Deuteronomy 21:1-9
Read Deuteronomy 21 in full →Atonement for Innocent Blood
21“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh 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“And 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 they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5“Then athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every 1assault 2shall be settled by them. 6“And all the elders of that city 1who are 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‘Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them. 9“aSo you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.