1. Suppose the body of a murder victim is found in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, and no one knows who the murderer is.
2. The judges and other leaders from the towns around there must find out what town is the closest to where the body was found.
3. The leaders from that town will go to their cattle herds and choose a young cow that has never been put to work.
6. The town leaders will wash their hands over the body of the dead cow
7. and say, “We had no part in this murder, and we don't know who did it.
10. From time to time, you men will serve as soldiers and go off to war. The Lord your God will help you defeat your enemies, and you will take many prisoners.
11-13. One of these prisoners may be a beautiful woman, and you may want to marry her. But first you must bring her into your home, and she must shave her head, cut her nails, get rid of her foreign clothes, and start wearing Israelite clothes. She will mourn a month for her father and mother, then you can marry her.
14. Later on, if you are not happy with the woman, you can divorce her, and she can go free. But you have slept with her as your wife, so you cannot sell her as a slave or make her into your own slave.