Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge

1“1When 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, 22you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to 3possess. 3You shall prepare the 4roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, 5so that any manslayer may flee there.

4“6Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he 7kills his friend 8unintentionally, 9not hating him previously-- 5as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand 10swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the 11handle and 12strikes his friend so that he dies--he may flee to one of these cities and live; 6otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer 13in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and 14take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. 7Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

8“If the Lord your God 15enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He 16promised to give your fathers-- 9if you 17carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, 18to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always--19then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. 10So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and 20bloodguiltiness be on you.

11“But 21if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes 22him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12then 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. 132324You shall not pity him, but 25you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

14“26You 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 27possess.

15“28A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin 29which he has committed; on the 30evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. 1631If a malicious witness rises up against a man to 32accuse him of 33wrongdoing, 17then both the men who have the dispute shall stand 34before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18The judges 35shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has 36accused his brother falsely, 19then 37you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 2038The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21Thus 3940you shall not show pity: 41life for life, 42eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.