^33 (A)So you shall not defile the land in which you live; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except ^(B)by the blood of the one who shed it.

Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[a]possess, and it is not known who struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. ³ And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked ^[b]and has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then ^(A)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and ^[c]violent crime shall be ^[d]settled by them. ⁶ And all the elders of that city ^[e]which is nearest to the person killed shall ^(B)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. ^8 [f]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for ^(C)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be ^[g]forgiven them. ^9 (D)So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁴ and to Jesus, the ^(A)mediator of a new covenant, and to the ^(B)sprinkled blood, which speaks better than ^(C)the blood of Abel.

The Fifth Seal: Martyrs

⁹ When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw ^(A)underneath the ^(B)altar the ^(C)souls of those who had been killed ^(D)because of the word of God, and because of the ^(E)testimony which they had maintained; ¹⁰ and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “^(F)How long, O ^[a](G)Lord, ^(H)holy and true, ^[b]will You refrain from ^(I)judging and avenging our blood on ^(J)those who live on the earth?”