold of him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;

and they shall say to 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.

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 Yisra᾽el shall hear, and fear.

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:

his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt surely bury him that day: (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance.