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,

2 then 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;

4 and 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;

7 and 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.