If someone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him;
Parallel translations
- KJV If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him:
- BSB If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
- NKJV “If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
- NASB “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who struck him,
- NLT “When you are in the land the Lord your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If a murder victim is found in the open and the killer is unknown, special procedures apply. God's law addresses even unsolved bloodshed.
Overview
This case concerns a slain body discovered in the countryside with no known culprit. Rather than ignoring such bloodshed, the law requires action to address the guilt of innocent blood. It shows God's deep concern for the value of human life and the defilement that unavenged blood brings upon the land.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 26:21For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
- Ps 5:6You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
- Ps 9:12For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- Acts 28:4When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.”
- Prov 28:17A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 21:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.