Dual Panel1When a murder victim is found lying in open country, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to occupy, and it is not known who struck the blow,
2your elders and your judges are to come out and measure the distance to the surrounding towns to establish which is nearest.
3The elders of that town are to take a heifer that has never been put to work or worn a yoke,
4and bring it down to a wadi where there is a stream that never runs dry and the ground is never tilled or sown, and there in the wadi they are to break its neck.
5The priests, the sons of Levi, are then to come forward; for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and their voice shall be decisive in all cases of dispute and assault.
6All the elders of the town nearest to the dead body will then wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken in the wadi,
7and solemnly declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we witness the bloodshed.
8Accept expiation, O LORD, for your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not let the guilt of innocent blood rest upon your people Israel: let this bloodshed be expiated on their behalf.”
9Thus, by doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD, you will rid yourselves of the guilt of innocent blood.
10When you go to battle against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take some of them captive,
11then if you see a comely woman among the prisoners and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.
12Bring her into your house; there she must shave her head, pare her nails,
13and discard the clothes which she had when captured. For a full month she is to stay in your house mourning for her father and mother. After that you may have intercourse with her, and be man and wife.
14But if you no longer find her pleasing, let her go free. You must not sell her or treat her harshly, since you have had your will with her.
15When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder,
16then, when the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he must not treat the son of the loved wife as his firstborn in preference to his true firstborn, the son of the unloved wife.
17He must recognize the rights of his firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, and give him a double share of all that he possesses; for he was the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his.
18When a man has a son who is rebellious and out of control, who does not obey his father and mother, or take heed when they punish him,
19then his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the town at the town gate,
20and say, “This son of ours is rebellious and out of control; he will not obey us, he is a wastrel and a drunkard.”
21Then all the men of the town must stone him to death, and you will thereby rid yourselves of this wickedness. All Israel when they hear of it will be afraid.
22When someone is convicted of a capital offence and is put to death, and you hang him on a gibbet,
23his body must not remain there overnight; it must be buried on the same day. Anyone hanged is accursed in the sight of God, and the land which the LORD your God is giving you as your holding must not be polluted.