Deuteronomy 21:1-9

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. 21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before¹⁸ the Lord.

[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.”

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