Chapter 19

Cities of Refuge

1 “aWhen the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

2 ayou shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to 1possess.

3 “You shall prepare the 1roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, 2so that any manslayer may flee there.

4 “aNow this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he 1kills his friend 2unintentionally, 3not hating him previously—

5 as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand 1swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the 2handle and 3strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live;

6 otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer 1in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and 2take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

7 “Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

8 “If the Lord your God aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He 1promised to give your fathers—

9 if you 1carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ato love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—bthen you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

10 “So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and abloodguiltiness be on you.

11 “But aif there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes 1him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13 “1aYou shall not pity him, but byou shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

14 “aYou shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to 1possess.

15 “aA single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin 1which he has committed; on the 2evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

16 “aIf a malicious witness rises up against a man to 1accuse him of 2wrongdoing,

17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand abefore the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

18 “The judges ashall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has 1accused his brother falsely,

19 then ayou shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

20 “aThe rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

21 “Thus 1ayou shall not show pity: blife for life, ceye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.