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.
4-5. They and some of the priests will take this cow to a nearby valley where there is a stream, but no crops. Once they reach the valley, the leaders will break the cow's neck.The priests must be there, because the Lord your God has chosen them to be his special servants at the place of worship. The Lord has chosen them to bless the people in his name and to be judges in all legal cases, whether property or injury is involved.
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.
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.
15-17. Suppose a man has two wives and loves one more than the other. The first son of either wife is the man's firstborn son, even if the boy's mother is the wife the man doesn't love. Later, when the man is near death and is dividing up his property, he must give a double share to his firstborn son, simply because he was the first to be born.