Deuteronomy 19

Deuteronomy 19:1 “When Yahveh your God eliminates the nations whose land he is giving you, so that you take possession from them and live in their cities and houses,

Deuteronomy 19:2 you are to separate three cities for yourselves within the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 19:3 You are to determine the distances and divide the land Yahveh your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

Deuteronomy 19:4 “Here is the instruction concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to stay alive, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

Deuteronomy 19:5 If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to fell timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may run away to one of these cities and stay alive.

Deuteronomy 19:6 Or else, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and slit his throat. Yet he did not legally deserve to die since he did not previously hate his neighbor.

Deuteronomy 19:7 This is why I am commanding you, and this is what I say: separate three cities for yourselves.

Deuteronomy 19:8 If Yahveh your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to provide them with –

Deuteronomy 19:9 if you watch every one of these commands I am commanding you today and follow them, loving Yahveh your God and walking in his ways at all times – you are to add three more cities to these three.

Deuteronomy 19:10 In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land Yahveh, your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 19:11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and runs away to one of these cities,

Deuteronomy 19:12 the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.

Deuteronomy 19:13 Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Deuteronomy 19:14 “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 19:15 “One witness cannot establish any violation or failure against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Deuteronomy 19:16 “If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime,

Deuteronomy 19:17 the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of Yahveh before the priests and judges in authority at that time.

Deuteronomy 19:18 The judges are to make a careful investigation and notice if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely testified against his brother,

Deuteronomy 19:19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you.

Deuteronomy 19:20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.

Deuteronomy 19:21 Do not show pity: throat for throat, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 19 quotes:

“What a very striking combination of “goodness and severity” we observe in these few lines ! We have the “cnttini; off” of the nations of Canaan because of tlieir consummated wickedness, which had become positively’ unbearable ; and on the other hand, we have a most touching display of divine goodness in the provision made for the poor maiislavcr in the day of his deep distress, when flying for his life from the avenger of blood. The government and the goodness of God are, we need hardly say. bolli divinely perfect. There are cases in which (Toodness would be nothing but a toleration of sheer wickedness and open rebellion, which is utterly impossible uniler the government of God. If men imagine that because God is good the}- ma}- go on and sin with a high hand, they will sooner or later find out their woeful mistake.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 303.

“You shall set aside for yourself three cities—bringing the total to six, including those to the east of the Jordan. In the midst of your land—the cities would be allocated on a geographical or regional basis, but not specifically in relation to tribal territory. The purpose of the distribution would be to provide places of refuge within easy access of all areas of Israel’s future land; to have allocated one city per tribe might have defeated the purpose of the cities, by making the law in relation to manslaughter and murder a matter of tribal justice and revenge.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 266). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.