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Deuteronomy 19

1When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and live in their cities and houses, 2set apart three cities for yourself within the land Yahweh your God is giving you to possess. 3Prepare the roads to them, and divide the territory of your land that Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance into three regions, so that any killer may flee there.

4This is the case of the killer who may flee there and live: someone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him previously. 5For example, a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood. His hand swings the ax to cut a tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his neighbor, who dies. He may flee to one of these cities and live. 6Otherwise the avenger of blood, in the heat of his anger, might pursue the killer, overtake him because the road is long, and strike him dead, although he did not deserve death, since he had not hated the other man previously. 7That is why I command you: set apart three cities for yourself.

8If Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give your fathers, 9because you keep this whole command that I am commanding you today, loving Yahweh your God and walking in his ways always, then add three more cities to these three. 10Innocent blood must not be shed within your land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, bringing bloodguilt upon you.

11But if a man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, attacks him, and strikes him dead, and then flees to one of these cities, 12the elders of his own city must send for him and take him from there. They must hand him over to the avenger of blood, and he must die. 13Your eye must not pity him. You must purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

14Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which earlier generations set up, in the inheritance you receive in the land Yahweh your God is giving you to possess.

15A single witness must not establish a case against anyone for any wrongdoing or any sin, whatever sin he commits. A matter must be established on the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses. 16If a malicious witness comes forward against someone to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17the two men involved in the dispute must stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges serving in those days. 18The judges must investigate thoroughly. If the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, 19do to him as he plotted to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. 20The rest will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21Your eye must not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Translation notes 5

19:3–6 — Refuge and the avenger. A relative responsible for avenging a death is called “the avenger of blood.” The cities protect an unintentional killer from being killed before his case is distinguished from intentional murder.

19:5 — The ax head. The Hebrew describes the iron slipping from the wood. “Handle” gives the probable sense; the details of the accident are not entirely certain.

19:11–13 — Intentional killing. Refuge does not protect a person found to have ambushed and murdered someone. The text requires his surrender for execution.

19:15–19 — Testimony. “On the testimony” represents the Hebrew image “at the mouth.” A false witness receives the punishment he intended to bring upon the accused.

19:21 — Life for life. The body parts and life are retained as stated. This formulation sets a correspondence between the wrong and the judicial penalty; the verse itself does not explain whether particular injuries were compensated in money.