Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 21:7
and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The elders of the city nearest an unsolved murder speak to the assembly and God after performing a ritual hand-washing over a slaughtered heifer.
The words — שָֽפְכוּ (sha.fekhah) = they shed, and יָדֵינוּ (ya.deinu) = our hands, form the core denial of direct culpability in the victim’s death.
The thread — The declaration appears within the immediate ritual context of Deuteronomy 21:6 and 21:8, while the theme of sworn blood accountability parallels Numbers 5:19 and 2 Samuel 16:8.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to recognize that communal proximity to violence demands public acknowledgment and divine judgment rather than human self-justification.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Cross-references
- Numbers 5:19 And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.
- 2 Samuel 16:8 The LORD has paid you back for all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, you have come to ruin because you are a man of bloodshed!”
- Job 21:21 For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
- Job 21:31 Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
- Psalms 7:3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands,