I will personally hold responsible ¹  anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet ²  speaks in my name.

Suppose he goes with someone else ¹  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ²  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ³  from the handle and strikes ⁴  his fellow worker ⁵  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ⁶  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ⁷ 

But how can I alone bear up under the burden of your hardship and strife?

The elders of that city must then seize the man and punish ¹  him.

You must not shed innocent blood ¹  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ² 

Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering ¹  Aramean ²  was my ancestor, ³  and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, ⁴  but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹ 

his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city.

Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Pay attention to all the commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today.

he ¹  commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant,

The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger ¹  to die.

Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ² 

Then the father and mother of the young woman must produce the evidence of virginity ¹  for the elders of the city at the gate.

The young woman’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man and he has rejected ¹  her.

Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I don’t want to marry her,”

Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all Israel’s elders.

So I chose ¹  as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials.

Do not blame ¹  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ²  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out ¹  before the city’s elders.