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The Blue Letter Bible

Deuteronomy 21 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Cleansing for Unsolved Murder

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:1

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:1 - “When you are in the land the LORD your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:2

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:2 - In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:3

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:3 - When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a young cow that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:4

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:4 - They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the young cow’s neck.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:5

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:5 - Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:6

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:6 - “The elders of the town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:7

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:7 - Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:8

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:8 - O LORD, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:9

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:9 - By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the LORD’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.
Marriage to a Captive Woman

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:10

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:10 - “Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:11

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:11 - And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:12

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:12 - If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails,

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:13

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:13 - and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:14

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:14 - But if you marry her and she does not please you, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.
Rights of the Firstborn

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:15

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:15 - “Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:16

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:16 - When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:17

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:17 - He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
Dealing with a Rebellious Son

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:18

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:18 - “Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:19

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:19 - In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate.

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:20

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:20 - The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:21

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:21 - Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
Various Regulations

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:22

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:22 - “If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Deu 21:23

Unchecked Copy BoxDeu 21:23 - the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung[fn] is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession.
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
Or impaled on a pole; similarly in 21:23.
Greek version reads for everyone who is hung on a tree. Compare Gal 3:13.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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