Bring the heifer down: the place where the heifer is to be killed is, like the animal itself, a place that has not been used for any purpose. It is still wild, it has never been farmed, neither plowed nor sown, or “where they [people in general] have never plowed the ground or sown crops.”

A valley with running water: this is not a stream that appears and disappears with the seasonal rains, but an ever flowing stream fed by a spring. Good News Translation has “a stream that never runs dry.” We may also express this as “a stream that flows all year.”

Break the heifer’s neck: presumably by means of a blow with a pole, or an ax. This animal is not being sacrificed to God (see Exo 13.13; 34.20). This is not a sacrifice to take away sin.

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 .