OET-RV DEUT Chapter 21

21 If a dead body is found in the land that your god Yahweh is about to give you, and it appears that that person had been killed out in the countryside by some unknown person, 2 then your elders and your judges must go out and work out the distance to each of the towns close to that victim. 3 Then the elders from that closest town must select a heifer from their herd that’s never been yoked or had to pull anything, 4 and take it down into a valley that has a stream but the ground has never been ploughed or planted. They must break its neck there 5 and the Levitical priests must approach it because your god Yahweh has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings on Yahweh’s behalf, and to give rulings on disputes and assaults. 6 Then all the elders from that closest town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and say, “We didn’t murder this person, nor did we see who did it. 8 Yahweh, forgive your Israeli people who you rescued from Mitsrayim (Egypt). Don’t count us as guilty for murdering an innocent person.”

When they do that, Yisrael (Israel) will be forgiven for that murder. 9 That’s how your country will remove from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, when you do what’s right in Yahweh’s eyes.

10 When you go out to battle against your enemies and your god Yahweh helps you defeat them, and you capture some of their people 11 and you notice an attractive woman that you’d like to take as a wife, 12 then you must publicly take her to your house. There you must shave off her hair and trim her nails, 13 and discard the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She must stay in that house, and be allowed an entire month to mourn for her parents before she’s taken to be your wife. 14 If you’re not happy with her, then you can’t sell her—you must release her to go wherever she wants because you’ve already humiliated her.

15 If a man has two wives and loves one more than the other, but they’ve both given birth to sons for him but the oldest son is from the wife he dislikes, 16 then when he assigns his inheritance to his sons, he mustn’t favour the son of the favourite wife over that eldest son. 17 Instead, he must acknowledge the son of the wife he dislikes, and given him double of everything, because that son is the beginning of his strength, and the largest share belongs to him.

18 If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who won’t listen to the voice of his parents, and they tell him off, but he still won’t listen to them, 19 then his parents must physically bring him to the elders at the gate of his hometown. 20 Then they must tell those elders, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say—he’s a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men from that place must execute him by throwing rocks at him, thus removing that evil from among you. Then everyone in Yisrael (Israel) will hear about it and be afraid to imitate him.

22 If someone has committed a crime worthy of death, and that person is executed and you hang their body on a tree, 23 then the corpse mustn’t remain overnight on the tree—it must be buried that same day, because anyone who’s hanged is cursed by God[ref] and you mustn’t defile your country that your god Yahweh is about to give you as an inheritance.