Deuteronomy 21:2

Summary

Deuteronomy 21:2 instructs that the elders and judges are to go out and measure the distance to the cities that surround the location of a slain person. The verse describes a legal procedure for determining which city is responsible for a body found in open country.

Key words

• ya.tze.'U ("they will go out", H3318G) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural, continuing the narrative sequence begun in the preceding verse.
• ze.ke.Nei.kha ("elders of you", H2205G + H9021) — masculine plural construct noun with second-person suffix, identifying the officials who go out.
• sho.fe.Tei.kha ("judges of you", H8199 + H9031) — qal participle used as a noun, masculine plural construct with suffix, paired with the elders via the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).
• ma.de.Du ("they will measure", H4058) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural, the second action in the sequence after going out.
• se.vi.Vot ("around", H5439G) — plural construct noun, linking the cities to the location of the slain person, "the one slain" (cha.Lal, H2491A).

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative ve ("and", H9001): ya.tze.'U ("they will go out", H3318G) and ma.de.Du ("they will measure", H4058). This construction continues a chain of actions from the prior context, indicating that going out and measuring happen as consecutive steps in a single procedure. The subjects of both verbs are compound: ze.ke.Nei.kha ("elders of you", H2205G) and sho.fe.Tei.kha ("judges of you", H8199), each in construct form with the second-person masculine suffix cha/kha (H9021/H9031), meaning "your elders" and "your judges."

The object of the measuring is expressed through the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) plus he.'a.Rim ("the cities", H5892B), modified by the relative clause 'a.Sher se.vi.Vot he.cha.Lal ("which are around the slain one"). The noun se.vi.Vot ("around", H5439G) is in construct form, syntactically binding the cities' location to the position of he.cha.Lal ("the slain one", H2491A), an adjective functioning as a substantive referring to the corpse. The Hebrew does not specify a starting point for the measurement beyond "to the cities," leaving the exact geometry of the measurement (from what point, in what direction) to be inferred from context rather than stated explicitly in this verse.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate specifies the measurement starts a loco cadaveris ("from the place of the corpse"), making explicit a starting point that the Hebrew text does not state directly in this verse — the Hebrew only says the officials "measure to the cities that are around the slain one." The BSB similarly renders an explicit "distance from the victim to the neighboring cities," supplying directionality not overtly marked in the Hebrew construct chain. The LXX (ἐκμετρήσουσιν ἐπὶ τὰς πόλεις τὰς κύκλῳ τοῦ τραυματίου) stays closer to the Hebrew's structure, saying they will measure "unto the cities around the slain one," without adding an explicit starting-point phrase.