Unsolved Murders
Deuteronomy 21, verse 1. “If anyone is found slain in the land the Lord your God gives you to inherit, and is fallen in the open field, and it is not known who killed him, Deuteronomy 21, verse 2. then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. Deuteronomy 21, verse 3. Then it shall be the elder of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer from the oxen which has not been worked and pulled with a yoke. Deuteronomy 21, verse 4. The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a rocky valley, neither plowed nor sown, and they shall hamstring the heifer there in the valley. Deuteronomy 21, verse 5. Then the priests, the Levites, shall come near, for the Lord your God chose them to be present for Him and to bless in His name; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. Deuteronomy 21, verse 6. After this, all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer which was hamstrung in the valley. Deuteronomy 21, verse 7. Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Deuteronomy 21, verse 8. Be merciful, O Lord, to Your people Israel, whom You redeemed from the land of Egypt, so there may be no bloodguiltiness among Your people Israel.’ Thus the blood shall atone for them. Deuteronomy 21, verse 9. And you shall put away the guilt of their innocent blood from among you, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
Women Captives
Deuteronomy 21, verse 10. “Now if you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you take them captive, Deuteronomy 21, verse 11. and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, Deuteronomy 21, verse 12. then you shall bring her home to your house, and you shall shave her head and trim her nails. Deuteronomy 21, verse 13. You shall take the clothes of her captivity from her; and she shall remain in your house and mourn her father and mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and dwell with her, and she shall be your wife. Deuteronomy 21, verse 14. But it shall be, if you do not want her, then you shall send her away free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you humbled her.
Firstborn Rights of Inheritance
Deuteronomy 21, verse 15. “Now if a man is married to two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the hated, and the firstborn son is of her who is hated, Deuteronomy 21, verse 16. then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. Deuteronomy 21, verse 17. But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
A Rebellious Son
Deuteronomy 21, verse 18. “Now if a man should have a disobedient and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they chastened him, will not heed them, Deuteronomy 21, verse 19. then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. Deuteronomy 21, verse 20. So they shall say to the men of his city, ‘This son of ours is disobedient and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Deuteronomy 21, verse 21. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones, and he shall die; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and the rest shall hear and be afraid. Deuteronomy 21, verse 22. “Now if a man committed a crime under the sentence of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, Deuteronomy 21, verse 23. his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day; for he who is hanged on a tree is accursed of God; that you do not defile the land the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.