Parallel Bible results for "deuteronomy 21"

Deuteronomy 21

New Living Translation NLT

1 “When you are in the land the LORD your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.

2 In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns.

3 When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.

4 They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck.

5 Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD ’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.

6 “The elders of the town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken.

7 Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen.

8 O LORD, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood.

9 By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the LORD ’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.

10 “Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives.

11 And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her.

12 If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails,

13 and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife.

14 But if you marry her and she does not please you, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

15 “Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love.

16 When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son.

17 He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

18 “Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him.

19 In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate.

20 The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’

21 Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

22 “If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,

23 the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession.

The Message Bible MSG

1 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 leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities.

3 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 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 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 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 and say, "We didn't kill this man and we didn't see who did it.

8 Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God. Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder."

9 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 go to war against your enemies and God, your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners,

11 and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry,

12 this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails,

13 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 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 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 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 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 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 his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate

20 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 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 When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree,

23 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.