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Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary

Deuteronomy 21:4

Neither eared nor sown; partly to represent the hard and unprofitable and untutored heart of the murderer; and partly that such a desert and horrid place might beget a horror of murder and of the murderer. Strike off the heifer's neck, to show what they would and should have done to the murderer if they had found him.

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See also Deuteronomy 21:4 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Deuteronomy 21:4. _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...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    EARED - i. e., plowed; compare Genesis 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...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    17. THE EXPIATION OF AN UNCERTAIN MURDER AND VARIOUS INSTRUCTIONS CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The expiation of an unknown murder (Deuteronomy 21:1)_ 2. Concerning a wife, who had been a prisoner of war (Deuter...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    See W. R. Smith, _Kinship_ 1 p. 263 (= 64f. in _Kinship_ 2) for a similar law among the ancient Arabs. The ground of this law may be the belief that, until avenged or atoned for, a murdered man's bloo...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    ROUGH VALLEY. ravine, or rough gully. EARED. ploughed. Old English idiom. STRIKE OFF. behead, or break the neck....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _the elders of that city_ Luc. omits. _a valley with running water_ i.e. with a perennial brook, cp. Amos 5:24 (and see Driver's note here). The running water is usually explained as meant to carry of...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    _VER._ 4. _UNTO A ROUGH VALLEY,_ &C.— _Unto a watered valley._ Schult, p. 248. The heifer was to be brought into an uncultivated ground, (probably with a brook running through it, as _the elders_ are...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    (b) Expiation for an Unknown Murderer's Crime (Deuteronomy 21:1-9) If one be found slain in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath s...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _THEN THY ELDERS AND THY JUDGES SHALL COME FORTH, AND THEY SHALL MEASURE UNTO THE CITIES WHICH ARE ROUND ABOUT HIM THAT IS SLAIN:_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    21:4 watercourse, (a-15) watercourse; (a-33) Or 'valley,' ch. 2.13....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    EXPIATION OF UNDETECTED HOMICIDE. MARRIAGE OF CAPTIVE WOMEN. PUNISHMENT OF A REBELLIOUS SON The last sub-section of the Second Discourse begins here, containing a variety of social and domestic regul...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    For ROUGH VALLEY read 'valley with running water,' and for STRIKE OFF THE HEIFER'S NECK read 'break the heifer's neck.' EARED means 'ploughed' as in Exodus 34:21. The proper satisfaction for the crime...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    DEUTERONOMY: GOD’S LAW OF LOVE LOVE AND OBEY THE *LORD YOUR GOD DEUTERONOMY _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 21 V1 ‘Suppose that there has been a murder. Then someone finds the dead body in a field. It is...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    XXI. Deuteronomy 21:1. UNDETECTED HOMICIDES. (1) IF ONE BE FOUND SLAIN — It is remarkable that _in_ our own time the most effectual remedy against outrages of which the perpetrators cannot be discov...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ הֹורִ֡דוּ זִקְנֵי֩ הָ עִ֨יר הַ הִ֤וא

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF ISRAELITE LIFE IT has often and justly been said that the life of Israel is so entirely founded on the grace and favor of God that no distinction is made between the secular an...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Sundry laws affecting the life of the people in the land after the conquest were now uttered. The sin of murder was once again dealt with. This time it was the murder of a person which could not be tr...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough (b) valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley: (b) That the blood shed o...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Valley. In such places murders are most frequently perpetrated. Hebrew may signify, "a desert," deep or inaccessible torrent, (Haydock) on the side of which the heifer was to be slain, and its body wa...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    I pause at these verses to remark the particularity of feature in the beast, which was doomed as a victim on this occasion; that it must be one which hath not been wrought with. Is not this typical of...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    It is clear that a new division of the statutes and judgments of this book begins with the later verses just read from Deuteronomy 16:1-22. What belonged to the religious life of Israel was closed wit...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 19, 20, AND 21. Chapter 19 opens with ordinances which contemplate the people in possession and enjoyment of the land; they were to observe them, that the la...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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,...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    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: Ver. 4. _Which is neither ear...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Unto a rough valley_ The Hebrew word נחל, _nachal_, here used, signifies either a valley or a torrent; and most probably is here meant of a valley with a brook running through it. For (Deu 21:6) the...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The expiation of an vncertaine murder. 10 The vsage of a captiue taken to wife. 15 The first borne is not to be disinherited vpon priuate affection. 18 A stubburne sonne is to bee stoned to death...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    and the elders of that city, not merely because some citizen of their town would be suspected of the crime, but because blood-guiltiness was upon Israel generally, and therefore especially upon the pl...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE CASE OF AN UNKNOWN MURDER...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    UNSOLVED MURDER (vs.1-9) If one was killed and his body found removed from any city or town, the murderer being unknown, then elders and judges of Israel were required to ascertain what was the near...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-9 If a murderer could not be found out, great solemnity is provided for putting away the guilt from the land, as an expression of dread and detesting of that sin. The providence of God has often wo...

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    "If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him; then _ thy elders_ and _ thy judges"_ the guardians of...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Deuteronomy 21:4 elders H2205 city H5892 bring H3381 (H8689) heifer H5697 valley H5158 water H386 plowed H5647

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    REGULATION CONCERNING VIOLENT DEATH WHERE THE MURDERER IS NOT KNOWN (DEUTERONOMY 21:1). While for convenience we are splitting up Moses' speech into parts it should be noted that it is our arrangement...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Inquest for the slain. Domestic regulations. CHARACTERS: God, Moses. CONCLUSION: We are to have a dread of the guilt of blood, which defiles not only the conscience of the murderer but the...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Deuteronomy 21:4. _A rough valley._ The guilt being transferred to the heifer, the slaying it in a cultivated field would have polluted the ground. The Hebrew altar allowed of no victim to be offered...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _If one be found slain._ GOD’S VALUE OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE “This narrative,” says one, “sets forth the preciousness of human life in the sight of God.” Dr. Jamieson believes this singular statute conce...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    DEUTERONOMY—NOTE ON DEUTERONOMY 21:4 The HEIFER’S death atones for sin committed by an unknown person. ⇐...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.—The reason for grouping these five laws, apparently so different from one another, as well as for attaching them to the previous regulations is found in the desire to bring out distinc...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION EXPIATION OF UNCERTAIN MURDER. TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. RIGHTS OF THE FIRSTBORN. A REBELLIOUS, REFRACTORY SON TO BE JUD

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now in the 21st chapter. If you find a dead body out in the field and you don't know the circumstances of the death; here's a man; he's dead in the field. Then they are to measure from that dead body...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Peter 2:21; 1 Peter 3:18...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    A rough valley — That such a desert and horrid place might beget an horror of murder and of the murderer. Strike off the neck — To shew what they would and should have done to the murderer if they had...

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