Deuteronomy 19
19
Cities of refuge
1Once the LORD your God has eliminated those nations—whose land the LORD your God is giving you—and you displace them, settling into their cities and their houses, 2you must designate three cities for your use in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3Mark out the roads to them#19.3 Heb uncertain and lacks to them. and divide the regions of the land the LORD your God is apportioning to you into three parts. These cities are the places to which a person who has killed can escape. 4Here is the rule concerning a person who killed someone and is permitted to escape to one of these cities and live:
If it is someone who killed his neighbor accidentally, without having hated that person previously; 5or if someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to chop some wood, and while swinging an ax to cut down the tree, the axhead flies off its handle and hits the neighbor, who subsequently dies—these kinds of killers may escape to one of these cities and live. 6Otherwise, the blood avenger will chase after the killer out of rage and—especially if the distance to one of these cities#19.6 Heb lacks to one of these cities. is too far—might catch and kill him, even though a death sentence was not in order because the killer didn’t have prior malice toward the other. 7This is why I am commanding you as follows: Designate three cities for your use.
8Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors—and he will give you all the land he swore to give to them 9as long as you keep all this commandment that I am giving you right now by doing it, by loving the LORD your God, and by always walking in his ways—you can add three more cities for your use along with the first three. 10Innocent blood must not be spilled in the land the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance, or it will be bloodshed that will be required of you.
11But if someone does hate a neighbor and ambushes him, rising up against him and attacking him so he dies, and then escapes to one of these cities, 12elders from the killer’s hometown will send word, and the killer will be sent back from there. They will then hand him over to the blood avenger, and he will be executed. 13Show no mercy to such killers. Remove#19.13 Or burn innocent bloodshed from Israel so that things go well for you.
Property laws
14Now in the land the LORD your God is giving you, in your allotted property that you will receive there, you must not tamper with your neighbor’s property line, which has been previously established.
Rules for testimony
15A solitary witness against someone in any crime, wrongdoing, or in any sort of misdeed that might be done is not sufficient. The decision must stand by two or three witnesses. 16Now if a spiteful witness comes forward against someone, so as to testify against them falsely, 17the two persons who have a legal suit must stand before the LORD, before the priests, and before the judges that are in office at that time. 18The judges will look into the situation very carefully. If it turns out that the witness is a liar—that the witness has given false testimony against his fellow Israelite— 19then you must do to him what he had planned to do to his fellow Israelite. Remove#19.19 Or burn such evil from your community! 20The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again. 21Show no mercy on this point: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Currently Selected:
Deuteronomy 19: CEB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Deuteronomy 19
19
1 WHEN THE Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
2 You shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
3 You shall prepare the road and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
4 And this is the case of the slayer who shall flee there in order that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, for whom he had no enmity in time past–
5 As when a man goes into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand strikes with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips off the handle and lights on his neighbor and kills him–he may flee to one of those cities and live;
6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his [mind and] heart are hot with anger and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him even though the slayer was not worthy of death, since he had not been at enmity with him previously.
7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three [refuge] cities.
8 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He has sworn to your fathers to do, and gives you all the land which He promised to your fathers to give,
9 If you keep all these commandments to do them, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three,
10 Lest innocent blood be shed in your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and so blood guilt be upon you.
11 But if any man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and attacks him and wounds him mortally so that he dies, and the assailant flees into one of these cities,
12 Then the elders of his own city shall send for him and fetch him from there and give him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
13 Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall clear Israel of the guilt of innocent blood, that it may go well with you.
14 You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, which the men of old [the first dividers of the land] set.
15 One witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or any wrong in connection with any sin he commits; only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established.
16 If a false witness rises up against any man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
17 Then both parties to the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19 Then you shall do to him as he had intended to do to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you.
20 And those who remain shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall henceforth commit no such evil among you.
21 Your eyes shall not pity: it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation