The Fifth Book of Moses: Deuteronomy

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- Chapter 21 -

“Suppose someone has been murdered in a field in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you do not know who killed that person.

If that happens, your elders and judges must go out to where that person’s corpse was found and measure the distance from there to each of the nearby towns.

Then the elders in the closest town must select a young cow that has never been used for doing work.

They must take it to a place near a stream where the ground has never been plowed or planted. There they must break its neck.

The priests must go there also, because Yahweh our God has chosen them from the tribe of Levi to serve him and to be his representatives when they bless people. And he has also chosen them to settle disputes in which someone has been injured.

The elders from the closest town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken, there in the valley,

and they must say, ’We did not murder this person, and we did not see who did it.

Yahweh, forgive us, your Israelite people whom you rescued from Egypt. Do not consider us to be guilty. Instead, forgive us.’

By doing that, you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right, and you will not be considered to be guilty for murdering that person.

Marrying a Captive Woman

When you who are soldiers go to fight against your enemies, and Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them, and they become your prisoners,

one of you may see among them a beautiful woman that he likes, and he may want to marry her.

He should take her to his home, and there she must shave all the hair off her head and cut her fingernails to signify that now she does not belong to her people group anymore, but now she is becoming an Israelite.

She must take off the clothes that she was wearing when she was captured, and put on Israelite clothes. She must stay in that man’s house and mourn for a month because of leaving her parents. After that, he will be allowed to marry her.

Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he will be permitted to allow her to leave him. But because she was shamed and was forced to sleep with him, he will not be allowed to treat her like a slave and sell her to anyone else.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

Suppose that a man has two wives, but he likes one of them and dislikes the other one. And suppose that they both give birth to sons, and that the oldest son is the child of the woman that he does not like.

On the day when that man decides which of his possessions each son will obtain after he dies, he must not favor the son of the wife that he loves by giving him the larger share that should go to the firstborn son.

He must give two-thirds of his possessions to the older son, the son of the wife whom he does not like. That son is his firstborn son, and he must be given the largest share.

A Rebellious Son

(Luke 15:11–32)

Suppose there is a boy who is very stubborn and is always rebelling against his parents, and who will not heed what they say to him. And suppose that they punish him but he still does not pay attention to what they tell him.

If that happens, his parents must take him to the gate of the city where they live and have him stand in front of the elders of the city.

Then the parents must say to the elders of that city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and always rebelling against us. He will not pay attention to what we tell him. He eats too much, and he gets drunk.’

Then all the elders of that city must execute him by throwing stones at him. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice from among you. And everyone in Israel will hear about what happened and they will be afraid to do what he did.

Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree

If someone is executed for having committed a crime for which he deserves to die, and you hang his corpse on a post,

you must not allow his corpse to remain there all night. You must bury it on the day that he died, because if you keep the corpse on a post, God will curse the land. You must bury the corpse that day, in order that you do not defile the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.

If someone is found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him,

then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.

It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke.

The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the LORD’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.

All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

Forgive, LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.

So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in the LORD’s eyes.

Marrying a Captive Woman

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive,

and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife,

then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.

She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated,

then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;

but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

A Rebellious Son

(Luke 15:11–32)

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them,

then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.

They shall tell 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.”

All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.