If one be found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who has slain him:
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Land. The Jewish doctors hence infer, that if the corpse was found hanging or drowned, or nearer a town of the Gentiles than one of the Israelites, this law did not oblige. They are so exact as to dispute whether the distance must be measured from the nose or from the naval of the deceased. (Selden, Syned. iii. 7.) But the law shows us, that the author of the murder must be discovered, if possible, as the crime is so grievous as, in a manner, to defile the land, and draw down the vengeance of God, if it be carelessly left unpunished. (Calmet)
