The elders of the city which is nearest: once it has been determined which is the closest town, the elders of that town are to handle the matter.

A heifer which has never been worked and which has not pulled in the yoke: this is a typical case of repetition, in which the general statement about work is followed by a statement referring to the particular type of work.

In the yoke: in English, the preposition in here means that the “young cow” (Good News Translation) has not had a yoke placed around its neck so that it could pull the plow (see Num 19.2). Good News Translation has “select a young cow that has never been used for work.” In languages that do not use the passive voice, we may say “select a young cow that they have never used for work.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .