As we have
seen before, homicide is considered to be a very serious crime in the Bible
(Deu. 19:10; Exo. 21:12,14), and so are the consequences. When a person kills someone,
the murderer must pay with his life for the innocent blood that was shed. This
principle is seen all throughout the Bible, from beginning to end (Rev.
6:9-10)…
(Genesis 9:6) Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed, for God made man in his own image.
In Numbers, it
explains the effect of shedding innocent blood…
(Num.
35:33-34) 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. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in
the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of
the people of Israel.
The innocent
blood that has been shed must be avenged; the murderer must pay with his life.
But, what happens if justice can’t be made because the identity of the killer
is unknown? This is explained in this chapter…
UNKNOWN MURDERER
In case someone
turns up dead, but the killer is unknown…What can be done to do justice and “clean
the land”? The Bible explains what needs to be done:
(Deu.
21:1-4) 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, then your
elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to
the surrounding cities. 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. 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.
The sacrifice
of the calf will cover for the blood that was shed, to clean the land.
(Deu.
21:6-9) 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, and they shall testify, ‘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.’ So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst,
when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
HUNG ON A TREE
The last topic
on chapter 21 of Devarim (Deuteronomy) talks about hanging a body on a tree.
This doesn’t refer to a way of execution, since in Israel the cross or gallows
wasn’t used as a life sentence (as the Romans did). However, sometimes a body was
hung high (as on a tree) as a deterrent, to show what would happen to a
criminal in the Land.
(Deu.
21:22-23) And if a man has committed a crime
punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a
tree, 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.
Even so, the
body had to be treated with respect. It could only remain hanged for a few
hours, and then it had to be buried with respect and dignity. The way of the pagan
nations was to leave the body of the enemies hanging until they were decomposed
or eaten by animals of prey.
Paul makes
reference to this commandment:
(Galatians
3:13) Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree”
We have all
sinned, and we all deserve death. But Jesus, the only one who is righteous and
perfect, died on the cross and he became a curse so that whosoever believes in
Him can be justified.
(1 Peter
2:24) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die
to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
FIRSTBORN
AND REBELLIOUS SON
Chapter 21 also
talks about two complicated topics related to father-son relationships: the
inheritance rights of the firstborn and the rebellion of a child…
a.
Firstborn of two women
Regarding
inheritance, the biblical tradition forsees that all the children will have a
part of the inheritance of their parents. However, the firstborn receives a
special portion that is known as “the right of the firstborn”, and it consists
of the following:
a. the firstborn
is given the authority over all the immediate family, and becomes the patriarch.
b. He receives
a double portion of the inheritance, to cover his responsibilities as the
leader.
c. He receives
his father’s name. Only he would be called: “son of [the father’s name]”;
everyone else would be known as "brothers of [the firstborn]”.
Devarim 21
deals with a difficult situation with inheritance and the recognition of the
firstborn: If a man has two wives and both had sons, the question is: Who would
get the right of the firstborn? The Bible resolves the conflict in the
following way:
(Deu.
21:15-17) 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, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as
an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the
firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the
firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved,
by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first
fruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
The son that
receives the right of the firstborn is the one that was born first, even if the
parents are divorced, and not the one born to the favorite wife. We could ask: If
this is the biblical order, why did Joseph receive the primogeniture instead of
Reuben? Even though at first it seems that it was because of favoritism, in the
full context of the story it was because Reuben lost his right as a consequence
of his sin against his father.
(1 Chronicles
5:1-2) The
sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but
because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to
the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the
oldest son; though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief
came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph).
What Reuben
did is mentioned in Genesis (heb. Bereshit)…
(Gen.
35:22) While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his
father's concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
b.
Stubborn and rebellious son
One of the toughest
laws in the Torah, which Is hard to process, is the one related to the rebel
son…
(Deu.
21:18-20) 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, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him
and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he
lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is
stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a
drunkard.
This sounds
too extreme. In our human mind, this is hard to understand. But if we know the
character of God, then we will know that there must be a good reason for it. In
Jewish tradition, it is said that, in all the history of the Jewish courts, this
law never needed to be executed.
Note: The topic of
the Female Captives (Deu. 21:10-14) has already been covered in the study of
chapter 20.
More posts on
the book of Deuteronomy: Devarim
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