¹This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder, ²your leaders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities. ³When it has been determined which city is nearest the body, the leaders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke.^a⁴The leaders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land hasn’t been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer’s neck. ⁵The priests, the descendants of Levi, must come forward. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him as priests and to bless people in the Lord’s name. Their decision is final in all cases involving a disagreement or an assault. ⁶All the leaders from the city which was nearest the murder victim must wash their hands over the dead heifer. ⁷Then they must make this formal statement: “We didn’t commit this murder, and we didn’t witness it. ⁸Lord, make peace with your people Israel, whom you freed. Don’t let the guilt of this unsolved murder remain among your people Israel.” Then there will be peace with the Lord despite the murder. ⁹This is how you will get rid of the guilt of an unsolved murder by doing what the Lord considers right.

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Footnotes

a 21:3 A yoke is a wooden bar placed over the necks of work animals so that they can pull plows or carts.