Atoning for Innocent Blood
21 1 If someone is found dead, lying in the open field in the land your Father is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges must go out and measure the distance from the body to the towns around it. 3 And the city nearest to the body — the elders of that city must take a heifer that has never been worked or put under a yoke, 4 and the elders of that city must lead the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and there in the valley they must break the heifer's neck. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, must step forward, for your Father has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of our Father, and by their word every dispute and every assault will be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest the body must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they must declare, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it." 8 Atone, our Father, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain among your people Israel." And the blood-guilt will be atoned for them. 1 1 v8 The heifer ritual allowed the nearest town to publicly declare its innocence and seek atonement before God for an unsolved murder in the land. 9 So you will purge the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of our Father.
A Captive Woman Taken as Wife
10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and our Father hands them over to you and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, 12 then bring her into your home, and she must shave her head and cut her nails, 13 and remove the clothes she wore as a captive, and she must stay in your home and mourn her father and mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. 14 But if you no longer delight in her, you must let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
The Firstborn Son's Inheritance
15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved, 2 2 v15 Here "unloved" means simply loved less — the wife who holds second place in affection, not one who is despised. 16 then when he divides his inheritance among his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved wife as firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the true firstborn. 17 Rather he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
A Stubborn and Rebellious Son
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and though they discipline him he will not listen to them, 19 then his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city at the town gate, 20 and they must say to the elders of his city, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey us; he is a glutton and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. So you will purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree
22 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body must not remain on the tree overnight, but you must bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under our Father's curse. Do not defile your land that your Father is giving you as an inheritance. 3 3 v23 Paul tells us Jesus became a curse for us by hanging on the tree, so that the Father's blessing could reach everyone — Galatians 3:13.