1 ARST “Suppose someone has been murdered in a field in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you do not know who killed that person. BSB BSB: If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
2 ARST If that happens, your elders and judges must go out to where that person’ s corpse was found and measure the distance from there to each of the nearby towns. BSB BSB: your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.
3 ARST Then the elders in the closest town must select a young cow that has never been used for doing work. BSB BSB: Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,
4 ARST They must take it to a place near a stream where the ground has never been plowed or planted. There they must break its neck. BSB BSB: bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.
5 ARST The priests must go there also, because Yahweh our God has chosen them from the tribe of Levi to serve him and to be his representatives when they bless people. And he has also chosen them to settle disputes in which someone has been injured. BSB BSB: And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.
6 ARST The elders from the closest town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken, there in the valley, BSB BSB: Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken,
7 ARST and they must say,‘We did not murder this person, and we did not see who did it. BSB BSB: and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
8 ARST Yahweh, forgive us, your Israelite people whom you rescued from Egypt. Do not consider us to be guilty. Instead, forgive us.’ BSB BSB: Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.
9 ARST By doing that, you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right, and you will not be considered to be guilty for murdering that person. BSB BSB: So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
10 ARST When you who are soldiers go to fight against your enemies, and Yahweh our God enables you to defeat them, and they become your prisoners, BSB BSB: When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,
11 ARST one of you may see among them a beautiful woman that he likes, and he may want to marry her. BSB BSB: if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,
12 ARST He should take her to his home, and there she must shave all the hair off her head and cut her fingernails to signify that now she does not belong to her people group anymore, but now she is becoming an Israelite. BSB BSB: then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,
13 ARST She must take off the clothes that she was wearing when she was captured, and put on Israelite clothes. She must stay in that man’ s house and mourn for a month because of leaving her parents. After that, he will be allowed to marry her. BSB BSB: and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14 ARST Later, if he no longer is pleased with her, he will be permitted to allow her to leave him. But because she was shamed and was forced to sleep with him, he will not be allowed to treat her like a slave and sell her to anyone else. BSB BSB: And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
16 ARST On the day when that man decides which of his possessions each son will obtain after he dies, he must not favor the son of the wife that he loves by giving him the larger share that should go to the firstborn son. BSB BSB: when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.
17 ARST He must give two- thirds of his possessions to the older son, the son of the wife whom he does not like. That son is his firstborn son, and he must be given the largest share. BSB BSB: Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.
18 ARST Suppose there is a boy who is very stubborn and is always rebelling against his parents, and who will not heed what they say to him. And suppose that they punish him but he still does not pay attention to what they tell him. BSB BSB: If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,
19 ARST If that happens, his parents must take him to the gate of the city where they live and have him stand in front of the elders of the city. BSB BSB: his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,
20 ARST Then the parents must say to the elders of that city,‘This son of ours is stubborn and always rebelling against us. He will not pay attention to what we tell him. He eats too much, and he gets drunk.’ BSB BSB: and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”
21 ARST Then all the elders of that city must execute him by throwing stones at him. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice from among you. And everyone in Israel will hear about what happened and they will be afraid to do what he did. BSB BSB: Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
22 ARST If someone is executed for having committed a crime for which he deserves to die, and you hang his corpse on a post, BSB BSB: If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.