Deuteronomy 21:1

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder If a homicide victim should be found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you, and no one knows who killed him,

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Ps 5:6 : 6 You destroy liars; the LORD despises violent and deceitful people.
  • Ps 9:12 : 12 For the one who takes revenge against murderers took notice of the oppressed; he did not overlook their cry for help
  • Prov 28:17 : 17 The one who is tormented by the murder of another will flee to the pit; let no one support him.
  • Isa 26:21 : 21 For look, the LORD is coming out of the place where he lives, to punish the sin of those who live on the earth. The earth will display the blood shed on it; it will no longer cover up its slain.
  • Acts 28:4 : 4 When the local people saw the creature hanging from Paul’s hand, they said to one another,“No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself has not allowed him to live!”

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Deut 21:2-4
    3 verses
    86%

    2your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse.

    3Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked– that has never pulled with the yoke–

    4and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck.

  • Exod 21:12-14
    3 verses
    76%

    12Personal Injuries“Whoever strikes someone so that he dies must surely be put to death.

    13But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

    14But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

  • Josh 20:9
    75%

    9These were the cities of refuge appointed for all the Israelites and for resident foreigners living among them. Anyone who accidentally killed someone could escape there and not be executed by the avenger of blood, at least until his case was reviewed by the assembly.

  • Deut 19:10-14
    5 verses
    75%

    10You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

    11However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities.

    12The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die.

    13You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

    14Laws Concerning Witnesses You must not encroach on your neighbor’s property, which will have been defined in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

  • Josh 20:3-6
    4 verses
    74%

    3Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood.

    4The one who committed manslaughter should escape to one of these cities, stand at the entrance of the city gate, and present his case to the leaders of that city. They should then bring him into the city, give him a place to stay, and let him live there.

    5When the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand over to him the one who committed manslaughter, for he accidentally killed his fellow man without premeditation.

    6He must remain in that city until his case is decided by the assembly and the high priest dies. Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to the city from which he escaped.”

  • Num 35:26-28
    3 verses
    74%

    26But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled,

    27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood,

    28because the slayer should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions.

  • Deut 19:2-6
    5 verses
    74%

    2you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.

    3You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent of your land that the LORD your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities.

    4Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident.

    5Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself.

    6Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

  • Num 35:11
    74%

    11you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

  • Deut 22:25
    73%

    25But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die.

  • Num 35:19-24
    6 verses
    73%

    19The avenger of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

    20“But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies,

    21or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

    22“But if he strikes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws anything at him unintentionally,

    23or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,

    24then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions.

  • Exod 22:2
    72%

    2“If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him.

  • Deut 21:6
    72%

    6and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

  • Lev 24:21
    72%

    21One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, but one who beats a person to death must be put to death.

  • Deut 4:42
    71%

    42Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe.

  • Exod 22:8
    71%

    8If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges to see whether he has laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods.

  • Num 19:16
    71%

    16And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, or the body of someone who died of natural causes, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days.

  • Exod 22:10
    71%

    10If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is injured or is carried away without anyone seeing it,

  • Num 35:30
    70%

    30“Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony of witnesses, but one witness cannot testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.

  • Deut 22:27
    70%

    27for the man met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

  • Exod 21:35-36
    2 verses
    70%

    35If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds, and they will also divide the dead ox.

    36Or if it is known that the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his.

  • Num 35:15-17
    3 verses
    70%

    15These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the resident foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.

    16“But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

    17If he strikes him by throwing a stone large enough that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

  • Lev 24:17
    70%

    17“‘If a man beats any person to death, he must be put to death.

  • Deut 21:9
    69%

    9In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before the LORD.

  • Exod 21:29
    69%

    29But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, and he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

  • Deut 21:22
    69%

    22Disposition of a Criminal’s Remains If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse on a tree,