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Then all the elders of that city nearest the corpse shall wash their hands[a] over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi, and shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood,[b] and our eyes did not see the deed. Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not let the guilt of shedding innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.” Thus they shall be absolved from the guilt of bloodshed,

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Footnotes

  1. 21:6 Wash their hands: a symbolic gesture in protestation of one’s own innocence when human blood is unjustly shed; cf. Mt 27:24.
  2. 21:7 This blood: the blood of the slain, or the bloodguilt effected by the killing.