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Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse[a] must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked—that has never pulled with the yoke—

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 21:3 tn Heb “slain [one].”

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.

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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.