Deuteronomy 21

Suppose someone is found killed in the land the LORD your God is giving you to own, lying out in a field, and no one knows who killed him.

1If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him:

NoteUnder Israelite law, blood that was shed and never answered for was held to pollute the land and to leave guilt resting on the nearest community until it was formally dealt with. The ceremony described here is the procedure by which a town clears itself of responsibility for a killing it did not commit and cannot solve.

2Then your elders and your judges must go out and measure the distance from the body to each of the towns around it.

2Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:

NoteThe "elders" were the senior heads of households, who together acted as a town's governing body and its local court; the "judges" were appointed officials. Measuring the distances is a legal step, fixing which town the case falls to.

3The elders of the town closest to the dead man shall take a young cow that has never been put to work and has never pulled a yoke.

3And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;

NoteA heifer is a young cow that has not yet had a calf. Animals set apart for sacred use had to be ones never put to ordinary work; a yoke is the wooden bar laid across an animal's neck to harness it to a plow or cart.

4The elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, ground that has never been plowed or planted, and there in the valley they shall break the heifer's neck.

4And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "valley with running water" is disputed: it can mean a valley with a stream that never dries up, or a hard, stony, barren valley (the King James has "rough valley"). Either way the site is ground no one farms, land outside ordinary human use.

5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward. The LORD your God chose them to serve him and to give blessings in his name, and they decide every dispute and every case of violence.

5And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:

NoteLevi was one of the twelve tribes of Israel; its men held no farmland and served at the sanctuary, and the priests came from among them, so "the sons of Levi" means members of that tribe. The King James "every stroke" translates a Hebrew word for a blow or bodily injury: cases of assault.

6All the elders of the town nearest the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

6And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:

NoteWashing the hands in public, in front of witnesses, was a formal legal gesture declaring that you had no part in a crime. It is the physical counterpart of the sworn statement in the next verse.

7They shall declare, "Our hands did not spill this blood, and our eyes did not see it happen.

7And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

8LORD, accept this and forgive your people Israel, whom you set free. Do not hold the killing of an innocent person against your people Israel." Then the bloodshed will be forgiven them.

8Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

Note"Set free" renders a word the King James gives as "redeemed": to buy back or ransom, the term used for paying a price to release a slave or a captive. It refers here to Israel being brought out of slavery in Egypt.

9In this way you will clear away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, because you have done what is right in the LORD's sight.

9So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

10When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take prisoners,

10When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

11and you see a beautiful woman among the prisoners, and you want her and wish to make her your wife,

11And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;

12then you shall bring her into your home. She must shave her head and trim her nails,

12Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

NoteShaving the head, cutting the nails and changing clothes were recognized signs of mourning and of passing from one condition of life to another. Together they mark the end of her status as a prisoner of war and the beginning of a new place in the household; readers have long differed over whether the acts are chiefly mourning rites or rites of cleansing.

13and take off the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She shall stay in your house and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that you may sleep with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.

13And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

NoteA full month was a standard formal period of mourning for the dead. The law assumes her parents are lost to her, killed in the war or left behind for good.

14But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go wherever she wants. You must not sell her for money or treat her as goods to trade, because you have dishonored her.

14And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.

Note"Dishonored" renders the King James "humbled": a Hebrew verb meaning to force down or degrade, regularly used of taking a woman sexually. The legal consequence is that, having taken her as a wife, he can never afterwards treat her as property that can be sold.

15Suppose a man has two wives, one he loves and one he does not, and both have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the wife he does not love.

15If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:

NoteIn Hebrew legal language the pair "loved" and "hated" often means preferred and less preferred rather than affection and hatred, the same pair is used of Jacob's two wives. The point is the man's ranking of the two households, not necessarily his feelings.

16Then, when he divides his property among his sons, he must not treat the son of the wife he loves as the firstborn in place of the real firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.

16Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:

17Instead he must recognize the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn and give him a double share of everything he owns. That son is the first proof of his father's strength, and the firstborn's right belongs to him.

17But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

NoteA "double share" means twice what each of the other sons receives, not two-thirds of the whole: with three sons the property is divided into four parts and the eldest takes two. "The first proof of his father's strength" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "the firstfruits of his vigour," for the first child a man fathers. Along with the extra share, the firstborn normally became head of the family after his father.

18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and who still will not listen to them even after they punish him,

18If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town, at the town gate.

19Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;

NoteThe gateway of a walled town was a wide open space where the elders sat, business was done and lawsuits were heard in public. Bringing him "to the gate" means bringing him to court.

20They shall say to the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He eats far too much and he gets drunk."

20And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

Note"Glutton and drunkard" is a fixed Hebrew pairing describing someone who squanders the household's resources on food and drink, a single charge of ruinous waste rather than two separate accusations.

21Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. This is how you clear the evil out from among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

21And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Note"Clear the evil out from among you" is a recurring formula in Deuteronomy, marking the close of a capital law: the community removes the offense from itself by carrying out the sentence publicly, with the whole town taking part.

22If a man has committed a sin that deserves death, and he is put to death, and you hang his body on a tree,

22And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:

NoteIn Israelite law hanging on a tree was not the method of execution. The person was first put to death, usually by stoning, and the body was then hung up in public as a display, which is why the following verse concerns how long the corpse may be left there.

23his body must not stay on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. Do not make the land unclean that the LORD your God is giving you to own.

23His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

NoteThe Hebrew here is compressed and ambiguous, literally "a curse of God": it can mean that the man hanging there is under God's curse, or that a body left hanging is itself an affront to God. Leaving a corpse unburied was in any case regarded as making the land unclean.