Deuteronomy [Second Torah] 21

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¹If someone is found slain in the land which Adonai your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who has struck him;

²then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.

³It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke.

⁴The leaders of that town are to bring the heifer down to a valley with a stream in it that never dries up, to a place that is neither plowed nor sown; and they are to break the cow’s neck there in the valley

⁵The priests the sons of Levi United with shall come near; for them Adonai your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Adonai ’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.

⁶All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. (Maftir ·Conclusion·)

⁷They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸Forgive, Adonai , your people Israel God prevails, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel God prevails.” The blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Adonai ’s eyes.

¹⁰When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Adonai your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,

¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have chasak ·set your affection· for her, and desire to take her as your wife;

¹²then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.

¹³She shall take the clothing of her captivity off of herself, 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.

¹⁴It 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.

¹⁵If a man has two wives, the one 'ahav ·affectionately loved·, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the 'ahav ·affectionately loved· and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated;

¹⁶then 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 'ahav ·affectionately loved· the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;

¹⁷but 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 mishpat ·right· of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not sh'ma ·hear obey· the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them;

¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place.

²⁰They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not sh'ma ·hear obey· our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

²¹All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel God prevails shall sh'ma ·hear obey·, and fear. (2)

²²If a man has committed a sin mishpat ·judged· worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree;

²³his 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; that you don’t defile your land which Adonai your God gives you for an inheritance.