An unsolved killing, atoned
1If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land Yahweh your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2your elders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the surrounding cities. 3The elders of the city nearest the body are to take a heifer that has never been worked and has never pulled under a yoke, 4and bring it down to a wadi with running water, one that is never plowed or sown, and there in the wadi break the heifer’s neck. 5The priests, the sons of Levi, are to come forward, since Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of Yahweh, and every dispute and every assault is to be settled by their word. 6Then all the elders of the city nearest the body are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi, 7and declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it done. 8Accept atonement, Yahweh, for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, and do not hold your people Israel guilty of innocent blood.” Then the bloodguilt will be atoned for. 9In this way you will purge from among you the guilt of innocent blood, since you will be doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
A captive woman taken as wife
10When you go out to war against your enemies and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hand and you take captives, 11if you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her, and want to take her as your wife, 12bring her into your home. She is to shave her head, trim her nails, 13and remove the clothes she was captured in. She is to stay in your house and mourn her father and mother a full month. After that, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. 14But if you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.
The firstborn’s right, even from the unloved wife
15If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both have borne him sons, and the firstborn belongs to the unloved wife, 16then on the day he passes his property on to his sons, he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn in place of the son of the unloved wife, who is actually the firstborn. 17He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him a double share of everything he has, since he is the first sign of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
A rebellious son
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, and does not listen to them even after they discipline him, 19his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of that place, 20and say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21Then all the men of his city are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
A body hung on a tree
22If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, 23you must not leave the body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.
