1. “Suppose a slain person is found fallen in a field, on the land Adonai your God is giving you to possess—who struck him is unknown.
2. Then your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance to the towns that are around the slain one.
3. Now the town nearest to the slain one—the elders of that city are to take from the herd a heifer that has not been used for work or pulled a yoke.
4. Then the elders of that city are to bring the heifer down to a flowing wadi that has not been plowed or sown, and break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi.
5. The kohanim, the sons of Levi, will come forward—for Adonai your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His Name, and by their mouth every dispute and assault is to be settled.
6. All the elders of that city nearest to the slain one will wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi.
7. Then they will answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see.
8. Grant atonement for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Adonai, and do not put innocent blood on Your people Israel.’ Then atonement will be granted to them for the blood.
9. So you will purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in Adonai’s sight.
10. “When you go out to war against your enemies, and Adonai your God hands them over to you and you take them captive,
11. suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and would take her as a wife for yourself.
12. Then you are to bring her into your house, and she must shave her head, trim her nails,