Show Bible Commentary For A Bible Verse

Click here to show/hide instructions.

Selected Verse: Deuteronomy 21:3 - King James

Verse         Translation Text
De 21:3 King James And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

Open All | Close All Open All | Close All
 
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
The requirements as regards place and victim are symbolic. The heifer represented the murderer, so far at least as to die in his stead, since he himself could not be found. As hearing his guilt the heifer must therefore be one which was of full growth and strength, and had not yet been ceremonially profaned by human use. The Christian commentators find here a type of Christ and of His sacrifice for man: but the heifer was not strictly a sacrifice or sin-offering. The transaction was rather figurative, and was so ordered as to impress the lesson of Gen 9:5.
 
Top
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.