If a corpse is found in the land that Adonoy, your God, is giving you to inherit, fallen in the field, it is not known who smote him.

If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who has slain him:

If there be found a slain body on the land that the L-rd your G-d gives you to inherit, fallen in the field, it not being known who killed him,

Your elders shall go out—and your judges—and measure in the direction of the cities around the corpse.

then thy elders and thy judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him that is slain:

Then there shall go out your elders [the Great Sanhedrin] and your judges, and they shall measure [from the body] to the cities that are around the body [to determine which is closest].

Now, the city nearest the corpse—the elders of that city are to take a calf-heifer that has not been worked, that has not drawn [with] a yoke.

and it shall be, that as for the city which is nearest to the slain man, the elders of that city shall take a heifer, which has not been put to work, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

And it shall be, the city closest to the body — the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has not been worked, that has not drawn under the yoke,

The elders of that city will take down the calf to a stony valley that is not to be tilled and not to be seeded, and they shall decapitate the calf in that valley.

and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a rough ravine, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the ravine:

And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a hard [unworked] river-bed, which shall not be worked and which shall not be sown, and they shall break there [with a hatchet] the neck of the heifer in the river-bed. [The Holy One Blessed be He says: Let a one-year-old heifer, which has produced no fruits, come and be broken in a place which produces no fruits to atone for the slaying of this one, who was not permitted to produce fruits.]

The kohanim, descendants of Levi, will approach; because them did Adonoy, your God, choose to serve Him and to bless in Adonoy’s Name; and they will decide every dispute and every nega.

and the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the Lord thy God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of the Lord; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:

Then there shall draw near, the Cohanim, the sons of Levi; for them did the L-rd your G-d choose to serve Him and to pronounce the benediction in the name of the L-rd; and by their word shall every contention and every plague-spot be (ruled upon).

And all the elders of that city, those near the corpse, will wash their hands over the calf beheaded in that valley.

and all the elders of that city, that are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the ravine:

And all the elders of that city who are near to the slain one shall wash their hands over the heifer of the broken neck in the river-bed.

They will loudly declare, ‘‘Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes did not see.’’

and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.

And they shall raise their voices and say: Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes did not see [i.e., We did not see him and let him go without food and without escort].

[The kohanim will say,] ‘‘Forgive Your people Yisroel, whom You, Adonoy, have redeemed; and do not allow innocent blood [liability] within Your people Yisroel.’’ The blood shall thus be atoned for in their behalf.

Be merciful, O Lord, to thy people Yisra᾽el, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of thy people Yisra᾽el. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

[And the Cohanim say:] Atone for Your people, Israel, which You have redeemed, O L-rd, and do not place innocent blood in the midst of Your people, Israel; and the blood will be atoned unto them [i.e., If they do as prescribed, the sin will be atoned.]

Still, you must eradicate the [liability for] innocent blood from within you, when you do what is upright in Adonoy’s eyes.

So shalt thou put away the innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

And you shall remove the innocent blood from your midst by doing what is just in the eyes of the L-rd. [If the slayer is found after the heifer's neck is broken, he is to be put to death, this being "what is just in the eyes of the L-rd."]

If you should go to war against your enemies, and Adonoy, your God, puts them in your hand, and you capture prisoners from them;

When thou goest forth to war against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God has delivered them into thy hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

If you go out to war [an optional war (as opposed to a war of mitzvah)] against your enemy, and the L-rd your G-d delivers him into your hand and you capture its captivity, [including Canaanites in their midst, even if they be of the seven nations],

And you see among the prisoners a beautifully formed woman; if you desire her, you may take her as your wife.

and thou seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire to her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife;

And you see in the captivity a woman [(even a married woman)] of beautiful form, and you desire her, then you may take her for yourself as a wife [(Scripture here speaks vis-à-vis the evil inclination. If the L-rd did not permit her, he would marry her illicitly. But if he does marry her, he is destined to hate her and to beget of her a rebellious son (see 14-18), for which reason these sections are juxtaposed)].

You will bring her into your house and she will shave her head and allow her nails to grow.

then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

And you shall bring her inside your house, and she shall shave her head and she shall do her nails. [She shall let them grow long so that she becomes unsightly.]

She must discard her prisoner’s garb from upon her, and she will remain in your home and weep for her father and her mother a month of days; and afterwards you may come to her and consummate with her, and she will become your wife.

and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

And she shall remove the garment of her captivity from her, [(the gentile women adorning themselves in war to lure others to live with them)], and she shall sit in your house, [the house that he frequents, so that he see her constantly in her weeping and in her unsightliness and she become repulsive to him], and she shall mourn her father and her mother a month of days [All this, so that a Jewess appear happy to him, and this one, sad; a Jewess, attractive, and this one, repulsive]. And afterwards, you may come to her and cohabit with her, and she shall be to you as a wife.

But it shall come to pass, that if you do not desire her you will send her free, but to sell—you may not sell her for money; you may not exploit her since you have oppressed her.

And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go where she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not treat her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her.

And it shall be, when you do not desire her [(Scripture indicates that he is destined to hate her)], that you shall release her. But you shall not sell her for money. You may not exploit her after you have afflicted her.

If a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they bear him sons, the loved [one] and the hated [one], and the firstborn son will be the hated one’s.

If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:

If there be to a man two wives, one, beloved; the other, hated, and they bear him sons, the loved one and the hated one, and the first-born son be the hated one's,

When the day comes for him to will to his sons what he owns, he may not prefer the son of the loved one over the son of the hated one—the firstborn.

then it shall be, when he makes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the preference to the son of the beloved wife, over the son of the hated wife who is the firstborn:

Then it shall be, on the day that he causes his sons to inherit what there shall be to him, he shall not be able to grant primogeniture to the son of the beloved one over the son of the hated one, the first-born.

Rather, the firstborn son of the hated one is he to recognize to give him doublefold of all that he possesses; for he is the first of his power, he has the rights of primogeniture.

but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he has: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

But the first-born, the son of the hated one, shall he recognize, to give him a double portion [i.e., the portion of two brothers] of all that shall be found with him [at the time of his death (and not what is destined to come to him after his death)]. For he is the first of his strength; his is the judgment of the first-born.

If a man has a wayward and rebellious son who does not obey his father and his mother; though they chasten him; he does not listen to them.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them:

If there be to a man a son who turns aside [from the right path], and is recalcitrant, not heeding the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they chastise him [i.e., they warn him before three, and he receives stripes], and he not heed them,

His father and mother are to grasp him and take him out to the judges of his city and to the court in his location.

then shall his father and his mother lay hold of him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;

Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and they shall take him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.

They will say to the judges of his city, ‘‘This son of ours is wayward and rebellious—he does not obey—gluttonous and drunken.’’

and 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.

And they shall say to the elders of his city: This son of ours turns aside and is recalcitrant, not heeding our voice, a glutton and a guzzler,

And all the men of his city will stone him with stones so that he dies, and you will eliminate the evil within you; and let all Yisroel hear and be fearful.

And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Yisra᾽el shall hear, and fear.

Then all the people of his city shall stone him with stones and he shall die, and you shall remove the evil from your midst [(The Torah "probed to the end of the mind" of the rebellious son. In the end he would exhaust his father's money. Lacking his accustomed fare, he would become a highway man and would rob (and kill). The Torah says: Let him die unincriminated rather than incriminated)], and all of Israel shall hear and fear. [Proclamation is required, viz.: "This man was stoned for being a rebellious son!"]

If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is executed; you shall hang him from a tree.

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:

And if there be in a man a sin whose judgment is death [(the rationale of the juxtaposition: If the rebellious son is pitied by his parents, in the end he will become corrupt and commit transgressions for which he will be sentenced to death by beth-din)], then he shall be put to death, and you shall hang him [i.e., his body, after stoning] on a tree.

Do not leave his corpse overnight on the tree, but you are surely to bury him on that day, for a hanging corpse is an affront to God; so do not defile your land that Adonoy, your God, is giving you as territory.

his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt surely bury him that day: (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance.

You shall not leave his body overnight on the tree, but you shall bury it that day, for the demeaning of G-d is [his remaining] hanging, [man being G-d's image, and the children of Israel, His sons], and you shall not make unclean your land, which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance.