“And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.” Deuteronomy 21:7.

(Note “Deuteronomy 21:7” is a reference to the Bible, which is a collection of books. It means that the quotation above referred to as “Deuteronomy 21:7” is taken from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, the 21^st chapter, and the 7^th verse, where a chapter consists of numbered sections called verses.)

The Bible verse quoted above has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. In this post, we will look at the literal meaning followed by a look at the symbolic meaning. First though, we will consider the backstory and the context of the verse.

The Backstory

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. I have written before on who God is and what God is like. God created the earth approximately six thousand years ago according to the Bible. Now the Bible is “the word of God which…[is] not…the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13. Therefore, according to the Bible it is God who says that the earth was created approximately six thousand years ago.

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:27. “In the image of God” (Genesis 1:;27) means the first human pair, Adam and Eve, were created with a character of love just like God’s own character for “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31. So, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of earth’s history.

The world today in the twenty-first century is full of evil, chaos, and anarchy and God says, “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” 1 John 5:19. So what happened between the time of Adam and Eve till now? I have written before on how Adam and Eve broke God’s law of love and, hence, they sinned in that they did evil and wrongdoing. Since the time of Adam and Eve “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), “for there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Ecclesiastes 7:20. Thus, the moral state of the world is as it is today. Now “the wages of sin is [eternal] death” (Romans 6:23) so that all humanity is under this condemnation of God’s law of love for their sins.

In the course of time after Adam and Eve sinned, “GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD [God] said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7.

Nevertheless, God saw a righteous man, that is, a holy man, on the earth for “Noah was a just man and perfect.” Genesis 6:9. Therefore, commanded Noah to “make thee an ark.” Genesis 6:14. So, God said to Noah, “Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh.” Genesis 6:17. “Thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” Genesis 6:18. “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.” Genesis 6:19. “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” Genesis 6:22.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis 7:11, 12.

“Upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” Genesis 7:20. “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.” Genesis 7:21, 22. “And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.” Genesis 7:23.

“And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.” Genesis 8:13, 14.

“And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” Genesis 8:15-17.

After the flood, in the course of time, wickedness once again overspread the earth. Therefore, God called a righteous man named Abram, whose name God changed to Abraham. “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” Genesis 12:1. “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls [persons] that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Genesis 12:5.

God said to Abraham, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. God’s promise to Abraham was based on a promise God originally gave to Adam and Eve after they had sinned. It meant that Christ, the Son of God, when He would be born in human flesh, He would be a descendant of Abraham so that through Abraham a blessing would come upon the world.

Abraham had a son named Isaac who was himself righteous, and God said to Isaac, “I will make thy seed [descendants] to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed [descendants] all these countries; and in thy seed [descendants] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 26:4. So God promised Isaac that Christ, when He would be born into the world in human flesh, would be a descendant of Isaac.

One of the sons of Isaac was named Jacob and there came a time when God spoke to Jacob. “And, behold, the LORD…said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father [grandfather], and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed [descendants]; And thy seed [descendants] shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed [descendants] shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 28:13, 14. So, God promised that Christ, when He would be born on earth in human flesh, would be a descendant of Jacob.

There came a time when God said to Jacob, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.” Genesis 32:28. Some years thereafter, Jacob and his family went into Egypt to escape a famine where they lived. Jacob’s descendants, “the children of Israel” (Genesis 32:32), remained in Egypt approximately 400 years. During that time, “the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage.” Exodus 1:13, 14.

“Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years…that all [the children of Israel] the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:40, 41. So, God delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt and sent them on a journey to the land of Canaan, the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

What was the land that God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? It was, more or less, the land of Canaan which is called Israel today in the twenty-first century. The journey of Israel to the promise land, Canaan, lasted 40 years because of their sins against God.

The Context of Deuteronomy 21:7

During Israel’s wilderness journey of 40 years, their leader, a righteous man named Moses said to them, “These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.” Deuteronomy 12:1. Thus, God prescribed what Israel’s conduct should be like when they came into Canaan, the promised land.

The Literal Meaning

One of the things that God prescribed Israel at that time was, “If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth.” Deuteronomy 21:1, 2. After they had taken certain steps which God commanded them, “it shall be, that the city which is next [near] unto the slain man, even the elders of that city…they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.” Deuteronomy 21:3-7.

The elders shall say, “Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel…and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. Deuteronomy 21:8. Moses said, “And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.” Deuteronomy 21:8, 9.

So, the literal meaning of Deuteronomy 21:7 is that a murder has taken place without any eyewitnesses and the elders and judges were required by God to declare their innocence regarding the shedding of blood.

The Symbolic Meaning

“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul” (Ezekiel 33:1-5) from eternal death.

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Ezekiel 33:6.

“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Ezekiel 33:7-9.

“Therefore, O thou son of man, speak…Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Ezekiel 33:10, 11.

“Therefore, thou son of man, say…The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.” Ezekiel 33:12.

“When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.” Ezekiel 33:13.

“Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.” Ezekiel 33:14-16.

Especially is it true that the Christian is called by God to be watchmen to warn sinners to turn from their evil ways. For God says that Christians should say of themselves, “Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” 1 Corinthians 9:16.

I have written before on what is the true gospel. Suffice it to say that it is a message of blessing and warning from God to all humanity so that they might turn from their sins and become “holy and without blame before him [God] in love” (Ephesians 1:4) and, hence, be saved from eternal death. So, all humanity will suffer the penalty of eternal death unless they take hold of the way of escape provided by God in the gospel.

Effectively then, God considers a neglect by the Christian to preach the gospel so that persons might be saved from eternal death, as if the Christian had committed murder and shed blood with their own hands. Now “no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3:15. Those Christians who do not preach the gospel are disobedient to the call God has made upon their lives.

God desires that every Christian should be able to say in truth, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it” (Deuteronomy 21:7) in that they are not guilty of murder in the figurative sense. This then is the symbolic meaning of Deuteronomy 21:7.

How This Blog Teaches Bible Study

My blog posts take one or more Bible verses and unpack what is often the hidden meaning in them, to help you to gain in your understanding of the Bible, and to receive insights into how to study it. For God says, “Study [the Bible] to shew [show] thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing [interpreting] the word of truth [the Bible].” 2 Timothy 2:15. There are new blog posts every two weeks on a Monday at 12:01 a.m. in timezone UTC-5 (GMT-5).

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