Deuteronomy Chapter 21 in Simple English

Read Deuteronomy Chapter 21

1Someone may be found killed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. He is lying in the field, and no one knows who killed him.

2Then your elders and your judges shall go out, and they shall measure the distance to the cities that are around the dead man.

3The elders of the city that is nearest to the dead man shall take a young cow that has never been worked with and has never pulled in a yoke.

4The elders of that city shall bring the young cow down to a rough valley that has never been ploughed or sown, and there in the valley they shall break the young cow's neck.

5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. The LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every quarrel and every case of violence shall be settled.

6All the elders of that city, the one nearest to the dead man, shall wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.

7They shall say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it."

8"Be merciful, O LORD, to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed. Do not hold your people Israel guilty of innocent blood." And the blood shall be forgiven them.

9So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

10When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hands, and you take them captive,

11and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and want her as your wife,

12then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and cut her nails.

13She shall take off the clothes she was captured in. She shall stay in your house and weep for her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14But if you take no delight in her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes. You shall not sell her for money at all. You shall not treat her as goods to be traded, because you have humbled her.

15A man may have two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they may both bear him children, the loved one and the hated one. If the firstborn son belongs to the wife who is hated,

16then when he gives his sons what he owns, he may not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn ahead of the son of the hated wife, who is really the firstborn.

17He shall recognise the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and give him a double share of all that he has. For that son is the first sign of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

18A man may have a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who will not listen to them even when they punish him.

19Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his town.

20They shall say to the elders of his city, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is greedy for food, and a drunkard."

21Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones until he dies. So you shall put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear it and be afraid.

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 stay on the tree all night. You must bury him that same day, for anyone who is hanged is cursed by God. Then your land will not be defiled, the land that the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.

Explanation

Deuteronomy 21

In short

This chapter covers four separate legal rulings for Israel: what to do when a murder victim is found and the killer is unknown, how to treat a captive woman taken as a wife, how to handle inheritance when a man favours one wife over another, and how the community must deal with a son who stubbornly refuses to obey his parents.

Context

This is part of Moses' long speech restating God's law for Israel as they prepare to enter the promised land. Each ruling addresses a different family or community situation and specifies what is lawful and what brings guilt or defilement to the land.

What the text says

Verses 1-9 describe an unsolved murder. When a slain person is found in the open country, the elders of the nearest city must take a young heifer that has never worked, bring it to an uncultivated valley, break its neck, and wash their hands over it. The priests witness this. The elders declare their hands are innocent, and they ask the Lord for mercy and forgiveness of the bloodguilt. This ritual removes the guilt from the people.

Verses 10-14 address captive women. If a soldier sees a beautiful captive woman and wants her as a wife, he may marry her, but first she must shave her head, trim her nails, and mourn her parents for a month. If afterwards he has no pleasure in her, he must let her go free. He cannot sell her as a slave because he has already humbled her.

Verses 15-17 rule on inheritance when a man has two wives, one loved and one disliked. Even if the disliked wife's son is the firstborn, the father cannot give the firstborn's double portion to the loved wife's son. The firstborn son must receive it, regardless of which wife is preferred.

Verses 18-21 describe a persistently rebellious son. If he will not obey his parents after discipline, his parents bring him before the city elders and accuse him of stubbornness, gluttony, and drunkenness. The men of the city stone him to death. This puts away evil from Israel.

Verses 22-23 rule that a person executed and hung on a tree must be buried the same day, not left hanging overnight, so the land is not defiled.

Takeaways

These laws address how Israel's community and families are to handle serious moral failures and preserve the land from guilt and defilement.
Captive women and disliked wives are given legal protections against exploitation and disinheritance.
Community participation in justice, whether through ritual or witness, is presented as necessary to remove guilt from the whole people.

Deuteronomy 21 - Simple English