The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 "If, in the land ADONAI your God is giving you to possess, a murder victim is found lying in the countryside; and the perpetrator of the murder is not known;
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If, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you come across the dead body of a man in the open country, and you have no idea who has put him to death:
2 then your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance between it and the surrounding towns.
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Then your responsible men and your judges are to come out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to the towns round about it to be measured;
3 After it has been determined which town is the closest, the leaders of that town are to take a young female cow that has never been put to work or yoked for use as a draft animal.
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And whichever town is nearest to the body, the responsible men of that town are to take from the herd a young cow which has never been used for work or put under the yoke;
4 The leaders of that town are to bring the heifer down to a vadi with a stream in it that never dries up, to a place that is neither plowed nor sown; and they are to break the cow's neck there in the vadi.
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And they are to take the cow into a valley where there is flowing water, and which is not ploughed or planted, and there the neck of the cow is to be broken:
5 Then the cohanim, who are L'vi'im, are to approach; for ADONAI your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in the name of ADONAI; they will decide the outcome of every dispute and matter involving violence.
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Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged:
6 All the leaders of the town nearest the murder victim are to wash their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the vadi.
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And all the responsible men of that town which is nearest to the dead man, washing their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the valley,
7 Then they are to speak up and say, 'This blood was not shed by our hands, nor have we seen who did it.
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Will say, This death is not the work of our hands and our eyes have not seen it.
8 ADONAI, forgive your people Isra'el, whom you redeemed; do not allow innocent blood to be shed among your people Isra'el.' And they will be forgiven this bloodshed.
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Have mercy, O Lord, on your people Israel whom you have made free, and take away from your people the crime of a death without cause. Then they will no longer be responsible for the man's death.
9 Thus you will banish the shedding of innocent blood from among you, by doing what ADONAI sees as right.
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So you will take away the crime of a death without cause from among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
10 "When you go out to war against your enemies, and ADONAI your God hands them over to you, and you take prisoners,
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When you go out to war against other nations, and the Lord your God gives them up into your hands and you take them as prisoners;
11 and you see among the prisoners a woman who looks good to you, and you feel attracted to her and want her as your wife;
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If among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman and it is your desire to make her your wife;
12 you are to bring her home to your house, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails
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Then take her back to your house; and let her hair and her nails be cut;
13 and remove her prison clothing. She will stay there in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month; after which you may go in to have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
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And let her take off the dress in which she was made prisoner and go on living in your house and weeping for her father and mother for a full month: and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife.
14 In the event that you lose interest in her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes; but you may not sell her for money or treat her like a slave, because you humiliated her.
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But if you have no delight in her, you are to let her go wherever she will; you may not take a price for her as if she was your property, for you have made use of her for your pleasure.
15 "If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and unloved wives have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife;
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If a man has two wives, one greatly loved and the other hated, and the two of them have had children by him; and if the first son is the child of the hated wife:
16 then, when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons, he may not give the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved one, who is in fact the firstborn.
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Then when he gives his property to his sons for their heritage, he is not to put the son of his loved one in the place of the first son, the son of the hated wife:
17 No, he must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns, for he is the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his.
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But he is to give his first son his birthright, and twice as great a part of his property: for he is the first-fruits of his strength and the right of the first son is his.
18 "If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey what his father or mother says, and even after they discipline him he still refuses to pay attention to them;
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If a man has a son who is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, who gives no attention to the voice of his father and mother, and will not be ruled by them, though they give him punishment:
19 then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the leaders of his town, at the gate of that place,
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Then let his father and mother take him to the responsible men of the town, to the public place;
20 and say to the leaders of his town, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he doesn't pay attention to us, lives wildly, gets drunk.'
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And say to them, This son of ours is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, he will not give attention to us; he gives himself up to pleasure and strong drink.
21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death; in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you, and all Isra'el will hear about it and be afraid.
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Then he is to be stoned to death by all the men of the town: so you are to put away the evil from among you; and all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear.
22 "If someone has committed a capital crime and is put to death, then hung on a tree,
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If a man does a crime for which the punishment is death, and he is put to death by hanging him on a tree;
23 his body is not to remain all night on the tree, but you must bury him the same day, because a person who has been hanged has been cursed by God -so that you will not defile your land, which ADONAI your God is giving you to inherit.
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Do not let his body be on the tree all night, but put it to rest in the earth the same day; for the man who undergoes hanging is cursed by God; so do not make unclean the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.