Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 32:42

32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword will devour flesh –

the blood of the slaughtered and captured,

the chief ²  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Deuteronomy 21:1

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim ³  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, ⁴  and no one knows who killed ⁵  him,

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ⁶  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 21:3

21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ⁸  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

[21:2]  ¹ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[32:42]  ² tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).

[21:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

[21:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “slain [one].”