Deḇarim (Deuteronomy) 21

Deut 21:1 “When anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which
יהוה your Elohim is giving you to possess, and it is not known who smote
him,
Deut 21:2 then your elders and your judges shall go out, and they shall
measure the distance from the slain man to the cities round about.
Deut 21:3 “And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man
shall take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with
a yoke,
Deut 21:4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a wadi
with flowing water, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and they shall break
the heifer’s neck there in the wadi.
Deut 21:5 “And the priests, the sons of Lĕwi, shall come near, for יהוה your
Elohim has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the Name of יהוה, and
by their mouth every strife and every stroke is tried.
Deut 21:6 “And let all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man wash
their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi.
Deut 21:7 “And they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this
blood, nor have our eyes seen it.
Deut 21:8 ‘O יהוה, forgive Your people Yisra’ĕl, whom You have redeemed,
and do not allow innocent blood in the midst of Your people Yisra’ĕl.’ And
the blood-guilt shall be pardoned to them.
Deut 21:9 “Thus you purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when
you do what is right in the eyes of יהוה.
Deut 21:10 “When you go out to fight against your enemies, and יהוה your
Elohim shall give them into your hand, and you shall take them captive,
Deut 21:11 and shall see among the captives a woman fair of form, and shall
delight in her and take her for your wife,
Deut 21:12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave
her head and trim her nails,
Deut 21:13 and put aside the mantle of her captivity, and shall dwell in your
house, and mourn her father and her mother a month of days. And after that
you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Deut 21:14 “And it shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall
let her go at her desire, but you do not sell her at all for silver. Do not treat
her harshly, since you have humbled her.
Deut 21:15 “When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved,
and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and the
first-born son is of her who is unloved,
Deut 21:16 then it shall be, on the day he makes his sons to inherit his
possessions, he is not allowed to treat the son of the beloved wife as first-
born in the face of the son of the unloved, who is truly the first-born.
Deut 21:17 “But he is to acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the
first-born by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the
beginning of his strength – the right of the first-born is his.
Deut 21:18 “When a man has a wayward and rebellious son who is not
listening to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when
they have disciplined him, does not listen to them,
Deut 21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring
him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city,
Deut 21:20 and shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is
wayward and rebellious. He is not listening to our voice, he is a glutton and
a drunkard.’
Deut 21:21 “Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones.
Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. And let all Yisra’ĕl hear, and
fear.
Deut 21:22 “And when a man has committed a sin worthy of death, then he
shall be put to death and you shall hang him on a tree.
Deut 21:23 “Let his body not remain overnight on the tree, for you shall
certainly bury him the same day – for he who is hanged is accursed of Elohim
– so that you do not defile the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you as
an inheritance.