Deuteronomy 18:1–25:19
The Portion of the Priests and Levites
18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have 1no part nor ainheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. 2 Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.
3 “And this shall be the priest’s bdue 2from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 4 cThe firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For dthe Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes eto stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.
6 “So if a Levite comes from any of your 3gates, from where he fdwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind gto the place which the Lord chooses, 7 then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God has all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. 8 They shall have equal iportions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.
9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, jyou shall not learn to follow the 4abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter kpass 5through the fire, lor one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 mor one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or none who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are 6an abomination to the Lord, and obecause of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be 7blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not 8appointed such for you.
15 p“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb qin the day of the assembly, saying, r‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
17 “And the Lord said to me: s‘What they have spoken is good. 18 tI will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and uwill put My words in His mouth, vand He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 wAnd it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But xthe prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ywho speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—22 zwhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, aif the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
19 “When the Lord your God ahas cut 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 byou shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.
4 “And cthis is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor 1unintentionally, not having hated him in time past—5 as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; 6 dlest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’
8 “Now if the Lord your God eenlarges your territory, as He swore to fyour fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, 9 and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, gthen you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, 10 hlest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11 “But iif anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 jYour eye shall not pity him, kbut you shall 2put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
14 l“You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
15 m“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. 16 If a false witness nrises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, obefore the priests and the judges who serve in those days. 18 And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, 19 pthen you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so qyou shall put away the evil from among you. 20 rAnd those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. 21 sYour eye shall not pity: tlife shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see ahorses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be bafraid of them; for the Lord your God is cwith you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. 2 So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. 3 And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; 4 for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, dto fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’
5 “Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not ededicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. 7 fAnd what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’
8 “The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, g‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, 1lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’ 9 And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10 “When you go near a city to fight against it, hthen proclaim an offer of peace to it. 11 And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you. 12 Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, iyou shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. 14 But the women, the little ones, jthe livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and kyou shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 “But lof the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 lest mthey teach you to do according to all their 2abominations which they have done for their gods, and you nsin against the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food. 20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder
21 “If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will …