Deuteronomy 21:1

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim ¹  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, ²  and no one knows who killed ³  him,

Deuteronomy 22:25

22:25 But if the man came across ⁴  the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped ⁵  her, then only the rapist ⁶  must die.

Deuteronomy 22:27

22:27 for the man ⁷  met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

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¹ tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).

² tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

⁴ tn Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.

⁵ tn Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.

⁶ tn Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”

⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.