Deuteronomy 21:1-9--Atonement for Unsolved Murders

Deuteronomy 21:1-9
English Standard Version

Atonement for Unsolved Murders
21 “If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

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We are going to take a side-trip now from talking about the criminal justice system to talking about atonement--a different kind of justice that needs to happen in the eyes of the LORD.  The LORD who is the Righteous Judge does not let sin go unpunished and He requires that atonement be made from His people for all sins, both private and public and personal and corporate.

Typically the life of the murder victim was paid for by the life of the murderer that was put to death.  "Life for life" is part of the Mosaic Covenant.  However, if the identity of the murderer is unknown, then the closes city/town is responsible for making atonement (they did not keep that person safe who was travelling in or near their city/town).  The elders of that city along with the priests would make a specific kind of sacrifice in a specific kind of place--an animal that way young and had done no work in a piece of land with running water that had never been farmed or tilled (there is the idea of the iron objects that we use to till the soil polluting the ground as this is us trying to add our works to the atonement that God is providing).

The elders and the priests are to proclaim their innocence as they pray, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for."  In this way the community would not be held guilty for the sin that was unatoned for.