Leviticus 18:25

18:25 Therefore ¹  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ²  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants.

Deuteronomy 21:1-8

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, 21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ⁶  21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ⁷  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, ⁸  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. ⁹  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests ¹⁰  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ¹¹  and to decide ¹²  every judicial verdict ¹³ ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹⁴  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ¹⁵  21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ¹⁶  witnessed the crime. ¹⁷  21:8 Do not blame ¹⁸  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ¹⁹  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

Deuteronomy 21:23

21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury ²⁰  him that same day, for the one who is left exposed ²¹  on a tree is cursed by God. ²²  You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

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. ²³ 

Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ²⁴  or severed genitals ²⁵  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ²⁶ 

Deuteronomy 24:4

24:4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry ²⁷  her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord. ²⁸  You must not bring guilt on the land ²⁹  which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Psalms 106:28

106:28 They worshiped ³⁰  Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ³¹ 

Isaiah 26:21

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ³² 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ³³ 

Ezekiel 22:24-27

22:24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that receives no rain ³⁴  or showers in the day of my anger.’ ³⁵  22:25 Her princes ³⁶  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ³⁷  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ³⁸  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ³⁹  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

Hosea 4:2-3

4:2 There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.

They resort to violence and bloodshed. ⁴⁰ 

4:3 Therefore the land will mourn,

and all its inhabitants will perish. ⁴¹ 

The wild animals, ⁴²  the birds of the sky,

and even the fish in the sea will perish.

Micah 4:11

4:11 Many nations have now assembled against you.

They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, ⁴³ 

so we can gloat over Zion!” ⁴⁴ 

Matthew 23:31-35

23:31 By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! 23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ⁴⁵ 

23:34 “For this reason I ⁴⁶  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ⁴⁷  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ⁴⁸  and some you will flog ⁴⁹  in your synagogues ⁵⁰  and pursue from town to town, 23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ⁵¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Luke 11:50-51

11:50 so that this generation may be held accountable ⁵²  for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning ⁵³  of the world, ⁵⁴  11:51 from the blood of Abel ⁵⁵  to the blood of Zechariah, ⁵⁶  who was killed ⁵⁷  between the altar and the sanctuary. ⁵⁸  Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against ⁵⁹  this generation.

[18:25]  ¹ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

[18:25]  ² tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[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.”

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[21:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:4]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

[21:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[21:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:7]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Atone for.”

[21:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

[21:23]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23]  ²¹ tn 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]  ²² sn 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).

[21:2]  ²³ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[23:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

[23:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

[23:1]  ²⁶ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

[24:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to return to take her to be his wife.”

[24:4]  ²⁸ sn The issue here is not divorce and its grounds per se but prohibition of remarriage to a mate whom one has previously divorced.

[24:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “cause the land to sin” (so KJV, ASV).

[106:28]  ³⁰ tn Heb “joined themselves to.”

[106:28]  ³¹ tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).

[26:21]  ³² tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ³³ sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[22:24]  ³⁴ tc The MT reads “that is not cleansed”; the LXX reads “that is not drenched,” which assumes a different vowel pointing as well as the loss of a מ (mem) due to haplography. In light of the following reference to showers, the reading of the LXX certainly fits the context well. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32. Yet the MT is not an unreasonable reading since uncleanness in the land also fits the context, and a poetic connection between rain and the land being uncleansed may be feasible since washing with water is elsewhere associated with cleansing (Num 8:7; 31:23; Ps 51:7).

[22:24]  ³⁵ tn Heb “in a day of anger.”

[22:25]  ³⁶ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ³⁷ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ³⁸ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ³⁹ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[4:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they break out and bloodshed touches bloodshed.” The Hebrew term פָּרַץ (parats, “to break out”) refers to violent and wicked actions (BDB 829 s.v. פָּרַץ 7; HALOT 972 s.v. פרץ 6.c). It is used elsewhere in a concrete sense to describe breaking through physical barriers. Here it is used figuratively to describe breaking moral barriers and restraints (cf. TEV “Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another”).

[4:3]  ⁴¹ tn Or “languish” (so KJV, NRSV); NIV “waste away.”

[4:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so NAB, NIV).

[4:11]  ⁴³ tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.”

[23:33]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”

[23:34]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[23:34]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:34]  ⁴⁸ sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.

[23:34]  ⁴⁹ tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”

[23:34]  ⁵⁰ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[23:35]  ⁵¹ sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).

[11:50]  ⁵² tn Or “that this generation may be charged with”; or “the blood of all the prophets… may be required from this generation.” This is a warning of judgment. These people are responsible for the shedding of prophetic blood.

[11:50]  ⁵³ tn Or “foundation.” However, this does not suggest a time to the modern reader.

[11:50]  ⁵⁴ tn The order of the clauses in this complicated sentence has been rearranged to simplify it for the modern reader.

[11:51]  ⁵⁵ sn Gen 4:10 indicates that Abel’s blood cried out for justice.

[11:51]  ⁵⁶ sn It is not clear which Zechariah is meant here. It is probably the person mentioned in 2 Chr 24:20-25.

[11:51]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “who perished.”

[11:51]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “and the temple”; Grk “and the house,” but in this context a reference to the house of God as a place of sanctuary.

[11:51]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “required from.”