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Deuteronomy 21:4

in Deuteronomy 21

bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto 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:

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This verse in Deuteronomy 21

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley - נחל איתן nachal eythan might be translated a rapid stream, probably passing through a piece of uncultivated ground where the elders of the city were to strike off the head of the heifer, and to wash their hands over her in token of their innocence. The spot of ground on which this sacrifice was made must be uncultivated, because it was considered to be a sacrifice to make atonement for the murder, and consequently would pollute the land.

This site's exposition

If one be found slain

on Deuteronomy 21:1-5

An unsolved killing leaves guilt on the land itself, and the town measured nearest to the body is the town that answers for it. The heifer is one that has never been worked and never drawn in a yoke, and its neck is struck off in a valley that has never been ploughed or sown, so nothing in the rite has been put to human use before. Albert Barnes notes that the heifer is not called a sin offering and that its blood is never brought to an altar, which makes the transaction figurative rather than sacrificial. Standing behind it is Genesis 9:5, where God requires the blood of a man at the hand of every man, so a death that no court can trace still has to be answered by somebody.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

And the Jews say that unless, after this, the murderer was found out, this valley where the heifer was killed was never to be tilled nor sown. (4.) The elders were to wash their hands in water over the heifer that was killed, and to profess, not only that they had not shed this innocent blood themselves, but that they knew not who had (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley,.... Cities being generally built on hills, and so had adjacent valleys, to which there was a descent; but here a rough valley, or the rougher part of it, was selected for this purpose.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

According to Jewish writers, the Sanhedrin, taking charge of such a case, sent a deputation to examine the neighborhood. They reported to the nearest town to the spot where the body was found. An order was then issued by their supreme authority to the elders or magistrates of that town, to provide the heifer at the civic expense and go through the appointed ceremonial.
Eared - i. e., plowed; compare Gen 45:6 note and references. The word is derived from the Latin, and is in frequent use by English writers of the fifteenth and two following centuries. Strike off the heifer’s neck - Rather, “break its neck” (compare Exo 13:13). The mode of killing the victim distinguishes this lustration from the sin-offering, in which there would be of course shedding and sprinkling of the blood.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְהוֹרִ֡דוּand they will bring down

    vehoriduH3381 →381 times

  • זִקְנֵי֩[the] elders of

    zikneiH2205 →178 times

  • הָעִ֨ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • הַהִ֤וא<the> that

    hahiv'H1931 →1879 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הָֽעֶגְלָה֙the heifer

    haeglahH5697 →14 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • נַ֣חַלa wadi

    nachalH5158 →141 times

  • אֵיתָ֔ןever-flowing

    ʾeitanH386 →

  • אֲשֶׁ֛רwhich

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יֵעָבֵ֥דit is tilled

    yeavedH5647 →288 times

  • בּ֖וֹin <the> it

    bo

  • וְלֹ֣אand not

    velo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יִזָּרֵ֑עַit is sown

    yizarea'H2232 →56 times

  • וְעָֽרְפוּ־and they will break [the] neck of

    vearefu-H6202 →

  • שָׁ֥םthere

    shamH8033 →834 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הָעֶגְלָ֖הthe heifer

    haeglahH5697 →14 times

  • בַּנָּֽחַל׃in the wadi

    banachalH5158 →141 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

5 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Exodus 34:21Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.4 works1 Peter 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:2 works1 Peter 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,2 worksGenesis 45:6For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.2 worksIsaiah 30:24The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.1 works

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Peter 3:18

    For 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,

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 9:28

      so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

    • Hebrews 9:26

      Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by…

    • 2 Corinthians 5:21

      God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

    • 1 Peter 4:6

      That is why the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

    • Titus 2:14

      He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 21 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 21 →