1Når I har bosat jer i landet, og I finder en mand, der ligger myrdet på marken, uden at I er klar over, hvem gerningsmanden er,2skal lederne og dommerne måle afstanden mellem gerningsstedet og de omliggende byer.3Derefter skal lederne i den nærmeste by tage en kvie, der endnu ikke har båret åg,4og føre den til en uopdyrket dal med en lille flod, hvor de skal brække dens hals.5Præsterne skal være til stede, for det er deres opgave at fælde dom i retssager, hvor der er tale om vold. Herren har udvalgt dem til at stå for tjenesten ved helligdommen og til at velsigne på hans vegne.6Derefter skal lederne fra byen nærmest gerningsstedet vaske deres hænder over kvien7og sige: ‚Vi har hverken været medvirkende eller tilskuere til dette mord.8Herre, se i nåde til dit folk Israel, som du befriede, så du ikke tilregner dem skyld for et mord, de ikke har ansvar for.’ På den måde bliver folket forsonet med Gud,9og de undgår straffen for mord. Det er at handle ret i Herrens øjne.10-11Når Herren, jeres Gud, giver jer sejr i en krig mod et fremmed land, og en af jer får øje på en smuk ung pige blandt krigsfangerne, som han kunne tænke sig at have til kone,12må han tage hende med hjem. Der skal hun rage håret af, klippe sine negle13og tage nyt tøj på. Efter at hun har været i huset en måned og sørget over tabet af sine forældre, kan han tage hende til kone og gå i seng med hende.14Hvis han bagefter ikke længere bryder sig om hende, skal han sætte hende i frihed. Han må ikke sælge hende eller på anden måde behandle hende som en slave, for han har taget hendes ære.15Hvis en mand har to koner og får børn med dem begge, men elsker den ene og ikke bryder sig om den anden, selv om det er hende, der er mor til hans førstefødte søn,16må han ikke overdrage førstefødselsretten til nogen af de sønner, han har med den kone, han elsker.17Han skal anerkende sin førstefødte søn, uanset hvem moderen er, ved at give ham dobbelt så meget i arv som de øvrige sønner.18En trodsig og oprørsk søn, der ikke vil adlyde sine forældre, selv om de afstraffer ham,19skal af forældrene føres for byrådet.20‚Denne søn er trodsig og oprørsk!’ skal forældrene sige til dommerne. ‚Han vil ikke adlyde os, men drikker og fører et udsvævende liv.’21Da skal byrådet henrette ham ved stening, for at det onde kan udryddes fra jeres midte. Det skal være et afskrækkende eksempel for resten af de unge i Israel.22Hvis en mand idømmes dødsstraf og efter henrettelsen hænges op på en træpæl,23må liget ikke hænge der natten over. Det skal begraves samme dag. For den, der hænges op på et stykke træ, er under Guds dom. I må ikke gøre det land urent, som Herren vil give jer.
1“If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him,2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.3And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. (4.Mos 19,2)4And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. (5.Mos 10,8; 5.Mos 17,8; 5.Mos 19,17)6And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, (Salm 26,6; Salm 73,13; Matt 27,24)7and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.8Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ (Jonas 1,14)9So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. (5.Mos 19,13)
Marrying Female Captives
10“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive,11and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife,12and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails.13And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. (Salm 45,10)14But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her. (5.Mos 24,7; Jer 34,16)
Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn
15“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,[1] (1.Mos 29,30; 1.Mos 29,33; 1.Sam 1,4)16then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, (1.Krøn 5,1; 1.Krøn 26,10; 2.Krøn 11,19; 2.Krøn 11,22)17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. (1.Mos 25,31; 1.Mos 25,33; 1.Mos 27,36; 1.Mos 49,3)
A Rebellious Son
18“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,20and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’21Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (5.Mos 13,5; 5.Mos 13,10; 5.Mos 13,11; 5.Mos 17,13; 5.Mos 19,20; Josva 7,25)
A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed
22“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. (4.Mos 35,34; Josva 8,29; Josva 10,26; Joh 19,31; Gal 3,13)