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Monday, July 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Christian Standard Bible ®

Deuteronomy 21:7

They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Government;   Heifer;   Homicide;   Inquest;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Blood;   Hands, the;   Murder;  

Dictionaries:

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

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Gesture;   Heifer;   Heifer, Red;   Homicide;   Prayer;   Salvation;   Shed;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ablution;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abrogation of Laws;   Charity and Charitable Institutions;   Eleazar B. Dinai;   Homicide;   Judge;   Nashim;   Police Laws;   Saul;   Soá¹­ah;   Teḥina, Abba;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
King James Version
And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Lexham English Bible
And they shall declare, and they shall say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see what was done.
English Standard Version
and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.
New Century Version
They should declare: "We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.
New English Translation
Then they must proclaim, "Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime.
Amplified Bible
and they shall respond, and say, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
New American Standard Bible
and they shall respond and say, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And shal testifie, and say, Our handes haue not shed this blood, neither haue our eies seene it.
Legacy Standard Bible
and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Contemporary English Version
and say, "We had no part in this murder, and we don't know who did it.
Complete Jewish Bible
(Maftir) Then they are to speak up and say, ‘This blood was not shed by our hands, nor have we seen who did it.
Darby Translation
and shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Easy-to-Read Version
These leaders must say, ‘We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.
George Lamsa Translation
And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen the victim.
Good News Translation
and say, ‘We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it.
Literal Translation
And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and shal answere and saie: Oure hades haue not shed this bloude, nether haue oure eyes sene it.
American Standard Version
and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Bible in Basic English
Will say, This death is not the work of our hands and our eyes have not seen it.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And shall aunswere, and say: Our handes haue not shed this blood, neither haue our eyes seene it.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they shall speak and say: 'Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
King James Version (1611)
And they shall answere, and say, Our hands haue not shedde this blood, neither haue our eyes seene it.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it.
English Revised Version
and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Berean Standard Bible
and they shall declare, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and thei schulen seie, Oure hondis schedden not out this blood, nether oure iyen sien.
Young's Literal Translation
and they have answered and said, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen --
Update Bible Version
and they shall answer and say, Our hands haven't shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Webster's Bible Translation
And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen [it].
World English Bible
and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
New King James Version
Then they shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.
New Living Translation
Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person's blood, nor did we see it happen.
New Life Bible
Then they will say, ‘Our hands have not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it.
New Revised Standard
and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and shall respond, and say, - Our hands, shed not this blood, neither did, our eyes, see the deed .
Douay-Rheims Bible
And shall say: Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Revised Standard Version
and they shall testify, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see it shed.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
and they shall answer and say, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.

Contextual Overview

1“If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities. 3The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work. 4The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream. 5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. 6All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken. 7They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it. 8Lord, wipe away the guilt of your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then the responsibility for bloodshed will be wiped away from them. 9You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 5:19-28, 2 Samuel 16:8, Job 21:21-23, Job 21:31-34, Psalms 7:3, Psalms 7:4

Reciprocal: Matthew 5:21 - and Matthew 23:35 - upon Matthew 27:24 - and washed

Cross-References

Genesis 21:11
This was very distressing to Abraham because of his son.
Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac,
Genesis 21:32
After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:34
And Abraham lived as an alien in the land of the Philistines for many days.
Numbers 23:23
There is no magic curse against Jacoband no divination against Israel.It will now be said about Jacob and Israel,“What great things God has done!”
Psalms 86:8
Lord, there is no one like you among the gods,and there are no works like yours.
Psalms 86:10
For you are great and perform wonders;you alone are God.
Isaiah 49:21
Then you will say within yourself,‘Who fathered these for me?I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,exiled and wandering—but who brought them up?See, I was left by myself—but these, where did they come from?’”
Isaiah 66:8
Who has heard of such a thing?Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one dayor a nation be delivered in an instant?Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,she gave birth to her sons.
Ephesians 3:10
This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they shall answer and say,.... The elders of the city, at the time of the washing of their hands:

our hands have not shed this blood; have been no ways concerned in it, nor accessory to it: the Targum of Jonathan is,

"it is manifest before the Lord that he did not come into our hands, nor did we dismiss him, that has shed this blood;''

which is more fully explained in the Misnah y; for had they been aware of him, or had any suspicion of him or his design, they would have detained him, or at least would not have suffered him to have departed alone:

neither have our eyes seen; it, or him; so the Targum of Jerusalem,

"our eyes have not seen him that hath shed this blood;''

by which expression is meant, that they had no manner of knowledge of the murderer, nor of any circumstance that could lead them to suspect or conclude who he was.

y Ut supra, (Sotah. c. 9.) sect. 6.


 
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