CHAPTER 21 May 4 
Regulations Concerning Unsolved Murder
If anyone is found slain in the land which Yahweh 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 must come forth and measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. 3The 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 the yoke, 4and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither ploughed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5The priests the sons of Levi must come near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh, and according to their word shall every controversy be decided. 6All the elders of that city who are nearest to the slain man must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7and they shall say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood to be among Your people Israel. The guilt of blood shall be forgiven them. 9So you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
Marrying a Captive
10When you go forth to battle against your enemies and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive 11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her and would take her to you as a wife, 12then you shall bring her home to your house. She must shave her head and pare her nails 13and put off the clothing of her captivity and 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. 14If you have no delight in her, then you must let her go where she will, but you must not sell her at all for money. Since you have humbled her, you must not deal with her as a slave.
The Right of a Firstborn
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 be hers who was hated, 16then in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, he must not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn. 17He 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. 
A Rebellious Son
18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father nor the voice of his mother and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them, 19then 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 town. 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 must stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. 22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 23his body must not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day (for cursed of God is he who is hanged on a tree), so that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

Commentary

21:11 See on 20:14. The legislation in :11-14 is unique amongst the surrounding nations, where women were seen as objects of booty and were treated with far less sensitivity than this and usually raped in this situation. Likewise the law of :18-21 teaches equal reverence for both parents and not just the father.
21:17 This means that in a situation where there were two sons, the younger son’s share was one third. In the parable of the prodigal son, the younger son is given half – such was the Father’s love for him. This element of unreality in the parable is to signpost the amazing level of love the Father has for us; even when He knows that we will waste what He gives, still He gives, and gives generously. 
21:23 Cursed of God is he who is hanged on a tree-  These words have been misunderstood as meaning that the Lord Jesus as a living being was under one of the Law's curses of condemnation. This cannot be. Crucifixion was a Roman, not Jewish method. The Deuteronomy passage was not written with reference to crucifixion, but rather to the custom of displaying the already dead body of a sinner on a pole as a witness and warning. Sin brought the curse; and so every sinful person who died for their sin was bearing the curse of God. They were to be buried quickly, as a sign of God taking no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Jesus died the death of a sinner; He bore our sins, and therefore our curse (Gal. 3:13,14). Every condemned sinner whose body had been displayed had been a type of the sinless Son of God. He was exhibited there for a few hours, totally united with sinful man. And then, because God had no pleasure in this condemnation of sin, the body was taken and buried.