Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 21:1-9
Context21:1 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.
[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
[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] 17 tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”
