Deuteronomy 21:1–9

Atonement for Innocent Blood

¹“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess, and it is not known who has struck him,

²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

³“And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

⁴and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

⁵“Then ^athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every ¹assault ²shall be settled by them.

⁶“And all the elders of that city ¹who are nearest to the slain man shall ^awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

⁷and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

⁸‘Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of ^ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them.

⁹“^aSo you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.