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Deuteronomy 21:4-6
New English Translation

4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water,[a] to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown.[b] There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 5 Then the Levitical priests[c] will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name,[d] and to decide[e] every judicial verdict[f]) , 6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse[g] must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.[h]

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 21:4 tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.
  2. Deuteronomy 21:4 sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity—of freedom from human contamination.
  3. Deuteronomy 21:5 tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”
  4. Deuteronomy 21:5 tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
  5. Deuteronomy 21:5 tn Heb “by their mouth.”
  6. Deuteronomy 21:5 tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”
  7. Deuteronomy 21:6 tn Heb “slain [one].”
  8. Deuteronomy 21:6 tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.
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