¹ When [one] is found dead in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit, lying in the field, [and] it is not known who has slain him,

² then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which [are] round about him that is dead;

³ and it shall be [that] the elders of the city [which] is next unto the dead man shall take a heifer, which has not served, [and] which has not drawn in the yoke;

⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which has neither been plowed nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley.

⁵ And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for the LORD thy God has chosen them to minister unto him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be determined.

⁶ And all the elders of that closest city next to the dead [man] shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.

⁷ And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen [it].

⁸ Reconcile thy people Israel, whom thou hast ransomed, O LORD, and impute not the innocent blood shed in the midst of thy people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹ So shalt thou put away the [guilt of] innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do [that which is] right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰ When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God has delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

¹¹ and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her that thou would have her to thy wife,

¹² then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails,

¹³ and she shall put off the clothing of her captivity and shall remain in thine house and bewail her father and her mother a full month, and after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

¹⁴ And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go free, but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of her because thou hast humbled her.

¹⁵ When a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have born him sons, [both] the beloved and the hated; and [if] the firstborn son is of the one that was hated,

¹⁶ then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit [that] which he has, [that] he may not give the right of the firstborn unto the son of the beloved in preference over the son of the hated, [who is indeed] the firstborn;

¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated [as] the firstborn 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 When anyone has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them,

¹⁹ then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place;

²⁰ and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son [is] stubborn and rebellious; he will not hear our voice; [he is] a glutton and a drunkard.

²¹ Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.

²² And when a man shall have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and thou shall have hung him on a tree,

²³ his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt without fail bury him that same day (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God) that thy land not be defiled, which the LORD thy God gives thee [for] an inheritance.: