Deuteronomy 21
All 23 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.
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- 1If someone is found dead in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you, and no one knows who killed them,
- 2your elders and judges must go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest towns.
- 3The elders of the town closest to the body must select a young cow that has never been used for work or worn a yoke.
- 4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a rough valley that has never been plowed or sown, and there in the valley they shall break the heifer's neck.
- 5The priests, the descendants of Levi, must also be present, because the LORD your God chose them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD's name. They are the ones who settle every dispute and every case of assault.
- 6Then all the elders of the town nearest to the body must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.
- 7They must declare, "We did not shed this blood, and we did not witness this killing.
- 8LORD, show mercy to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed. Don't hold the guilt of innocent blood against your people Israel." Then the guilt of the bloodshed will be removed from them.
- 9This is how you will clear yourselves of the guilt of innocent blood — by doing what the LORD considers right.
- 10When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take prisoners,
- 11if you notice a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her and want to marry her,
- 12you may bring her to your home. She must shave her head and trim her nails.
- 13She must take off the clothes she was wearing when she was captured and live in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month. After that, you may sleep with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
- 14If you have no delight in her, then you must let her go wherever she wants. You must not sell her for money at all or treat her as merchandise, because you have humbled her.
- 15Suppose a man has 2 wives — one he loves and one he doesn't — and both have given him sons. If his firstborn son belongs to the wife he doesn't love,
- 16then when he divides his property among his sons, he must not give the firstborn's share to the son of the wife he loves instead of the actual firstborn, the son of the wife he doesn't love.
- 17He must recognize the true firstborn — the son of the wife he doesn't love — by giving him a double share of everything he owns. That son was the first sign of his father's strength, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
- 18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who refuses to obey either his father or his mother, and even after they discipline him he still won't listen,
- 19then his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of their town.
- 20They must tell the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He refuses to obey us. He's a glutton and a drunkard."
- 21Then all the men of the town must stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
- 22If someone commits a sin that deserves the death penalty, and they are executed and their body is hung on a tree,
- 23the body must not stay on the tree overnight. You must bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. Don't defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.