⁶ Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands^(A) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ⁷ and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. ⁸ Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,^{(B) 9} and you will have purged^(C) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

³² The Lord will repay^(A) him for the blood he shed,^(B) because without my father David knowing it he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa^(C) son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army—were better^(D) men and more upright than he.

³³ May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the Lord’s peace forever.”