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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. Valley. In such places murders are most frequently perpetrated. Hebrew may signify, “a desert,” deep or inaccessible torrent, ( Bible.) on the side of which the heifer was to be slain, and its body was then, it seems, thrown into the water. The ancients first washed their hands over her. Thus the victim of malediction against those who break a covenant, is buried in a ditch, or cast into the sea. Hom. Iliad i.—Was. Some translate the Hebrew “shall be,” as if the place was to be hereafter considered as unclean and accursed. Calmet.—The roughness and depth of the valley, denote the hardness of the murderer’s heart, and the depth of his malice. Menochius.—Strike off, or cœdent, “cut the neck,” ( Bible.) at the top, without perhaps separating it entirely from the body. Blood was given for blood, and this was the chief design of the bloody sacrifices. For this reason, the Egyptians impressed a seal upon the horns of the victim, representing a man kneeling, with his hands tied behind his back, as if ready to receive the stroke of death. Plut. Isis.