“After it has been determined which town is the closest, the leaders of that town are to take a young female cow that has never been put to work or yoked for use as a draft animal. The leaders of that town are to bring the heifer down to a vadi with a stream in it that never dries up, to a place that is neither plowed nor sown; and they are to break the cow’s neck there in the vadi.”-Deuteronomy 21:3-4
We are in the process of examining the ritual procedures the elders of the town closest to the unsolved murder scene are to undergo in order to rid their community of “bloodguilt”.
The first step is the elders are to find a Heifer that has never been used for field work and bring it to the nearest VADI.
What is a VADI?
Simply put, a VADI is a riverbed that is normally dry during part of the year but has flowing water at other times.
Incidentally, the Arabic word for “riverbed” is also VADI.
Now the instructions we’re given concerning the VADI are a bit confusing.
According to the Complete Jewish Bible, we’re told that the WADI has to be “a stream in it that never dries up”.
The King James version says “unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown”.
Boy, the King James version might as well have been written in a foreign language, don’t you think?
The NIV says “and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream”.
It seems that in general, most English translations go with the idea that the riverbed must be one that is “flowing strong” or “overflowing” with water.
However, we have a problem here.
Because in Israel there are hardly any VADIs that have flowing water at regular and predictable times.
In fact, riverbeds with regular flowing water are VERY rare in modern Israel.
So this leads us to the following logical question.
If it’s required that the ritual be done in close proximity to the murder victim’s body at a designated village within the confines of tribal territory, what the hell is to be done if there ain’t no VADI with strongly flowing water anywhere in the area man?
Well, this is where the merging of recent scholarship with the Hebrew word for “overflowing” becomes extremely useful.
The Hebrew word that is usually translated into “strong flow” or “overflowing” is EITAN or אֵיתָן
Now here’s the thing.
In other places in Scripture, this same word EITAN is used in a different sense.
For example, you know those parts of Scripture where it says the Lord rules with a “strong” hand.
It’s the same word EITAN that’s being used.
However, in our modern English sense, it would probably be better to translate “strong hand” as a “hard hand”.
In other words, meaning to rule in a very unbending or unyielding strict manner minus any tolerance whatsoever.
Most new scholarship would agree that it is in this sense we should understand Deuteronomy 21:4.
In other words, characteristic of a typical Israel VADI, the Scripture is referring to a riverbed that is unyielding meaning there is no flowing water.
That’s right.
I’m talking about the opposite meaning here.
We are meant to picture a VADI that is so dry, rugged and rocky that nothing can be cultivated there.
And this fits in perfectly with the VADIs one will encounter in Israel.
They’re pretty much dry and rugged most of the year and only on a few rare occasions do they have strong flowing water in them when a momentary flash flood occurs.
If you were to visit one of these VADIs in Israel, along each of the sides of the riverbed you would find a long line of scrub bushes and Acacias (SHITTIM in Hebrew) mixed in with rocks and dry soil.
It wouldn’t do you any good to plant crops in the soil there because once the next flash flood came along, it would destroy those crops in a matter of seconds.
In addition, the water underneath a WADI exists only in the form of dampened soil stretching several feet down.
Therefore, it also would be futile to attempt to dig a well there as well.
We’re really talking about an area that that contributes little if nothing to human civilization minus a place to conduct the Torah ritual outlined here in the first nine verses of Deuteronomy 21.
What’s the conclusion of the matter?
The conclusion is this.
Deuteronomy 21:4 is talking about bringing the Heifer to a dry riverbed that…
…because of it’s “hardness” cannot be used to either grow crops or obtain water.
And that’s all folks!
I think you don’t need to say things like “what the hell”. Father hates profanity.
Just writing naturally here Cheryl. Believe me, Yeshua said much worse when speaking about his enemies. It just doesn’t come across that way in our English Bibles. If I feel a certain expression captures the emotional intensity of a thought I want to express, I’m going to use it. Ya feel me? Be blessed.