Deuteronomy 19
19
Safe Towns
(Numbers 35.9-28; Joshua 20.1-9)
Moses said to Israel:
1Soon you will go into the land and attack the nations. The LORD your God will destroy them and give you their lands, towns, and homes. Then after you are settled,#Js 20.1-9. 2-4you must choose three of your towns to be Safe Towns. Divide the land into three regions with one Safe Town near the middle of each, so that a Safe Town can be easily reached from anywhere in your land.
Then, if one of you accidentally kills someone, you can run to a Safe Town and find protection from being put to death. But you must not have been angry with the person you killed.
5For example, suppose you and a friend go into the forest to cut wood. You are chopping down a tree with an axe, when the axe head slips off the handle, hits your friend, and kills him. You can run to one of the Safe Towns and save your life. 6You don't deserve to die, since you did not mean to harm your friend. But he did get killed, and his relatives might be very angry. They might even choose one of the men from their family to track you down and kill you. If it is too far to one of the Safe Towns, the victim's relative might be able to catch you and kill you. 7That's why I said there must be three Safe Towns.
8-9Israel, the LORD your God has promised that if you obey his laws and teachings I'm giving you, and if you always love him, then he will give you the land he promised your ancestors. When that happens, you must name three more Safe Towns in the new territory. 10You will need them, so innocent people won't be killed on your land while they are trying to reach a Safe Town that is too far away. You will be guilty of murder, if innocent people lose their lives because you didn't name enough Safe Towns in the land the LORD your God will give you.
11But what if you really do commit murder? Suppose one of you hates a neighbour. So you wait in a deserted place, kill the neighbour, and run to a Safe Town. 12If that happens, the leaders of your town must send messengers to bring you back from the Safe Town. They will hand you over to one of the victim's relatives, who will put you to death.
13Israel, for the good of the whole country, you must kill anyone who murders an innocent person. Never show mercy to a murderer!
Boundary marks
Moses said to Israel:
14In the land the LORD is giving you, there are already stones set up to mark the boundaries between fields. So don't move those stones.#Dt 27.17.
Witnesses must tell the truth
Moses said to Israel:
15Before you are convicted of a crime, at least two witnesses must be able to testify that you did it.#Nu 35.30; Dt 17.6; Mt 18.16; Jn 8.17; 2 Co 13.1; 1 Ti 5.19; He 10.28.
16If you accuse someone of a crime, but seem to be lying, 17-18then both you and the accused must be taken to the court at the place where the LORD is worshipped. There the priests and judges will find out if you are lying or telling the truth.
If you are lying and the accused is innocent, 19-21then you will be punished without mercy. You will receive the same punishment the accused would have received if found guilty, whether it means losing an eye, a tooth, a hand, a foot, or even your life.#Ex 21.23-25; Lv 24.19,20; Mt 5.38.
Israel, the crime of telling lies in court must be punished. And when people hear what happens to witnesses that lie, everyone else who testifies in court will tell the truth.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Deuteronomy 19
19
Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge
1“When #ch. 12:29the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2#Ex. 21:13; Num. 35:10, 14; Josh. 20:2, 8you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3You shall measure the distances#19:3 Hebrew road and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
4“This is the provision for #ch. 4:42; Num. 35:15; Josh. 20:3, 5the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— 5as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6lest #Num. 35:12, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. 8#ch. 12:20 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, #Ex. 34:24; [Ex. 23:31] as he has sworn to your fathers, and #See Gen. 15:18-21gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— 9provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—#ver. 2; [Josh. 20:7]then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him #ch. 27:24; Ex. 21:12, 14; See Num. 35:16-21and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13#See ch. 7:16 Your eye shall not pity him, #ch. 21:9; Num. 35:33; [1 Kgs. 2:31]but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood#19:13 Or the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
Property Boundaries
14 # ch. 27:17; Job 24:2; Prov. 22:28; 23:10; Hos. 5:10 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
Laws Concerning Witnesses
15“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. #Cited Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; See Num. 35:30Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16If #[Ex. 23:1; Ps. 35:11]a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, #ch. 17:8, 9; [ch. 21:5]before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18The judges shall #ch. 13:14; 17:4inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19#Prov. 19:5, 9; [Dan. 6:24]then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil#19:19 Or evil person from your midst. 20And the rest #See ch. 13:11shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21#[See ver. 13 above] Your eye shall not pity. #See Ex. 21:23, 24It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
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