When someone was found slain in the open field, and no one knew who killed him, the elders and judges were to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearby towns. The elders of the nearest town were to take a young heifer that had never been used for work and bring it to a valley with flowing water, where no plowing or planting had been done. There, they were to break the heifer's neck.
Then the priests, the sons of Levi—whom the Lord had chosen to minister and pronounce blessings—would come forward. The elders of the nearest town would wash their hands over the heifer and declare, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Accept atonement for your people Israel, O Lord, and do not hold them guilty of shedding innocent blood." By doing this, they would purge the guilt of innocent blood from among them, doing what was right in God's sight.
When Israel went to war and took captives, if an Israelite saw a beautiful woman among the captives and desired her as a wife, he could take her home. She was to shave her head, trim her nails, and remove the clothes of her captivity. After mourning her parents for a month, she could become his wife. But if he was no longer pleased with her, he had to let her go free—he could not sell or enslave her, for he had humbled her.
If a man had two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both bore him sons, the man was not allowed to give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the loved wife over the true firstborn, the son of the unloved wife. The firstborn was to receive a double portion of all his father's possessions, for he was the first sign of his father's strength.
If a man had a stubborn and rebellious son who refused to obey his parents even after discipline, his parents were to bring him to the elders at the town gate. They would say, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us; he is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the town were to stone him to death to remove evil from among them.
If a man was executed and his body hung on a tree, his body was not to remain there overnight. He had to be buried the same day, for anyone hung on a tree was under God's curse. Israel was to avoid defiling the land the Lord was giving them as an inheritance.