Deuteronomy 21:1

Summary

Deuteronomy 21:1 opens a legal case (a conditional clause) describing the discovery of a slain person lying in open country, within the land Yehovah is giving to the addressee, where the identity of the killer is unknown. The verse sets up the circumstances that the following verses will address through ritual procedure.

Key words

• ki ("if", H3588A) — conditional particle introducing the legal case, typical of casuistic law formulations ("if/when X occurs...").
• yimmatze' ("it will be found", H4672) — niphal (passive) imperfect: the body's discovery is presented as happening to someone, without specifying who finds it; the imperfect gives an open, potential/future sense fitting the conditional structure.
• chalal ("[one] slain", H2491A) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a substantive, designating the victim as one who has been killed (implying violent death, not simply "dead").
• noten ("[is] about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular: describes Yehovah's giving of the land as an ongoing/continuous action ("the one giving"), not a completed past event.
• noda' ("it is known", H3045) — niphal perfect: a completed state of non-knowledge is negated ("it has not become known"), contrasting with the imperfect yimmatze' earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a casuistic legal formula, beginning with ki ("if") and describing a sequence of conditions rather than a narrative event. The subject chalal ("slain [one]") is introduced passively through yimmatze' ("it will be found"), meaning the text does not specify who discovers the body — the emphasis falls on the fact of discovery itself, located ba'adamah ("in the land", H0127G) that Yehovah noten ("is giving") to the addressee.

The relative clause 'asher Yehovah 'eloheikha noten lekha lerishtah ("which Yehovah your God is giving to you to possess it") uses a participle (noten) rather than a finite past-tense verb, framing the land-gift as a continuous or unfolding action tied to the infinitive lerishtah ("to possess it", H3423H), which expresses purpose.

The final clause returns to a niphal form, noda' ("it is known", perfect), but negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating that the identity of the killer is unknown. The question mi hikkahu ("who struck him?", H4310 + H5221) uses the hiphil (causative) form hikkah ("did he strike"), which specifically denotes causing the fatal blow, distinguishing the act of striking from the state of being slain (chalal) mentioned earlier.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chalal ("slain [one]") with τραυματίας ("wounded/slain man"), and uses πεπτωκὼς ("having fallen") for nofel ("lying", H5307J), emphasizing a fallen posture. The Vulgate renders chalal as "hominis cadaver occisi" ("the corpse of a slain man"), making explicit the concept of a corpse where the Hebrew uses an adjective (chalal) that does not itself mean "corpse." The Vulgate also phrases the final clause as "ignorabitur cædis reus" ("the one guilty of the killing will be unknown"), introducing the legal concept of "reus" (guilty party) not explicitly present in the Hebrew's more neutral question, mi hikkahu ("who struck him?").