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Deuteronomy 21:1-23 — Various Laws

Deut.21.1-23

¹If a slain man is found lying in a field in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who struck him down, ²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities around the slain man. ³And the city nearest to the slain man—the elders of that city shall take a heifer from the herd that has never been worked and has never borne a yoke. ⁴The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, which has not been plowed or sown, and there in the wadi they shall break the heifer's neck. ⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of Yahweh, and by their word every dispute and every case of assault shall be settled. ⁶And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi. ⁷And they shall declare, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it.' ⁸Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel. Then the bloodguilt will be atoned for them. ⁹So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, for you will be doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh. ¹⁰When you go out to war against your enemies, and Yahweh your God gives them into your hand, and you take captives, ¹¹if you see among the captives a woman beautiful in form, and you desire her and take her for yourself as a wife, ¹²then you shall bring her into your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails . ¹³She shall take off the clothing of her captivity and remain in your house and weep for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴But if you no longer delight in her, then you shall let her go where she wishes. You must certainly not sell her for money; you shall not deal harshly with her, because you have humiliated her. ¹⁵If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved woman, ¹⁶then on the day he gives his inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved woman as the firstborn over the son of the unloved woman, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷Instead, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved woman, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the beginning of his father's strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. ¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they discipline him he still does not listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and his mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate where judgment is given in his town. ²⁰And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' ²¹Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death. So you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear. ²²And if a man has committed a sin deserving death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³you shall not leave his corpse all night on the tree, but you must surely bury him that same day, for a hanged man is under God's curse . You shall not defile your land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

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4/11/2026

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