Deuteronomy chapter 21.

Atonement for unsolved murders.

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 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 perch the guilt of innocent blood

from your midst when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Marrying female captives. When you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God

gives them into your hand and you take take them captive, and you see among

the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring

her home to your house. She shall shave her head and pair her nails, and she shall take off the

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