신명기 Chapter 21

Translation: ESV

1

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,

Key Message

The social community shares responsibility for the deaths of its members and must together make atonement for unresolved sin.

▸This law for handling an unsolved murder case embodies the principle that the entire community must resolve the guilt of bloodshed.

This law for handling an unsolved murder case embodies the principle that the entire community must resolve the guilt of bloodshed. The nearest town is responsible for the atonement ritual.

Related Verses

You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
10

When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive,

Key Message

God's law protects the weak and presents a humanitarian standard higher than the culture of the time.

▸The regulation for taking a captive woman as a wife was a law to protect women within the cultural context of the time.

15

If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,

Key Message

Fairness before the law takes precedence over personal emotions, and legal rights must be protected.

▸The principle that birthright is determined by birth order, not by a father's emotions, emphasizes fairness and the protection of legal rights.

18

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,

Key Message

Honoring parents, the basic order of family and society, is essential for the health of the covenant community.

▸The law concerning a stubborn and rebellious son emphasizes the importance of honoring parents and maintaining social order.

23

his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Key Message

Jesus Christ hung on a tree (the cross) and became a curse for us, thereby redeeming us from the curse of the law.

▸This verse, that one who is hanged on a tree is cursed by God, plays an important role in the New Testament in interpreting the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.