1. Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person.
2. Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities.
3. The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke,
4. and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow’s neck.
5. The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord’s name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks.
6. Then all the elders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.
7. They should declare: “We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.
8. Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don’t blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person.” And so the murder will be paid for.
9. Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.
10. When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive.
11. If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.
12. Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails
13. and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife.
14. But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor.