Catholic Public Domain Version

Deuteronomy 21:1-12 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

1. "When there will have been found in the land, which the Lord your God will give to you, the corpse of a man who has been killed, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder,

2. your judges and those greater by birth shall go out and measure, from the place of the corpse, the distance to each of the surrounding cities.

3. And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow.

4. And they shall lead it into a rough and stony valley, one which has never been tilled or sown. And in that place, they shall cut the neck of the calf.

5. And the priests the sons of Levi shall approach, those whom the Lord your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and to decide every controversy by their word, and to judge which things are clean and which are unclean.

6. And those greater by birth of that city, nearest to the one who was slain, shall go and shall wash their hands over the calf that was killed in the valley.

7. And they shall say: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

8. Be merciful to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not charge them with innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.' And so the guilt of the blood will be taken away from them.

9. Then you will be free from the blood that was shed against the innocent, when you will have done as the Lord has instructed you.

10. If you have gone out to fight against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand, and if, as you are leading away the captives,

11. you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her, and you are willing to have her as a wife:

12. then you shall lead her into your house. And she shall shave off her hair, and cut her nails short,