bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.
Parallel translations
- WEB The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
- KJV And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:
- NKJV The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
- NASB and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
- NLT They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck.
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
The elders break the heifer's neck in an uncultivated valley with running water. The rite symbolically addressed the guilt of unavenged blood.
Overview
In an untilled valley with a flowing stream, the heifer's neck was broken, a vivid act dealing with the shed blood. The desolate, unworked place and running water pictured the removal of defilement from the community. While not a sacrifice in the ordinary sense, the rite solemnly acknowledged the seriousness of bloodshed and the need for cleansing, ultimately fulfilled in Christ's atoning blood.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- 1 Pet 2:21–24For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:
- 1 Pet 3:18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
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 21:4 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
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