A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy.

If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess,

someone is found slain, lying in the open country,

and it is not known who killed him.

Then your elders and your judges shall come out,

and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.

And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never

been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And 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. Then the priests, the sons of

Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless

in the name of the Lord. And by their word, every dispute and every assault shall be settled.

And all the elders of that city, nearest to the slain man,

shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,

and they shall testify.

Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.

Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt

of innocent blood in the midst of your people, Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned

for. So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right

in the sight of the Lord. When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God

gives them into your hand, and you take

them captive. And you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her

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