Chapter 21
1
If someone slain is found lying in the field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who struck him—
2
Your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distances to the cities around the slain man.
3
And it will be the city closest to the slain one, and the elders of that city will take a heifer from the herd which has not worked in it, which has not drawn in a yoke.
4
The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with an ever-flowing stream, one that has not been tilled or sown. There in the wadi, they shall break the neck of the heifer.
5
And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall draw near—for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of the LORD—and every judicial controversy and every plague shall be according to their mouth.
6
And all the elders of that city nearest the slain man shall wash their hands over the unnecked heifer in the wadi.
7
They shall answer and say, "Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it."
8
Atonement for your people Israel, whom you redeemed, LORD, and do not give innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, and the blood will be atoned for them.
9
And you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, for you will do the upright in the eyes of the LORD.