What Does Deuteronomy 21:2 Mean in the King James?
Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Before anyone can name a killer, the elders measure the distance, locating which community must answer for the death.
THE MEANING
When a life is found slain and the killer is unknown, the death does not become an unowned fact. Elders and judges measure toward the surrounding cities, tracing the death to the nearest community whose responsibility can be named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An unknown killer does not make a death nobody’s concern.
THE ROOT
וּמָדְדוּ
u-maddu
GROWS FROM
מדד
m-d-d
To measure or extend, to ascertain an extent.
The measure makes the distance from the slain person to the surrounding cities visible. What could remain an unlocated death becomes a relation between a person and a community.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure or extend.
מָדַד
This is the verb’s basic action: measuring traces how far the responsibility reaches.
middah: Measure, extent, or dimension.
מִדָּה
The related noun names the extent that the elders’ action establishes.
שֹׁפְטִים
shofetim
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge or govern; to establish judgment.
The judges carry the same root as מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat), meaning judgment or justice. Here their work begins with going out and measuring, making justice an inquiry into where responsibility lies.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
This verb names the work carried by the judges who go out to investigate.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, or due order.
מִשְׁפָּט
The related noun shows that judging is tied to establishing what is due, even before the killer is known.
THE PATTERN
A life taken continues to claim an answer, even when the killer is unknown.
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.THE THREAD
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?The verb translated “measure” here shares the root מדד (madad, to measure) with Isaiah’s “measured.” Here measurement traces a death toward the nearest city; in Isaiah it gives waters and heavens a comprehensible extent, revealing relations that otherwise seem too vast to locate.
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