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Deuteronomy 21 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

Expiation of a Crime

Deu 21:1“If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to [fn]possess, and it is not known who has struck him,
Deu 21:2then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.
Deu 21:3“It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;
Deu 21:4and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
Deu 21:5“Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every [fn]assault [fn]shall be settled by them.
Deu 21:6“All the elders of that city [fn]which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;
Deu 21:7and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Deu 21:8[fn]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be [fn]forgiven them.
Deu 21:9“So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

Domestic Relations

Deu 21:10“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive,
Deu 21:11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself,
Deu 21:12then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and [fn]trim her nails.
Deu 21:13“She shall also [fn]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.
Deu 21:14“It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go [fn]wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not [fn]mistreat her, because you have humbled her.
Deu 21:15“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other [fn]unloved, and both the loved and the [fn]unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the [fn]unloved,
Deu 21:16then it shall be in the day he [fn]wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the [fn]unloved, who is the firstborn.
Deu 21:17“But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the [fn]unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that [fn]he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.
Deu 21:18“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,
Deu 21:19then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city [fn]at the gateway of his hometown.
Deu 21:20“They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
Deu 21:21“Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.
Deu 21:22“If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
Deu 21:23his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is [fn]accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.
NASB95 Footnotes
Literally: possess it
Literally: stroke
Literally: shall be according to their mouth
Literally: who are
Literally: Cover over, atone for
Literally: covered over, atoned for
Literally: do
Literally: remove from her
Literally: according to her soul
Or, enslave
Literally: hated
Literally: makes to inherit
Literally: hated
Literally: hated
Literally: is found with him
Literally: and to the gate of his place
Literally: the curse of God
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New American Standard Bible 1995
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Deuteronomy Chapter 21 — Additional Translations: