1If a dead body is found in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to own, lying in a field, and no one knows who killed him,
2then your elders and judges must go out and measure the distance to the cities around the dead body.
3The elders of the city closest to the dead man must take a young cow that has never been worked or pulled a plow.
4The elders of that city must bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water, which has not been tilled or planted, and they must break the young cow's neck there in the valley.
5The priests, the sons of Levi, must come forward, because Yahweh your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in Yahweh's name. They will decide every dispute and every case of assault.
6All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the dead man, must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.
7They must declare, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it happen."
8They must pray, "Yahweh, forgive your people Israel, whom you have set free, and do not let innocent blood be shed among your people Israel." And they will be forgiven for the blood.
9In this way, you will remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, because you will have done what is right in Yahweh's sight.
10When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God hands them over to you, and you take them captive,
11and you see a beautiful woman among the captives, and you are attracted to her and want to take her as your wife,
12then you must bring her home to your house. She must shave her head and trim her nails.
13She must remove the clothes she wore as a captive and stay in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month. After that, you may go to her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
14But if you are no longer pleased with her, you must let her go wherever she wants. You must not sell her for money or treat her as property, because you have dishonored her.
15If a man has two wives, one loved and one unloved, and both have given him children, and the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife,
16then on the day he divides his property among his sons as inheritance, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the loved wife over the actual firstborn son, who is the son of the unloved wife.
17Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn son of the unloved wife by giving him a double share of all his possessions, because that son is the first evidence of his strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, and even though they discipline him, he still won't listen to them,
19then his father and mother must take him and bring him to the elders of their city at the city gate.
20They must tell the elders of his city, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He won't obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard."
21Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way, you will remove this evil from among you. All of Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed and you hang him on a tree,
23his body must not stay on the tree overnight. You must bury him the same day, because anyone who is hanged is cursed by God. This is so you don't defile the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.