Deuteronomy 21:2

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

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

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Deut 16:18-19 : 18 Provision for Justice You must appoint judges and civil servants for each tribe in all your villages that the LORD your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous.
  • Rom 13:3-4 : 3 (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation 4 because it is God’s servant for your well-being. But be afraid if you do wrong because government does not bear the sword for nothing. It is God’s servant to administer punishment on the person who does wrong.

Similar Verses (AI)

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

  • Deut 21:1
    86%

    1Laws 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,

  • Deut 21:3-4
    2 verses
    84%

    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.

  • Deut 21:6-7
    2 verses
    80%

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

    7Then they must proclaim,“Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime.

  • Deut 19:10-14
    5 verses
    79%

    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.

  • Num 35:19-29
    11 verses
    77%

    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.

    25The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

    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.

    29So these things must be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live.

  • Deut 19:2-7
    6 verses
    76%

    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.

    7Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

  • Num 35:11-12
    2 verses
    75%

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

    12And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.

  • 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.”

  • Exod 21:12-14
    3 verses
    74%

    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
    73%

    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 4:42
    73%

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

  • Deut 17:7-9
    3 verses
    72%

    7The witnesses must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

    8Appeal to a Higher Court If a matter is too difficult for you to judge– bloodshed, legal claim, or assault– matters of controversy in your villages– you must leave there and go up to the place the LORD your God chooses.

    9You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict.

  • Deut 20:15
    71%

    15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

  • Lev 24:21
    70%

    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.

  • Num 35:15
    69%

    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.

  • Exod 22:8
    69%

    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.

  • 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.

  • Deut 19:17
    69%

    17then both parties to the controversy must stand before the LORD, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days.

  • Deut 25:1
    69%

    1If controversy arises between people, they should go to court for judgment. When the judges hear the case, they shall exonerate the innocent but condemn the guilty.

  • Deut 13:15
    69%

    15you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

  • Ezek 11:6
    69%

    6You have killed many people in this city; you have filled its streets with corpses.’