See W. R. Smith, Kinship 1 p. 263 (= 64f. in Kinship 2) for a similar law among the ancient Arabs. The ground of this law may be the belief that, until avenged or atoned for, a murdered man's blood defiles a land and its people. Note the idea that the community (here the nearest town) is responsible for the act of an individual. The conception of individual responsibility becomes specially prominent in Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 14:12 ff., Ezekiel 18:2 f. The solidarity of the family, tribe, and nation had been emphasized in early writings, the whole suffering for the sins of each one; see Deuteronomy 13:7; Exodus 20:5 f., CH, §§ 23f., and for modern Arabia, Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 176; also the valuable treatise of M. Lö hr, Socialismus und Individualismus im AT (reviewed by the present writer in RTP, viii. p. 578ff.).
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
1 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:
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:
3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;
4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley:
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their worda shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
9 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.