Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Unsolved Murder
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
1 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, · WEB
When a killer cannot be found, the nearest town is made to act, and its elders must say aloud that they did not do it.
A body is found in open country and nobody knows who killed him Deuteronomy 21:1. In most legal systems the case simply closes. Here it does not.
The first step is measurement. The elders and judges shall measure to the cities which are around him Deuteronomy 21:2, and the nearest town becomes responsible. Not guilty — responsible. Someone has to answer for a death on the land, and proximity decides who.
The rite is unusual and every detail of it is chosen. A heifer which hasn't been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke Deuteronomy 21:3; a valley with running water which is neither plowed nor sown Deuteronomy 21:4. An animal that has never been used, in ground that has never been used. Nothing about the scene has been put to any other purpose.
The elders then wash their hands over the animal and make a declaration: our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it Deuteronomy 21:7.
That is a formal denial, sworn by the leaders of the community, and the second half of it is the harder claim. They did not do it, and they did not witness it — which is also a statement that nothing is being concealed. In a small country, the men most likely to know something are exactly these men, and they are put on record.
What they ask for is not a solution but forgiveness: forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood among your people Deuteronomy 21:8.
The assumption underneath the whole procedure is that an unavenged death does something to the country. Blood cries from the ground Genesis 4:10, and a killing nobody answers for leaves a stain that no amount of not knowing removes. So the law refuses to let an unsolved crime become nobody's business.
And the outcome is stated plainly: the blood shall be forgiven them. A community that will not shrug is cleared.
settled What this mark means