John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 21

If one be found slain
After public war with an enemy, Moses proceeds to speak of a private quarrel and fight of one man with another, in which one is slain, as Aben Ezra observes:

in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess it; where murders might be committed more secretly, and remain undiscovered, when they came to live in separate cities, towns, and villages, with fields adjacent to them, than now encamped together:

lying in the field; where the quarrel began, and where the fight was fought: or, however, where the murderer met with his enemy, and slew him, and left him; it being common for duels to be fought, and murders committed in a field; the first murder in the world was committed in such a place, (Genesis 4:8). The Targum of Jonathan is, "not hidden under a heap, not hanging on a tree, nor swimming on the face of the waters;" which same things are observed in the Misnah ^F9, and gathered from some words in the text: in the land, and so not under a heap; lying, and so not hanging; in the field, and so not swimming on the water:

and it be not known who has slain him; the parties being alone, and no witnesses of the fact, at least that appear; for, if it was known, the heifer was not beheaded, later mentioned ^F11; and one witness in this case was sufficient, and even one that was not otherwise admitted.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Sotah, c. 9. sect. 2.
• F11: Maimon. Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 9. sect. 11, 12.

Then your elders and your judges shall come forth
From the city or cities near to which the murder was committed, to make inquiry about it, and expiation for it; so Aben Ezra interprets it of the elders of the cities near, but others understand it of the elders of the great sanhedrim at Jerusalem; so the Targum of Jonathan, ``then shall go out from the great sanhedrim two of your wise men, and three of your judges;'' and more expressly the Misnah <sup>F12</sup> , ``three go out from the great sanhedrim in Jerusalem;'' R. Judah says five, ``it is said "your elders" two, and "your judges" two,'' and there is no sanhedrim or court of judicature equal (or even), therefore they add to them one more:

and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that
is slain ;
that is, from the place where the slain lies, as Jarchi rightly interprets it; on all sides of it, from the four corner's, as the Targum of Jonathan, the cities round about the slain. Maimonides ^F13 says, they do not behead the heifer for, nor measure, but to a city in which there is a sanhedrim:

if it is found between two cities (that is, at an equal distance), both bring two heifers (Maimonides ^F14 says they bring one between them, which is most reasonable); but the city of Jerusalem does not bring an heifer to be beheaded: the reason is, because it was not divided to the tribes ^F15 .

This measuring, one would think, should be only necessary when it was not certain which was the nearest city; and yet Maimonides ^F16 says, even when it was found on the side of a city, which was certainly known to be nearest, they measured; the command, he observes, is to measure.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: Sotah, c. 9. sect. 1.
• F13: Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 9. sect. 4.
• F14: Ib. sect. 8.
• F15: Maimon Hilchot Rotzeachs, c. 9. sect. 8.
• F16: lb. c. 9. sect. 1.

And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain
man
And so suspected, as the Targum of Jonathan, of the murder; or the murderer is in it, or however belonged to it:

even the elders of the city shall take an heifer ;
of a year old, as the same Targum, and so Jarchi; and in this the Jewish writers agree, that it must be a year old, but not two; though heifers of three years old were sometimes used in sacrifice, (Genesis 15:9) a type of Christ, in his strength, laboriousness, and patience; see (Numbers 19:2)

which has not been wrought with ;
in ploughing land, or treading out corn:

and which has not drawn in the yoke ,
which never had any yoke put upon it; or however, if attempted to be put upon it, it would not come under it, and draw with it: no mention is made, as usual, that it should be without blemish: because though in some sense expiatory, yet was not properly a sacrifice, it not being slain and offered where sacrifices were; hence it is said in the Misnah ^F17, that a blemish in it did not make it rejected, or unlawful for use:

Nevertheless, this heifer may be a type of Christ, whose sufferings, bloodshed, and death, atone for secret and unknown sins, as well as for open and manifest ones, even for all sin; and its being free from labour, and without a yoke, may signify the freedom of Christ from the yoke of sin, and the service of it, and from human traditions; that he was not obliged to any toil and labour he had been concerned in, or to bear the yoke of the law, had he not voluntarily undertaken it of himself; and that he expiated the sins of such who were sons of Belial, children without a yoke; and for the same reason, this heifer not being required to be without blemish, might be because Christ, though he had no sin of his own, was made sin for his people, and reckoned as if he had been a sinner; though indeed, had this been the design of the type, all the sacrifices which typified Christ would not have required such a qualification, to be without blemish, as they did.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17:
  Ut supra, (Sotah, c. 9.) sect. 5.

The elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to 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, or the rougher part of it, was selected for this purpose. As a valley is low, and this a rough one, it may be an emblem of Christ's being brought into this lower world, from heaven to earth, to do the will of his Father, which was to work out the salvation of his people; and of his coming into the lower parts of the earth, the womb of the virgin, at his incarnation, and to the grave at his death, (Psalms 139:15) (Ephesians 4:9) , and of the low estate he came into by the assumption of human nature; through appearing in the form of a servant, being in indigent circumstances, and ministered to by others, and needing the assistance of angels in the wilderness and garden, by which it appeared he was made lower than they; by his being despised of men, and forsaken by his Father; all which are proofs of the low estate he was brought into, fitly signified by a valley, and which was a rough valley to him; in which he was roughly treated, his life being sought after in his infancy by Herod, which obliged the flight of his parents with him into Egypt; and being not received, but rejected by his own, as the King Messiah, whom they would not have to reign over them, and loaded with opprobrious names by them; and who often sought and attempted by various ways to take away his life; and when apprehended and examined before the high priest, and in Pilate's hall, was used in the rudest manner, being spit upon, buffeted, and scourged; and when led out to be crucified, was treated in the most barbarous and scornful manner, and was put to death in the most painful and shameful way; and, above all, was severely handled by the justice of God, being numbered among the transgressors, when the sword of justice was awaked against him, and he was not in the least spared, but wrath came upon him to the uttermost for the sins of his people; so that this world he was brought into proved a rough valley indeed to him.

This some take to be an emblem of the hard heart of the murderer who had committed such a barbarous and cruel action as to kill a man; or of the hard heart of a sinner, into which Christ is brought through the ministry of the word; or of the infamous place, Calvary, where Christ was brought to suffer death; but the former is best. Some interpret it, a "strong stream" {q}, or "rapid torrent"; so Maimonides ^F18 and others; and indeed in valleys there are generally streams or brooks of water, but this seems not so well to agree with what follows:

which is neither cared nor sown ;
that is, neither ploughed nor sown, but quite an uncultivated place; and this the Jews understand not of what it had been, or then was, but what it should be hereafter; that from thenceforward it should never be manured, but lie barren and useless; so it is said in the Misnah ^F19 , the place is forbidden sowing or tilling, but is free to dress flax in, or to dig stones out of it: so R. Joseph Kimchi ^F20 interprets this of a fat and fruitful valley, which was not to be tilled nor sown from thenceforward; the reason of which he thinks was, that they might be the more careful of their countries and borders, and how they encouraged bloody minded men to dwell among them; that no slain person might be found there, and so they lose a choice part of their possessions; and to the same purpose Maimonities ^F21 : and this became true of the fruitful land of Judea and Jerusalem, after the sufferings and death of Christ there, (Luke 21:24)

and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley ;
with an axe, on the back part of it, in the midst of the valley, as the Targum of Jonathan, and the same is said in the Misnah ^F23 : in this it was a type of Christ, who was put to death at the instigation of the elders of the Jewish nation, (Matthew 27:1Matthew 27:12Matthew 27:20) and without the gates of Jerusalem at Golgotha; see (Hebrews 13:11–13) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 9. sect. 2, so Abarbinel in Muis. & Ben Melech.
• F19: Ut supra. (Sotah, c. 9. sect. 5.)
• F20: Apud D. Kimchi, Sepher Shorash, rad. (xya)
• F21: Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 40.
• F23: Ut supra. (Sotah, c. 9. sect. 5.)

And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near
Who were clearly of the tribe of Levi, as Aben Ezra notes; about whom there could be no dispute; for it seems there sometimes were persons in that office, of whom there was some doubt at least whether they were of that tribe; these seem to be such that belonged to the court of judicature at Jerusalem; see (Deuteronomy 17:9) , who were to be present at this solemnity, to direct in the performance of it, and to judge and determine in any matter of difficulty that might arise:

for them the Lord your God has chosen to minister unto him ;
in the service of the sanctuary, by offering sacrifices

and to bless in the name of the Lord ;
the people; see (Numbers 6:23–27)

and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried ;
every controversy between man and man respecting civil things, and every stroke or blow which one man may give another; and whatsoever came before them was tried by them, according to the respective laws given concerning the things in question, and were not determined by them in an arbitrary way, according to their own will and pleasure; see (Deuteronomy 17:8–11) .