1. If one be found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who has slain him:
2. Then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:
3. And it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer, which has never been worked, and which has not pulled in the yoke;
4. And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley:
5. And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every assault be tried:
6. And all the elders of that city, that are nearest unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley:
7. And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8. Be merciful, O LORD, unto your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto the charge of your people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.