The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Deuteronomy 21
1 If someone is found slain in the land
which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known
who has struck him,
2 then your elders and your judges shall
come out, and they shall measure to the
cities which are around him who is slain.
3 It shall be that the elders of the city
which is nearest to the slain man shall take
a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been
worked with and which has not drawn in
the yoke.
4 The elders of that city shall bring the
heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and
shall break the heifer’s neck there in the
valley.
5 The priests the sons of Levi shall come
near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word
shall every controversy and every assault
be decided.
6 All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands
over the heifer whose neck was broken in
the valley.
7 They shall answer and say, “Our hands
have not shed this blood, neither have our
eyes seen it.
8 Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel,
whom you have redeemed, and don’t al- low innocent blood among your people
Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.
9 So you shall put away the innocent
blood from among you, when you shall do
that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
10 When you go out to battle against your
enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers
them into your hands and you carry them
away captive,
11 and see among the captives a beautiful
woman, and you are attracted to her, and
desire to take her as your wife,
12 then you shall bring her home to your
house. She shall shave her head and trim
her nails.
13 She shall take off the clothing of her
captivity, and shall remain in your house,
and bewail her father and her mother a
full month. After that you shall go in to her
and be her husband, and she shall be your
wife.
14 It shall be, if you have no delight in
her, then you shall let her go where she
desires; but you shall not sell her at all for
money. You shall not deal with her as a
slave, because you have humbled her.
15 If a man has two wives, the one
beloved and the other hated, and they
have borne him children, both the beloved
and the hated, and if the firstborn son is
hers who was hated,
16 then it shall be, in the day that he
causes his sons to inherit that which he
has, that he may not give the son of the
beloved the rights of the firstborn before
the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;
17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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.
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious
son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though
they chasten him, will not listen to them,
19 then his father and his mother shall
take hold of him and bring him out to the
elders ofhis city andto the gate ofhisplace.
20 They shall tell 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 All the men of his city shall stone him
to death with stones. So you shall remove
the evil from among you. All Israel shall
hear, 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 body shall not remain all night on
the tree, but you shall surely bury him the
same day; for he who is hanged is accursed
of God. Don’t defile your land which Yahwehyour God gives youfor aninheritance.