| NET Bible | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1If a homicide victim should be found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you, and no one knows who killed him, | 1If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, |
| 2your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. | 2your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities. |
| 3Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked--that has never pulled with the yoke-- | 3The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work. |
| 4and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. There at the wadi they are to break the heifer's neck. | 4The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream. |
| 5Then the Levitical priests will approach (for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, and to decide every judicial verdict) | 5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. |
| 6and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. | 6All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken. |
| 7Then they must proclaim, "Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime. | 7They will declare, 'Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it. |
| 8Do not blame your people Israel whom you redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person." Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. | 8 LORD, forgive Your people Israel You redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.' Then they will be absolved of responsibility for bloodshed. |
| 9In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before the LORD. | 9You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the LORD's sight." |
| 10When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the LORD your God allows you to prevail and you take prisoners, | 10When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and |
| 11if you should see among them an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, | 11if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife, |
| 12you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, | 12you are to bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, |
| 13discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife. | 13remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. |
| 14If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell her; you must not take advantage of her, since you have already humiliated her. | 14Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her." |
| 15Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, and they both bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife. | 15If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, and if the unloved wife has the firstborn son, |
| 16In the day he divides his inheritance he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other wife's son who is actually the firstborn. | 16when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the loved wife as his firstborn over the firstborn of the unloved wife. |
| 17Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved wife as firstborn and give him the double portion of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father's procreative power--to him should go the right of the firstborn. | 17He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him two shares of his estate, for he is the firstfruits of his virility; he has the rights of the firstborn." |
| 18If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail, | 18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn't listen to them even after they discipline him, |
| 19his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city. | 19his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown. |
| 20They must declare to the elders of his city, "Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say--he is a glutton and drunkard." | 20They will say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn't obey us. He's a glutton and a drunkard.' |
| 21Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid. | 21Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid." |
| 22If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse on a tree, | 22If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, |
| 23his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury him that same day, for the one who is left exposed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not defile your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. | 23you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance." |
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