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Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Context
Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim 1  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, 2  and no one knows who killed 3  him, 21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. 4  21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse 5  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke – 21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, 6  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. 7  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests 8  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, 9  and to decide 10  every judicial verdict 11 ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse 12  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 13  21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we 14  witnessed the crime. 15  21:8 Do not blame 16  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” 17  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. 21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before 18  the Lord.

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[21:1]  1 tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).

[21:1]  2 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  3 tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

[21:2]  4 tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[21:3]  5 tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:4]  6 tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.

[21:4]  7 sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

[21:5]  8 tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  9 tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:5]  10 tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  11 tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[21:6]  12 tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  13 tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:7]  14 tn Heb “our eyes.” This is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part (the eyes) is put for the whole (the entire person).

[21:7]  15 tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:8]  16 tn Heb “Atone for.”

[21:8]  17 tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

[21:9]  18 tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).



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