Deuteronomy 21:3

Complete Jewish Bible

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.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

Hebrew Names Version
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the Zakenim of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

King James Version
And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;

Lexham English Bible
And then the nearest city to the slain one, the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked with in the field, that has not pulled a yoke,

English Standard Version
And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke.

New Century Version
The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke,

New English Translation
Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked—that has never pulled with the yoke—

Amplified Bible
"It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the dead man shall take a heifer of the herd, one which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

New American Standard Bible
"And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked and has not pulled in a yoke;

Geneva Bible (1587)
Aud let ye Elders of that citie, which is next vnto the slaine man, take out of the droue an heifer that hath not bene put to labour, nor hath drawen in the yoke.

Legacy Standard Bible
And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

Contemporary English Version
The leaders from that town will go to their cattle herds and choose a young cow that has never been put to work.

Darby Translation
and the city that is nearest unto him that is slain, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer that hath not been wrought with, that hath not drawn in the yoke;

Easy-to-Read Version
When you learn which town is nearest to the dead body, the leaders of that town must take a cow from their herds. It must be a cow that never had a calf and that has never been used for work.

George Lamsa Translation
And the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has never been used for work nor has pulled in the yoke,

Good News Translation
Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work.

Literal Translation
And it shall be, that the city nearest to the one slain, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Loke which cite is the nexte, ye Elders of the same shal take a yoge cowe, which hath not bene laboured, ner hath drawe in the yocke,

American Standard Version
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;

Bible in Basic English
And whichever town is nearest to the body, the responsible men of that town are to take from the herd a young cow which has never been used for work or put under the yoke;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And let the elders of that citie which is next vnto the slayne man, take out of the droue an heyffer that hath not ben put to labour, nor hath drawen in the yoke:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke.

King James Version (1611)
And it shall be that the citie which is next vnto the slaine man, euen the Elders of that citie shall take an heifer which hath not bene wrought with, and which hath not drawen in the yoke.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not laboured, and which has not borne a yoke.

English Revised Version
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer of the herd, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;

Berean Standard Bible
Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and the eldre men of that citee, `which thei seen to be neer than othere, schulen take of the droue a cow calf, that `drow not yok, nether kittide the erthe with a schar;

Young's Literal Translation
and it hath been, the city which [is] near unto the slain one, even the elders of that city have taken a heifer of the herd, which hath not been wrought with, which hath not drawn in the yoke,

Update Bible Version
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been wrought with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

Webster's Bible Translation
And it shall be [that] the city [which is] next to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer which hath not been wrought with, [and] which hath not drawn in the yoke;

World English Bible
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

New King James Version
And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke.

New Living Translation
When the nearest town has been determined, that town's elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.

New Life Bible
The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled a plow.

New Revised Standard
The elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and it shall be that the city that is nearest unto the slain, the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd which hath not been wrought with, which hath not drawn in a yoke;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the ancients of that city which they shall perceive to be nearer than the rest, shall take a heifer of the herd, that hath not drawn in the yoke, nor ploughed the ground,

Revised Standard Version
and the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has never been worked and which has not pulled in the yoke.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

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

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 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 21:6
Sarah said, "God has given me good reason to laugh; now everyone who hears about it will laugh with me."

Genesis 21:12
But God said to Avraham, "Don't be distressed because of the boy and your slave-girl. Listen to everything Sarah says to you, because it is your descendants through Yitz'chak who will be counted.

Genesis 22:2
He said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz'chak; and go to the land of Moriyah. There you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you."

Joshua 24:3
I took your ancestor Avraham from beyond the River, led him through all the land of Kena‘an, increased his descendants and gave him Yitz'chak.

Matthew 1:2
Avraham was the father of Yitz'chak, Yitz'chak was the father of Ya‘akov, Ya‘akov was the father of Y'hudah and his brothers,

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.

Romans 9:7
indeed, not all the descendants are seed of Avraham ; rather, "What is to be called your ‘seed' will be in Yitz'chak."

Hebrews 11:18
to whom it had been said, " What is called your ‘seed' will be in Yitz'chak. "

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.