Deuteronomy 21:2

THE MESSAGE

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.

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

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

¹If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground that God , your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him, your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities. The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it. The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer. The Levitical priests will then step up. God has chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings in God 's name. Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream and say, "We didn't kill this man and we didn't see who did it. Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God . Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder." That will clear them from any responsibility in the murder. By following these procedures you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right in God 's sight. When you go to war against your enemies and God , your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners, and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry, this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails, and discard the clothes she was wearing when captured. She is then to stay in your home for a full month, mourning her father and mother. Then you may go to bed with her as husband and wife. If it turns out you don't like her, you must let her go and live wherever she wishes. But you can't sell her or use her as a slave since you've humiliated her. When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him. When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won't do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won't obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, "This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won't listen to a thing we say. He's a glutton and a drunk." Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he's dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what's happened and be in awe. When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree, don't leave his dead body hanging overnight from the tree. Give him a decent burial that same day so that you don't desecrate your God -given land—a hanged man is an insult to God. ⁹ If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground that God , your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him, your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities. The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it. The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer. The Levitical priests will then step up. God has chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings in God 's name. Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream and say, "We didn't kill this man and we didn't see who did it. Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God . Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder." That will clear them from any responsibility in the murder. By following these procedures you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right in God 's sight.

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
But God said, "That's not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I'll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever.

Genesis 18:10
One of them said, "I'm coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son." Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man.

Genesis 21:17
Meanwhile, God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called from Heaven to Hagar, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy and knows the fix he's in. Up now; go get the boy. Hold him tight. I'm going to make of him a great nation."

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

Genesis 21:25
At the same time, Abraham confronted Abimelech over the matter of a well of water that Abimelech's servants had taken. Abimelech said, "I have no idea who did this; you never told me about it; this is the first I've heard of it."

Luke 1:36
"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. Then the angel left her.

Acts 7:8
"Then he made a covenant with him and signed it in Abraham's flesh by circumcision. When Abraham had his son Isaac, within eight days he reproduced the sign of circumcision in him. Isaac became father of Jacob, and Jacob father of twelve ‘fathers,' each faithfully passing on the covenant sign.

Hebrews 11:11
By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

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.