1If a slain person is found in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying fallen in the field, and it is not known who struck him,2then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure to the cities that are around the slain person.3And the city nearest the slain person shall be, and the elders of that city shall take a heifer of cattle that has not been worked with and that has not drawn a yoke.4And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a strong torrent that has not been worked with and that shall not be sown, and they shall break the neck of the heifer there in the torrent.5And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall approach, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and every dispute and every plague shall be upon their mouth.6And all the elders of that city nearest the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the torrent.7And they shall answer and say, 'Our hands did not pour out this blood, and our eyes did not see.'8Atone for your people Israel whom you, the LORD, have ransomed, and do not give innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel; and the blood shall be atoned for them.9And you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, for you shall do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.