| New International Version | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was, | 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 shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. | 2your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities. |
| 3Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a 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 lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley 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. |
| 5The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. | 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. |
| 6Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall 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. |
| 7and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. | 7They will declare, 'Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it. |
| 8Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person." Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, | 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. |
| 9and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of 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 to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, | 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 notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. | 11if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife, |
| 12Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails | 12you are to bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, |
| 13and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be 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, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored 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." |
| 15If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, | 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, |
| 16when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. | 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. |
| 17He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him. | 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 someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, | 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 shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. | 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 shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a 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 town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of 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 someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, | 22If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, |
| 23you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land 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." |
| New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. | Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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