Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Twenty-first
God commands a secret homicide to be expiated by the slaying of a heifer, and by the protestation of the magistrates of their innocence. Secondly, vers. 10, a captive woman who is to be taken to wife is commanded to shave her hair and pare her nails. Thirdly, vers. 15, to the son of the hated wife, if he be the firstborn, the rights of the firstborn are commanded to be assigned. Fourthly, vers. 18, a stubborn and ruined son is commanded to be stoned. Fifthly, vers. 22, the bodies of those hanged are commanded to be buried the same day, because he is accursed that hangeth on a tree.
1. When there shall be found in the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, the body of a man slain, and it is not known who is guilty of the murder, 2. thy ancients and judges shall go out, and shall measure from the place where the body lieth the distance of each of the neighbouring cities: 3. and the ancients of that city which they shall perceive to be nearer than the rest, shall take a heifer out of the herd, that hath not drawn in the yoke, nor ploughed the ground, 4. and they shall bring her into a rough and stony valley, which never was ploughed, nor sown; and there they shall strike off the head of the heifer; 5. and the priests the sons of Levi shall come, whom the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister to him, and to bless in his name, and by their word every matter, and whatsoever is clean or unclean, shall be judged. 6. And the ancients of that city shall come to the slain man, and shall wash their hands over the heifer that was killed in the valley, 7. and shall say: Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8. Be merciful to thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, O Lord, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of thy people Israel. And the guilt of blood shall be taken away from them: 9. but thou shalt be free from the innocent blood that is shed, when thou shalt have done what the Lord commanded thee. 10. If thou go out to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God deliver them into thy hand, and thou lead them away captives, 11. and see in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and love her, and wilt have her to wife, 12. thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails, 13. and shall put off the garment in which she was taken: and sitting in thy house, shall mourn for her father and mother one month: and afterwards thou shalt go in unto her, and shalt sleep with her, and she shall be thy wife. 14. But if afterwards she please not thy mind, thou shalt let her go free, but thou shalt not be able to sell her for money, nor oppress her by might: because thou hast humbled her. 15. If a man have two wives, one beloved, and the other hated, and they have had children by him, and the son of the hated be the firstborn, 16. and he wish to divide his substance among his sons, he cannot make the son of the beloved the firstborn, and prefer him before the son of the hated; 17. but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, and shall give him a double portion of all he hath: for this is the first of his children, and to him are due the firstborn rights. 18. If a man have a stubborn and unruly son, who will not hear the commandment of his father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth to obey: 19. they shall take him and bring him to the ancients of that city, and to the gate of judgment, 20. and shall say to them: This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth to hearken to our admonitions, he despiseth to hearken to our admonitions, giveth himself to revelling, and to luxury and banquetings: 21. the people of the city shall stone him; and he shall die, that you may take away the evil from the midst of you, and all Israel hearing it may be afraid. 22. When a man hath committed a crime that is punishable by death, and being condemned to die is hanged on a gibbet, 23. his body shall not remain upon the tree, but shall be buried the same day: for he is accursed of God that hangeth on a tree: and thou shalt not defile thy land, which the Lord thy God shall give thee in possession.
2. THEY SHALL MEASURE FROM THE PLACE OF THE CORPSE,—they shall reckon how many miles or paces the place of the corpse is distant from each of the neighbouring cities.
Note, the corpse is here assigned to the nearest city, because on it, rather than on others, falls the presumption that someone of it committed the murder. Hence the ancients of that city are commanded, vers. 7, with the victim, to clear themselves by public protestation from the crime and from the vengeance of the crime, as of which they know not the author, that in this way they may avert the wrath of God both from themselves and from their people.
3. THE ANCIENTS OF THAT CITY (which is nearer to the corpse) SHALL TAKE A HEIFER OUT OF THE HERD, THAT HATH NOT DRAWN IN THE YOKE,—which, namely, being strong and not broken by the labour of drawing the cart or the plough, bears the symbol and type of the innocence of him who was slain.
4. AND THEY SHALL BRING HER INTO A ROUGH AND STONY VALLEY.—Rabbi Joseph Kimchi thinks that this valley is called rough, stony and uncultivated by prolepsis: because, namely, it was to be such. For that place was rendered sacred and accursed by the flesh of this piacular heifer, scattered in it and there rotting, so that it was not lawful to sow or till it: for the uncultivated place was not always chosen, but the very spot where the corpse had fallen. But this opinion clearly conflicts with the words of Scripture, for it says: “And they shall bring her into a rough and stony valley, which never was ploughed nor sown”; which words plainly signify what this valley is and was, not what it is to be.
This heifer, therefore, was to be slain in a rough valley, because this is a symbol of the horror of homicide. For all this was commanded by God to terrify that rude people, and to deter them from homicide, by this outward pomp, as it were, of sadness and funeral, and by the expiatory victim of homicide, to which, since the author was hidden, the whole community seemed to be liable, as one that bore such a member within itself, and had not watched sufficiently over its flock.
Allegorically, the rough valley is the place of Calvary, where Christ was crucified.
There was another utility also of this law and ceremony; for this public expiation had to be preceded by the utmost diligence in inquiring after the author of the crime, that the magistrate might satisfy the people; at the same time the magistrate was admonished to watch, to pursue and punish the guilty, lest the fault of one should provoke the wrath of God against the whole assembly of Israel, as is said in dist. xlv, canon xviii.
Lastly, the third cause of this sanction was that the author of the crime, if he were among them, might be betrayed.