Deuteronomy 21:2

Complete Jewish Bible

then your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance between it and the surrounding towns.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities.

Hebrew Names Version
then your Zakenim and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

King James Version
Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:

Lexham English Bible
then your elders and your judges shall go out and shall measure the distance to the cities that are around the slain one.

English Standard Version
then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.

New Century Version
Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities.

New English Translation
your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse.

Amplified Bible
then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the dead person.

New American Standard Bible
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then thine Elders & thy Iudges shal come forth, and measure vnto the cities that are round about him that is slayne.

Legacy Standard Bible
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

Contemporary English Version
The judges and other leaders from the towns around there must find out what town is the closest to where the body was found.

Darby Translation
then thine elders and thy judges shall go forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain;

Easy-to-Read Version
Your leaders and judges must come out and measure the distance to the towns around the dead body.

George Lamsa Translation
Then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure the distance to the cities which are round about him that is slain;

Good News Translation
Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns.

Literal Translation
then your elders and your judges shall come out. And they shall measure to the cities which are around the one slain.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
then shal thy Elders & iudges go forth, and meet from the slayne vnto the cities that lye rounde aboute.

American Standard Version
then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:

Bible in Basic English
Then your responsible men and your judges are to come out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to the towns round about it to be measured;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then thine elders and thy iudges shal come foorth, and measure vnto the cities that are rounde about hym that is slayne:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain.

King James Version (1611)
Then thy Elders and thy Iudges shall come forth, and they shall measure vnto the cities which are round about him that is slaine.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
thine elders and thy judges shall come forth, and shall measure the distances of the cities round about the slain man:

English Revised Version
then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:

Berean Standard Bible
your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
the grettere men in birthe and thi iugis schulen go out, and schulen mete fro the place of the careyn the spaces of alle citees `bi cumpas;

Young's Literal Translation
then have thine elders and thy judges gone out and measured unto the cities which [are] round about the slain one,

Update Bible Version
then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him that is slain:

Webster's Bible Translation
Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which [are] around him that is slain:

World English Bible
then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

New King James Version
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities.

New Living Translation
In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns.

New Life Bible
then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man.

New Revised Standard
then your elders and your judges shall come out to measure the distances to the towns that are near the body.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
then shall thine elders and thy judges go forth, - and measure unto the cities that are round about the slain;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy ancients and judges shall go out, and shall measure from the place where the body lieth the distance of every city round about:

Revised Standard Version
then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure the distance to the cities which are around him that is slain;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

Contextual Overview

¹ "If, in the land Adonai your God is giving you to possess, a murder victim is found lying in the countryside; and the perpetrator of the murder is not known; ² then your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance between it and the surrounding towns. ³ After it has been determined which town is the closest, the leaders of that town are to take a young female cow that has never been put to work or yoked for use as a draft animal. ⁴ The leaders of that town are to bring the heifer down to a vadi with a stream in it that never dries up, to a place that is neither plowed nor sown; and they are to break the cow's neck there in the vadi. ⁵ Then the cohanim, who are L'vi'im, are to approach; for Adonai your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in the name of Adonai ; they will decide the outcome of every dispute and matter involving violence. ⁶ All the leaders of the town nearest the murder victim are to wash their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the vadi. ⁷ (Maftir) Then they are to speak up and say, ‘This blood was not shed by our hands, nor have we seen who did it. ⁸ Adonai , forgive your people Isra'el, whom you redeemed; do not allow innocent blood to be shed among your people Isra'el.' And they will be forgiven this bloodshed. ⁹ Thus you will banish the shedding of innocent blood from among you, by doing what Adonai sees as right. Haftarah Shof'tim: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 51:12–52:12 [Messianic adaptation: conclude the reading at 53:12] B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Shof'tim: Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:38–42; 18:15–20; Acts 3:13–26; 7:35–53; 1 Corinthians 5:9–13; 1 Timothy 5:17–22; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 10:28–31 "When you go out to war against your enemies, and Adonai your God hands them over to you, and you take prisoners, and you see among the prisoners a woman who looks good to you, and you feel attracted to her and want her as your wife; you are to bring her home to your house, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails and remove her prison clothing. She will stay there in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month; after which you may go in to have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. In the event that you lose interest in her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes; but you may not sell her for money or treat her like a slave, because you humiliated her. "If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and unloved wives have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife; then, when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons, he may not give the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved one, who is in fact the firstborn. No, he must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns, for he is the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his. "If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey what his father or mother says, and even after they discipline him he still refuses to pay attention to them; then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the leaders of his town, at the gate of that place, and say to the leaders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he doesn't pay attention to us, lives wildly, gets drunk.' Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death; in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you, and all Isra'el will hear about it and be afraid. (ii) "If someone has committed a capital crime and is put to death, then hung on a tree, his body is not to remain all night on the tree, but you must bury him the same day, because a person who has been hanged has been cursed by God — so that you will not defile your land, which Adonai your God is giving you to inherit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 16:18, Deuteronomy 16:19, Romans 13:3, Romans 13:4

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 21:19 - and bring

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
God answered, "No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call him Yitz'chak [laughter]. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Genesis 17:21
But I will establish my covenant with Yitz'chak, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year."

Genesis 18:10
He said, "I will certainly return to you around this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Sarah heard him from the entrance of the tent, behind him.

Genesis 18:14
Is anything too hard for Adonai ? At the time set for it, at this season next year, I will return to you; and Sarah will have a son."

Genesis 21:16
and went and sat down, looking the other way, about a bow-shot's distance from him; because she said, "I can't bear to watch my child die." So she sat there, looking the other way, crying out and weeping.

Genesis 21:17
God heard the boy's voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What's wrong with you, Hagar? Don't be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the boy in his present situation.

Genesis 21:24
Avraham said, "I swear it."

Genesis 21:25
Now Avraham had complained to Avimelekh about a well which Avimelekh's servants had seized.

Luke 1:36
"You have a relative, Elisheva, who is an old woman; and everyone says she is barren. But she has conceived a son and is six months pregnant!

Acts 7:8
And he gave him b'rit-milah. So he became the father of Yitz'chak and did his b'rit-milah on the eighth day, and Yitz'chak became the father of Ya‘akov, and Ya‘akov became the father of the Twelve Patriarchs.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth,.... From the city or cities near to which the murder was committed, to make inquiry about it, and expiation for it; so Aben Ezra interprets it of the elders of the cities near, but others understand it of the elders of the great sanhedrim at Jerusalem; so the Targum of Jonathan,

"then shall go out from the great sanhedrim two of thy wise men, and three of thy judges;''

and more expressly the Misnah l,

"three go out from the great sanhedrim in Jerusalem;''

R. Judah says five,

"it is said "thy elders" two, and "thy judges" two,''

and there is no sanhedrim or court of judicature equal (or even), therefore they add to them one more:

and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain; that is, from the place where the slain lies, as Jarchi rightly interprets it; on all sides of it, from the four corner's, as the Targum of Jonathan, the cities round about the slain. Maimonides m says, they do not behead the heifer for, nor measure, but to a city in which there is a sanhedrim: if it is found between two cities (that is, at an equal distance), both bring two heifers (Maimonides n says they bring one between them, which is most reasonable); but the city of Jerusalem does not bring an heifer to be beheaded: the reason is, because it was not divided to the tribes o. This measuring, one would think, should be only necessary when it was not certain which was the nearest city; and yet Maimonides p says, even when it was found on the side of a city, which was certainly known to be nearest, they measured; the command, he observes, is to measure.

l Sotah, c. 9. sect. 1. m Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 9. sect. 4. n Ib. sect. 8. o Maimon Hilchot Rotzeachs, c. 9. sect. 8. p lb. c. 9. sect. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The elders represented the citizens at large, the judges the magistracy: priests Deuteronomy 21:5 from the nearest priestly town, were likewise to be at hand. Thus, all classes would be represented at the purging away of that blood-guiltiness which until removed attached to the whole community.