Life, family and justice
Deuteronomy · Draft · BSB
Content revision: ff1b43df159ba941 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. 1406 BC · Year 40, month 11 (Deuteronomy 1:3). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1 (the Exodus c. 1446 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC, placing these speeches about 1220 BC.
When a murder victim is found and no one knows who did it, the elders of the nearest town must make atonement so that innocent blood is not left on the land. The chapter protects a captive woman taken as a wife and the inheritance of the firstborn son of an unloved wife, deals with a stubborn and rebellious son, and requires that the body of an executed man hung on a tree be buried the same day, for he is under God’s curse.
Deuteronomy records Moses’ last speeches to the new generation of Israel on the plains of Moab, in the fortieth year after the Exodus (1:3). It looks back over the journey from Egypt and Horeb and forward to life in the land, calling Israel to love the LORD and remember what he has done. Each section below lists what Moses recalls, with links to those events on the timeline, and where the rest of Scripture takes up the passage.
The Ten Commandments, the great commandment, and the statutes for life in the land, ending with blessings and curses (4:44–28:68).
Primary Scripture
21:1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
21:2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.
21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work,
21:4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.
21:5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.
21:6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken,
21:7 and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
21:8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.
21:9 So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
21:10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,
21:11 if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,
21:12 then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,
21:13 and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
21:14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
21:15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,
21:16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.
21:17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.
21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,
21:19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,
21:20 and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”
21:21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
21:22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Where Scripture takes it up
Paul: Christ became a curse for us, hung on a tree.
The bodies are not left on the crosses.
Location evidence
Plains of Moab: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.64, 31.85]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.56,31.77],[35.7,31.91]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Numbers 33:48–49 · extent of the camp
For the class
How does Paul use Deuteronomy 21:23 to explain the cross?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial
Study guide: original editorial writing for Scripture Atlas.
Place coordinates: OpenBible.info, CC BY 4.0.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm