Deuteronomy 21

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¹When the carrion of a man slain is found in the land which thy Lord God shall give to thee, and he that is guilty of his death is unknown,

²the greater men in birth and thy judges shall go out, and they shall mete from the place of the carrion the spaces of all the cities about;

³and which city they see to be nearer that carrion, than another, the elder men of that city shall take of the drove a cow calf, that hath not drawn yoke, neither hath cut the earth with a ploughshare;

⁴and they shall lead that cow calf to a sharp stony valley, that was never eared, nor received seed; and in that valley they shall cut the head off the cow calf.

⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall nigh, which thy Lord God chose, that they minister to him, and bless in his name, and all the cause shall hang at their word; and whatever thing is clean either unclean, be it deemed by them.

⁶And the greater men in birth of that city shall come to the slain man, and they shall wash their hands on the cow calf, that was slain in the valley;

⁷and they shall say, Our hands shed not out this blood, neither our eyes have seen who shed it.

⁸Lord, be merciful to thy people Israel, whom thou hast again-bought, and areckon thou not innocent blood in the midst of thy people Israel. And the guilt of blood shall be done away from them.

⁹Forsooth thou shalt be alien, or unguilty, from the blood of the innocent which is shed, when thou hast done that that the Lord commanded.

¹⁰If thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, that thy Lord God betaketh them in thine hand, and thou leadest prisoners,

¹¹and thou seest in the number of those prisoners a fair woman, and thou lovest her, and will have her to wife,

¹²thou shalt bring her into thine house; which woman shall shave her hair, and she shall cut her nails about,

¹³and she shall put away the cloth, wherein she was taken, and she shall sit in thine house, and she shall beweep her father and her mother by a month; and afterward thou shalt enter to her, and thou shalt sleep with her, and she shall be thy wife.

¹⁴But if afterward she sitteth not in thy soul, that is, pleaseth not thy will, thou shalt deliver her free, neither thou shalt be able to sell her for money, neither oppress by power, for thou madest her low.

¹⁵If a man hath two wives, one loved, and another hateful, and he begetteth of her free children, and the son of the odious wife is the first begotten,

¹⁶and the father will part his chattel or substance betwixt his sons, he shall not be able to make the son of the loved wife his first begotten son, and set or put him before the son of the hateful wife,

¹⁷but he shall know the son of the hateful wife to be his first begotten son, and he shall give to that son all things double of those things that he hath; for this son is the beginning of his free children, and the first engendered things be due to him.

¹⁸If a man beget a son rebel, and a froward, that heareth not the behest of his father and mother, and he is chastised, and despiseth to obey to them,

¹⁹they shall take him, and lead him to the elder men of that city, and to the gate of doom;

²⁰and they shall say to them, This our son is overthwart, and rebel; he despiseth to hear our behests, or admonishings, he giveth attention to gluttonies, and to lechery, and to feasts.

²¹The people of the city shall oppress him with stones, and he shall die, that ye do away evil from the midst of you, and that all Israel hear it, and dread.

²²When a man doeth a sin which is worthy to be punished by death, and he is deemed to death, and is hanged in a gibbet,

²³his carrion shall not dwell in the tree, but it shall be buried in the same day; for he that hangeth in the tree or in the cross is cursed of God, and thou shalt not defoul thy land which thy Lord God gave thee into possession.