Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 If a corpse is found on the ground the LORD your God is giving you to possess, lying in a field, and the identity of the killer is unknown,
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If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground that God, your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him,
2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distances to the cities nearest the body.
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your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities.
3 Once it is determined which city is closest to the dead body, its elders must take a young cow that hasn't been used or yet pulled a plow,
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The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it.
4 and those elders will take the cow down to a ravine with a flowing stream—one that has not been plowed or planted—and they will break the cow's neck right there in the river valley.
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The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer.
5 Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, will step forward because the LORD your God selected them to minister for him and to bless in the LORD's name, and because every legal dispute and case of assault is decided by them.
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The Levitical priests will then step up. God has chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings in God's name.
6 All the elders of the city closest to the corpse will wash their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the river valley.
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Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream
7 They will then solemnly state: "Our hands did not shed this blood. Our eyes did not see it happen.
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and say, "We didn't kill this man and we didn't see who did it.
8 LORD, please forgive your people Israel, whom you saved. Don't put the guilt of innocent bloodshed on your people Israel." Then the bloodguilt will be forgiven them.
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Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God. Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder."
9 But you must remove innocent bloodshed from your community; do only what is right in the LORD's eyes.
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By following these procedures you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right in God's sight.
10 When you wage war against your enemies and the LORD hands them over to you and you take prisoners,
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When you go to war against your enemies and God, your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners,
11 if you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you fall in love with her and take her as your wife,
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and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry,
12 bringing her into your home, she must shave her head, cut her nails,
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this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails,
13 remove her prisoner's clothing, and live in your house, mourning her father and her mother for one month. After that, you may consummate the marriage. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife.
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and discard the clothes she was wearing when captured. She is then to stay in your home for a full month, mourning her father and mother. Then you may go to bed with her as husband and wife.
14 But if you aren't pleased with her, you must send her away as she wishes. You are not allowed to sell her for money or treat her as a slave because you have humiliated her.
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If it turns out you don't like her, you must let her go and live wherever she wishes. But you can't sell her or use her as a slave since you've humiliated her.
15 Now suppose a man has two wives—one of them loved and the other unloved. Both wives bear children, but the oldest male is the unloved wife's child.
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When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife,
16 On the day when the man decides what will go to each of his children as an inheritance, he isn't allowed to treat his loved wife's son as the oldest male rather than his unloved wife's son, who is the real oldest male.
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at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn.
17 Instead, he must acknowledge the unloved wife's son as the oldest male, giving to him two-thirds of everything that he owns, because that son is the earliest produce of his physical power. The oldest male's rights belong to that son.
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No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
18 Now if someone has a consistently stubborn and rebellious child, who refuses to listen to their father and mother—even when the parents discipline him, he won't listen to them—
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When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won't do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won't obey,
19 the father and mother will take the son before the elders of that city at its gates.
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his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate
20 Then they will inform the city's elders: "This son of ours is consistently stubborn and rebellious, refusing to listen to us. What's more, he's wild and a drunkard."
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and say to the city fathers, "This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won't listen to a thing we say. He's a glutton and a drunk."
21 Then all the people of that town will stone him until he dies. Remove such evil from your community! All Israel will hear about this and be afraid.
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Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he's dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what's happened and be in awe.
22 Now if someone is guilty of a capital crime, and they are executed, and you then hang them on a tree,
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When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree,
23 you must not leave the body hanging on the tree but must bury it the same day because God's curse is on those who are hanged. Furthermore, you must not pollute the ground that the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance.
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don't leave his dead body hanging overnight from the tree. Give him a decent burial that same day so that you don't desecrate your God-given land - a hanged man is an insult to God.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.