21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water,6 to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown.7 There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck.
tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.
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sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity—of freedom from human contamination.
