Deuteronomy Chapter 21 — Laws of Justice and Family
Deuteronomy 21 outlines protocols for unsolved murders, regulations for marrying captives, inheritance rights for firstborn sons, and punishments for rebellious children.
1If someone is found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him,
2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.
3It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke.
4The 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.
5The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the LORD’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.
6All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
7They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8Forgive, LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.
9So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in the LORD’s eyes.
10When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive,
11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife,
12then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.
13She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated,
16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;
17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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.
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them,
19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.
20They shall tell 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.”
21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.
WEB Translation
Notable Verses
Deuteronomy 21:8
“Forgive, LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.”
This verse emphasizes the collective responsibility of the community to seek God's forgiveness for unsolved crimes.
Deuteronomy 21:17
“But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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.”
This law ensures that legal inheritance rights supersede personal favoritism within the family structure.
Deuteronomy 21:23
“His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”
This instruction highlights the necessity of maintaining the sanctity and purity of the land.
Chapter Summary
Deuteronomy 21 establishes several civil and domestic laws for the people of Israel to maintain justice and social order. It begins with the procedure for an unsolved homicide, where the elders of the nearest city must perform a ritual with a heifer to seek atonement for the community. The chapter then transitions to laws regarding warfare, specifically the humane treatment of captive women and the requirements for a man wishing to marry one. It also addresses family dynamics, strictly prohibiting a father from disregarding the inheritance rights of his firstborn son based on his feelings toward the child's mother. Furthermore, it outlines a legal process for parents to bring a persistently rebellious and unrepentant son before the elders for judgment. Finally, the chapter mandates that the body of an executed criminal must be buried on the same day it is displayed to prevent the land from becoming defiled, emphasizing the importance of ritual purity and respect for the law.
Frequently Asked Questions
The elders of the city closest to the body were required to sacrifice a heifer in a valley with running water. They would wash their hands over the animal, declaring their innocence and asking God to forgive the community for the presence of innocent blood.
A man who wished to marry a captive woman had to bring her into his home, where she would shave her head, trim her nails, and mourn her parents for one month. If the man later decided he did not want her, he had to let her go free and could not sell her as a slave.
If a son was consistently stubborn, rebellious, and refused to obey his parents despite discipline, the parents were to bring him to the city elders. If judged guilty, the men of the city were to stone him to remove the evil from the community.
Study Note
The ritual of the elders washing their hands serves as a public symbolic act, signifying that the community has done everything in its power to seek justice and maintain moral standing.
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