Deuteronomy 21:8

Yahweh, forgive us, your Israeli people whom you rescued from Egypt. Do not consider ◄us to be guilty/that we should be punished because► of murdering someone who ◄is innocent/had not done something that is wrong►. Instead, forgive us.’

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

In Context

7and they must say, ‘We did not murder this person [MTY], and we did not see who did it.

9By doing that, you will be doing what Yahweh considers to be right, and you will not be considered to be guilty for murdering that person.”

Read all of Deuteronomy 21

Cross References

Numbers 35:33“You must execute people who truly murder others. If you did not do that, you would be causing the people who live in the land to become unacceptable to me. Anyone who deliberately kills an innocent person must be executed.

2 Kings 24:4Manasseh had even caused many innocent people in Jerusalem to be killed, and Yahweh would not forgive that.

Jeremiah 26:15But you need to know that if you kill me, you will be killing a man [SYN] who ◄is innocent/has not done anything wrong►. And you and everyone else in this city will be guilty, because the truth is that it was Yahweh who sent me to speak every word that you have heard me say.”

Ezekiel 23:24Their huge army will attack you with weapons, riding in chariots and pulling wagons that will carry their army supplies. They will surround you, carrying large and small shields, and wearing helmets. I will allow them to capture you and punish you in the way that they always punish their enemies.

Matthew 23:35As a result, God will consider that you are guilty for killing [SYN] all the righteous people, including killing [MTY] Adam’s son Abel, who was a righteous man [SYN], and Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you are guilty of killing in the holy place between the Temple and the altar, and for killing all the prophets who lived between the times that those two men lived.

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 21:2-10

Undetected Murder. ( b. c. 1451.) 1 If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: 2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: 3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; 4 And the elders of… Read the whole commentary →

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