4. The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream.
5. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.
6. All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken.
7. They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it.
8. Lord, forgive Your people Israel You redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then they will be absolved of responsibility for bloodshed.
9. You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.
10. “When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and