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Deuteronomy 21

1If someone is found slain in the land Yahweh your God is giving you to possess, lying in the open country, and it is not known who struck him down, 2your elders and judges must go out and measure the distance to the cities around the slain man. 3The elders of the city nearest the slain man must take a heifer that has never been worked and has never pulled a yoke. 4The elders of that city must bring the heifer down to a flowing wadi that has not been worked or sown, and there in the wadi they must break the heifer’s neck. 5The priests, the sons of Levi, must come forward, for Yahweh your God chose them to serve him and to bless in Yahweh’s name, and every dispute and every case of assault is to be decided by their word. 6All the elders of that city nearest the slain man must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi. 7They must declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it. 8Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, Yahweh. Do not hold your people Israel guilty of innocent blood.” Then atonement will be made for their bloodguilt. 9You must purge the guilt of innocent blood from among you by doing what is right in Yahweh’s eyes.

10When you go out to war against your enemies and Yahweh your God gives them into your hand and you take captives, 11if you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her, you may take her as your wife. 12Bring her into your house. She must shave her head and trim her nails. 13She must take off the clothing of her captivity, stay in your house, and mourn her father and mother for a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. 14If you no longer delight in her, you must let her go wherever she wishes. You must certainly not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.

15If a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and both the loved and the hated wife bear him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the hated wife, 16when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he must not give the firstborn’s rights to the loved wife’s son ahead of the hated wife’s son, who is the firstborn. 17He must acknowledge the firstborn, the hated wife’s son, by giving him a double share of everything he has, for he is the first of his strength. The firstborn’s right belongs to him.

18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and they discipline him but he will not listen to them, 19his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his town. 20They must 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.” 21Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

22If a man commits a sin deserving death and is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23his corpse must not remain on the tree overnight. You must bury him that same day, for someone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. Do not defile your land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Translation notes 7

21:4 — A flowing wadi. A wadi is a watercourse or its valley. The modifying word can describe something enduring or strong, yielding “a flowing stream” or “a rugged valley.” The translation takes it as a reliable flow of water; the alternative remains possible.

21:7–8 — Bloodguilt. The elders deny responsibility and ask that the community be cleared of the guilt attached to an unsolved killing. The traditional reading has the plural “shed,” agreeing with “our hands.”

21:10–14 — The captive woman. The woman is a war captive whom the captor desires and takes as a wife. The law provides a mourning period and forbids selling or enslaving her after rejection; it does not ask for her consent. “Go in to her” describes sexual intercourse. “Humiliated” carries the force of degrading or violating her.

21:12 — Her nails. The Hebrew literally says “do her nails.” “Trim” is a likely sense, but allowing the nails to grow has also been proposed. The verse does not explain the purpose of these actions.

21:15–17 — Loved and hated. The sharp Hebrew contrast is preserved. In a household with favored and unfavored wives, the father’s preference must not override the firstborn son’s inheritance. A double share means twice an ordinary son’s portion, not necessarily two-thirds of the whole estate.

21:18–21 — The rebellious son. The specified case involves persistent refusal of parental discipline, with accusations of gluttony and drunkenness. The text requires a public accusation before the elders and execution by the town’s men; it does not give the son an age.

21:22–23 — A displayed corpse. Execution occurs before the body is hung on the tree. “Under God’s curse” represents a Hebrew phrase also understood as “an affront to God.” The body must be buried the same day so that the land is not defiled.