11 And it shall be, if it shall make thee answer of peace, and open to thee, then it shall be, that all the people that are found in it shall be forced labourers to thee, and they shall serve thee. 12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: 13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every male of it with the edge of the sword: 14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shalt thou take to thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thy enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. [1] 15 Thus shalt thou do to all the cities which are very distant from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 18 That they may not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. 19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees of it by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life ) to employ them in the siege: [2] [3] 20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they are not trees for food, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it shall be subdued. [4]
CHAP. 21.
1 If one shall be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him:
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him that is slain:
3 And it shall be, that the city which is next to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been worked, and which hath not pulled the yoke;
4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a rough valley, which is neither tilled nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath 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 : [5]
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it .
8 Be merciful, O LORD, to thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of thy people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them. [6]
9 So shalt thou remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
10 When thou goest forth to war against thy enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thy hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
11 And thou seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire to her, that thou wouldest have her for thy wife;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; [7]
13 And she shall put off from her the raiment of her captivity, 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.
14 And it shall be, if thou shalt 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 make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
15 If a man shall have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not prefer the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his. [8]
18 If a man shall have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them:
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;
20 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.
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he may die:
- ↑ take: Heb. spoil
- ↑ for the...: or, for, O man, the tree of the field is to be employed in the siege
- ↑ to employ...: Heb. to go from before thee
- ↑ it...: Heb. it come down
- ↑ word: Heb. mouth
- ↑ unto thy people of: Heb. in the midst, etc
- ↑ pare: or, suffer to grow: Heb. make, or, dress
- ↑ that...: Heb. that is found with him
