1. “In the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you might find a dead body in a field, but no one knows who killed that person.
2. Your leaders and judges must come out and measure the distance to the towns around the dead body.
3. When you learn which town is nearest to the dead body, the leaders of that town must take a cow from their herds. It must be a cow that never had a calf and that has never been used for work.
4. The leaders of that town must then bring the cow down to a valley with running water. It must be a valley that has never been plowed or had anything planted in it. Then the leaders must break the cow’s neck there in that valley.
5. The priests, the descendants of Levi, must also go there. (The Lord your God has chosen these priests to serve him and to bless people in the name of the Lord. The priests will decide who is right in every lawsuit and whenever someone is hurt.)
6. All the leaders of the town nearest the dead body must wash their hands over the cow that had its neck broken in the valley.
7. These leaders must say, ‘We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.
8. Lord, you saved your people Israel. Now make us pure. Don’t blame us for killing an innocent person.’ In this way these men will not be blamed for killing an innocent person.
9. In this way you will remove that guilt from your group by doing what the Lord said.
10. “You might fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God might let you defeat them and take them as captives.
11. You might see a beautiful woman among the captives who you want to be your wife.