21:1 If [one] shall 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:
21:2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they
shall measure to the cities which [are] around him that is
slain:
21:3 And it shall be [that] the city [which is] next to the
slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer
which hath not been wrought with, [and] which hath not drawn in
the yoke;
21:4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to
a rough valley, which is neither tilled nor sown, and shall
strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley;
21:5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near (for them
the LORD thy God hath 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];
21:6 And all the elders of that city [that are] next to the
slain [man], shall wash their hands over the heifer that is
beheaded in the valley:
21:7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this
blood, neither have our eyes seen [it].
21:8 Be merciful, O LORD, to thy people Israel, whom thou hast
redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of thy
people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
21:9 So shalt thou remove the [guilt of] innocent blood from
among you, when thou shalt do [that which is] right in the
sight of the LORD.
21:10 When thou goest forth to war against thy enemies, and the
LORD thy God hath delivered them into thy hands, and thou hast
taken them captive,
21:11 And [thou] seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and
hast a desire to her, that thou wouldest have her for thy wife:
21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thy house, and she shall
shave her head, and pare her nails:
21:13 And she shall put off from her the raiment of her
captivity, 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.
21:14 And it shall be, if thou shalt 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.
21:15 If a man shall have two wives, one beloved, and another
hated, and they have borne him children, [both] the beloved and
the hated; and [if] the first-born son be hers that was hated:
21:16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit
[that] which he hath, [that] he may not prefer the son of the
beloved first-born, before the son of the hated, [which is
indeed] the first-born:
21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated [for] the
first-born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath:
for he [is] the beginning of his strength; the right of the
first-born [is] his.
21:18 If a man shall have a stubborn and rebellious son, who
will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his
mother, and [who], when they have chastened him, will not
hearken to them:
21:19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and
bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his
place;
21:20 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.
21:21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones,
that he may die: so shalt thou remove evil from among you, and
all Israel shall hear, and fear.
21:22 And if a man shall have committed a sin worthy of death,
and he must be put to death, and thou shalt hang him on a tree:
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 may not be defiled,
which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.
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