The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 21

¹If someone is found dead lying in a field in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess, and it isn't known who struck him, ²then your elders and your judges are to come out, and measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one who is dead. ³The city which is nearest to the dead man, [that is] the elders of that city, are to take a heifer from the herd, which hasn't been worked and hasn't pulled in a [team with a] yoke. ⁴The elders of that city should bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which isn't plowed or sown, and break the heifer's neck there in the valley. ⁵The priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh. Every controversy and every stroke [will be decided] by their word. ⁶All the elders of the city that is nearest to the dead man must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷They are to answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. ⁸Yahweh forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood among your people Israel." The blood [guilt] will be forgiven them. ⁹When you do what is right in Yahweh's eyes you'll purge the innocent blood from among you.

¹⁰When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, ¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and want to have [her as your] wife, ¹²then take her home to your house, and have her shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³She is to take off the clothing of her captivity, and remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother for a full month. After that you may go in to her, and marry her, and she'll be your wife. ¹⁴If you have no delight in her, then you must let her go wherever she wants. Don't [even think about] selling her for money, don't deal with her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.

¹⁵If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, [both the] loved [one and the] hated, and if the firstborn son [belongs to the] hated, ¹⁶then in the day that he causes his sons to inherit what he has, he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is [in fact] the firstborn; ¹⁷but he is to acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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.

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and his mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. ²⁰They are to tell the elders of his city, "This [man,] our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard." ²¹All the men of his city are to stone him to death with stones. In this way you'll purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear [of it] and be afraid.

²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³his body must not remain all night on the tree, but you must surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don't defile your land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance.