Deuteronomy 21:1–9

Expiation of a Crime

¹“If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord 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“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 shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

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

⁶“All the elders of that city ¹which is 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‘¹Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of ^ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be ²forgiven them.

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