Deu 21:1-9 | ESV | STEP | 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,

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Atonement for Unsolved Murders

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, 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer ^athat has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And 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. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen ^bthem to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and ^cby their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man ^dshall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and ^edo not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ 9 So ^fyou shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.