Deuteronomy 21:3

The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder

1 “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,

2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities.

3 And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a ^ayoke.

4 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.

5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for ^athe Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; ^bby their word every controversy and every¹ assault shall be settled.

6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man ^ashall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

7 Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.

8 Provide atonement, O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, ^aand do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.

Commentaries:

John Wesley's Notes

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Deuteronomy 21:3

Which hath not drawn in the yoke - A fit representative of the murderer, in whose stead it was killed, who would not bear the yoke of God's laws. A type also of Christ, who was under the yoke, but what he had voluntarily taken upon himself.

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