Lectionary Calendar
Friday, September 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Chinese NCV (Simplified)

申命记 21:3

看看哪一座城離那被殺的人最近,那城的長老就要從牛群中取一隻母牛犢,就是還沒有耕過地、沒有負過軛的。

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Government;   Heifer;   Homicide;   Inquest;   Thompson Chain Reference - Animals;   Heifers;   Red Heifer;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Blood;   Murder;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Sacrifice;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - City;   Elder;   Priest;   Uncleanness;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Leadership;   Murder;   Priest, Priesthood;   Samuel, First and Second, Theology of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Alms;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ablution;   Murder;   Yoke;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Blood;   Murder;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ablutions;   Blood;   Cattle;   Court Systems;   Crimes and Punishments;   Elder;   Heifer;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - City;   Clean and Unclean;   Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Justice;   Sacrifice and Offering;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Elders;   Heifer;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Blood;   Elder;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Murder;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Heifer;   Heifer, Red;   Homicide;   Joshua (2);   Prayer;   Salvation;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ablution;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abrogation of Laws;   Charity and Charitable Institutions;   Eleazar B. Dinai;   Homicide;   Judge;   Nashim;   Parah;   Red Heifer;   Sacrifice;   Saul;   Soṭah;   Teḥina, Abba;  

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
看 哪 城 离 被 杀 的 人 最 近 , 那 城 的 长 老 就 要 从 牛 群 中 取 一 只 未 曾 耕 地 、 未 曾 负 轭 的 母 牛 犊 ,

Contextual Overview

1 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person. 2 Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities. 3 The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke, 4 and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow's neck. 5 The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord 's name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks. 6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 They should declare: "We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen. 8 Lord , remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don't blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person." And so the murder will be paid for. 9 Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an: Numbers 19:2, Jeremiah 31:18, Matthew 11:28-30, Philippians 2:8

Reciprocal: Leviticus 4:15 - the elders

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
God said, "No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will make my agreement with him to be an agreement that continues forever with all his descendants.
Genesis 21:6
And Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.
Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Don't be troubled about the boy and the slave woman. Do whatever Sarah tells you. The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac.
Genesis 22:2
Then God said, "Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Kill him there and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
Joshua 24:3
But I, the Lord , took your ancestor Abraham from the other side of the river and led him through the land of Canaan. And I gave him many children, including his son Isaac.
Matthew 1:2
Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Acts 7:8
God made an agreement with Abraham, the sign of which was circumcision. And so when Abraham had his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob did the same for his sons, the twelve ancestors of our people.
Romans 9:7
and only some of Abraham's descendants are true children of Abraham. But God said to Abraham: "The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac."
Hebrews 11:18
God had said, "The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man,.... And so suspected, as the Targum of Jonathan, of the murder; or the murderer is in it, or however belonged to it:

even the elders of the city shall take an heifer; of a year old, as the same Targum, and so Jarchi; and in this the Jewish writers agree, that it must be a year old, but not two; though heifers of three years old were sometimes used in sacrifice, Genesis 15:9 a type of Christ, in his strength, laboriousness, and patience; see Numbers 19:2

which hath not been wrought with; in ploughing land, or treading out corn:

and which hath not drawn in the yoke, which never had any yoke put upon it; or however, if attempted to be put upon it, it would not come under it, and draw with it: no mention is made, as usual, that it should be without blemish: because though in some sense expiatory, yet was not properly a sacrifice, it not being slain and offered where sacrifices were; hence it is said in the Misnah q, that a blemish in it did not make it rejected, or unlawful for use: nevertheless, this heifer may be a type of Christ, whose sufferings, bloodshed, and death, atone for secret and unknown sins, as well as for open and manifest ones, even for all sin; and its being free from labour, and without a yoke, may signify the freedom of Christ from the yoke of sin, and the service of it, and from human traditions; that he was not obliged to any toil and labour he had been concerned in, or to bear the yoke of the law, had he not voluntarily undertaken it of himself; and that he expiated the sins of such who were sons of Belial, children without a yoke; and for the same reason, this heifer not being required to be without blemish, might be because Christ, though he had no sin of his own, was made sin for his people, and reckoned as if he had been a sinner; though indeed, had this been the design of the type, all the sacrifices which typified Christ would not have required such a qualification, to be without blemish, as they did.

q Ut supra, (Sotah, c. 9.) sect. 5.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The requirements as regards place and victim are symbolic. The heifer represented the murderer, so far at least as to die in his stead, since he himself could not be found. As hearing his guilt the heifer must therefore be one which was of full growth and strength, and had not yet been ceremonially profaned by human use. The Christian commentators find here a type of Christ and of His sacrifice for man: but the heifer was not strictly a sacrifice or sin-offering. The transaction was rather figurative, and was so ordered as to impress the lesson of Genesis 9:5.


 
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