UNROLL
Dawn in a narrow, wild valley: a clear stream runs over pale stones through grass and thistles that have never been plowed, and a small walled town sits far up on a ridge.

The Book of

Deuteronomy 21

A body in a field, a killer no one can name, and a whole town that may not shrug: innocent blood matters to God.

23 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–4Remember the wayFrom Horeb to Moab
  2. 5–11Love the LORDThe heart of the covenant
  3. 12–26Laws for the landWorship, justice, neighborChapter 21
  4. 27–30Blessing and curseChoose life
  5. 31–34Moses' farewellA song, a blessing, a death

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

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, your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

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Moses

and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.”

Deuteronomy 21:7–8

And the bloodshed will be atoned for.

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.

Reflect

Not our business?

No one in the nearest town had seen the killing, yet its elders could not walk away. They had to come out, measure, and stand by the stream to say, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.” Then they prayed for mercy on the whole people. Think of a wrong near you that no one seems to own: in your street, your church, your workplace. Write down what it would look like to care about it rather than shrug.

Marrying a Captive Woman

The law

A captive woman

  1. War

    Captives taken in war

    When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,

  2. If a man wants her as his wife

    if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,

  3. Into his house

    then you shall bring her into your house.

  4. Her mourning

    Head shaved, captive’s garb put aside

    She must shave her head, trim her nails, and put aside the clothing of her captivity.

  5. A full month to mourn, then marriage

    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.

  6. Her protection

    If not pleased: she goes free

    And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes.

  7. Never sold, never a slave

    But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

Evening at a hill-country farmstead: an old father seated at his door watches two grown sons drive two flocks into two stone folds, one flock twice the size of the other.

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, 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.

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.

0:31

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

A Rebellious Son

Morning in the gate passage of a small walled hill town: gray-bearded elders sit on stone benches along both walls, the middle of the passage empty, light from the open gateway behind.

The law

A stubborn and rebellious son

  1. The son

    Defiant, and will not listen

    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,

  2. At the gate

    Both parents bring him to the elders

    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,

  3. Stubborn and rebellious

    and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us.

  4. A glutton and a drunkard

    He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

  5. The sentence

    The men of the city stone him

    Then all the men of his city will stone him to death.

  6. Purge the evil; Israel will fear

    So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Question

Quick question

A man is found slain in a field, and no one knows who killed him. Moses does not let the matter drop.

Who had to answer for the innocent blood when the killer was unknown?

Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, 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.

A lone bare tree on a stony rise at sunset, its branches empty, and below it a low, fresh mound of piled stones.

anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse

Deuteronomy 21:23

Pray

He took the curse

Moses said that “anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” Jesus was hung on a tree, though He had done no wrong, and He bore that curse in the place of sinners. Thank Him in your own words for taking what you deserved. Then thank the Father that His Son’s body was not left on the tree, but buried that same day and raised on the third.

You’ve experienced

Deuteronomy 21

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A verse to carry with you

Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.

Deuteronomy 21:8

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