Deuteronomy 21:1-8

Context

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim¹ should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you,² and no one knows who killed³ 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 corpse⁵ 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 priests⁸ will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name,⁹ and to decide¹⁰ every judicial verdict¹¹) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse¹² 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 we¹⁴ witnessed the crime.¹⁵ 21:8 Do not blame¹⁶ 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.

Deuteronomy 21:23

Context
21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury¹⁸ him that same day, for the one who is left exposed¹⁹ on a tree is cursed by God.²⁰ You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

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

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

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

[21:3] ⁵tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:4] ⁶tn 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] ⁷sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

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

[21:5] ⁹tn 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] ¹⁰tn Heb “by their mouth.”

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

[21:6] ¹²tn Heb “slain [one].”

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

[21:7] ¹⁴tn 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] ¹⁵tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:8] ¹⁶tn Heb “Atone for.”

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

[21:23] ¹⁸tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23] ¹⁹tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”

[21:23] ²⁰sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).