Lectionary Calendar
Monday, September 1st, 2025
the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Deuteronomy 21:2

then your elderly and yours [of those] judging have gone out and measured to the cities which [are] around the slain one,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

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

Dictionaries:

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

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Heifer;   Heifer, Red;   Homicide;   Joshua (2);   Prayer;   Salvation;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ablution;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abrogation of Laws;   Charity and Charitable Institutions;   Elder;   Eleazar B. Dinai;   Government;   Homicide;   Judge;   Nashim;   Saul;   Soá¹­ah;   Teḥina, Abba;  

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

1"When one is found slain, fallen in a field on the ground which your God YHWH is giving to you to possess it, [and] it is not known who has struck him, 2then your elderly and yours [of those] judging have gone out and measured to the cities which [are] around the slain one,3and it has been, the city which [is] near to the slain one, even [the] elderly of that city have taken a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with, which has not drawn in a yoke, 4and [the] elderly of that city have brought down the heifer to a hard valley, which is not tilled nor sown, and have beheaded the heifer there in the valley. 5And the priests, sons of Levi, have come near—for your God YHWH has fixed on them to serve Him and to bless in the Name of YHWH, and by their mouth is every strife and every stroke— 6and all [the] elderly of that city, who are near to the slain one, wash their hands over the heifer which is beheaded in the valley, 7and they have answered and said, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen— 8receive atonement for Your people Israel, whom You have ransomed, O YHWH, and do not permit innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel; and the blood has been pardoned to them, 9and you put away the innocent blood out of your midst, for you do that which [is] right in the eyes of YHWH.

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
and God says, "Your wife Sarah is certainly bearing a son to you, and you have called his name Isaac, and I have established My covenant with him, for a perpetual covenant, to his seed after him.
Genesis 17:21
and My covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah does bear to you at this appointed time in the next year";
Genesis 18:10
and He says, "Returning I return to you, about the time of life, and behold, to Sarah your wife a son." And Sarah is listening at the opening of the tent, which is behind him;
Genesis 18:14
Is anything too wonderful for YHWH? At the appointed time I return to you, about the time of life, and Sarah has a son."
Genesis 21:16
And she goes and sits by herself opposite [him], far off, about a bow-shot, for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the boy"; and she sits opposite [him], and lifts up her voice, and weeps.
Genesis 21:17
And God hears the voice of the youth; and the messenger of God calls to Hagar from the heavens and says to her, "What to you, Hagar? Do not fear; for God has listened to the voice of the youth where he [is];
Genesis 21:24
And Abraham says, "I swear."
Genesis 21:25
And Abraham reasoned with Abimelech concerning the matter of a well of water which Abimelech's servants have violently taken away,
Luke 1:36
and behold, Elizabeth, your relative, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her who was called barren;
Acts 7:8
And He gave to him a covenant of circumcision, and so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac [begot] Jacob, and Jacob—the twelve patriarchs;

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.


 
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