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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Deuteronomy 21 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/deuteronomy/21.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/deuteronomy/21-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Deuteronomy 21</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../deuteronomy/20.htm" title="Deuteronomy 20">◄</a> Deuteronomy 21 <a href="../deuteronomy/22.htm" title="Deuteronomy 22">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/deuteronomy/21.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">Cleansing for Unsolved Murder</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>“When you are in the land the LORD your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plow. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>“The elders of the town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>O LORD, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the LORD’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.</p><p class="hdg">Marriage to a Captive Woman</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>“Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>But if you marry her and she does not please you, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.</p><p class="hdg">Rights of the Firstborn</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>“Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.</p><p class="hdg">Dealing with a Rebellious Son</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>“Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.</p><p class="hdg">Various Regulations</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>“If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/21-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">b</span></a> is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">21:22 </span><span class="ft">Or </span><span class="it">impaled on a pole;</span><span class="ft"> similarly in 21:23.</span><br><span class="fn">b</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">21:23 </span><span class="ft">Greek version reads </span><span class="it">for everyone who is hung on a tree.</span><span class="ft"> Compare Gal 3:13.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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