Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Expiation of a Crime

¹“If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who struck him, ²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. ³And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked and has not pulled in a yoke; 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 they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and violent crime shall be settled by them. ⁶And all the elders of that city which is nearest to the person killed shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. ⁸Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be forgiven them. ⁹So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations