1 Suppose a murdered man is found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and no one knows who killed him.
2 Your elders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the surrounding towns.
3 Then the elders of the town closest to the body are to take a young cow from the herd that has never been put to work or worn a yoke.
4 The elders of that town are to lead the young cow down to a valley with a stream that never runs dry, where there has been no plowing or sowing, and there in the valley they are to break its neck.
5 The priests, the sons of Levi, are then to come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD, and every dispute and every case of assault is to be decided by their word.
6 All the elders of the town nearest the body are to wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley,
7 and they are to declare, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor did our eyes witness it.
8 Grant atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, and do not hold innocent blood against your people Israel." Then the bloodshed will be atoned for on their behalf.
9 In this way you will purge from your midst the guilt of innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
10 When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you carry them off as captives,
11 if you see among the captives a beautiful woman and are drawn to her, and you would take her as a wife for yourself,
12 bring her into your home. She is to shave her head and cut her nails,
13 take off the clothes she wore when captured, and live in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
14 If you are no longer pleased with her, let her go wherever she likes. You must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both have borne him sons, and the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife,
16 then when he divides his property among his sons as their inheritance, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved wife, who is the actual firstborn.
17 He must acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him two shares of everything he owns, for that son is the first sign of his strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.
18 If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who does not obey his father or his mother, and even when they discipline him he will not listen to them,
19 his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of his place.
20 They are to tell the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us; he is a glutton and a drunkard."
21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death with stones. In this way you will purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
22 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and you hang him on a tree,
23 his body must not stay on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him the same day, because anyone who is hanged is cursed by God. Do not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.