Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 21:4 
Context21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, 1 to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. 2 There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck.
Deuteronomy 21:6
Context21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse 3 must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 4
1 tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.
2 sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.
3 tn Heb “slain [one].”
4 tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.
