5.Mose 19,1 | New International Reader’s Version

Cities to run to for safety

1 The LORD your God will destroy the nations whose land he is giving you. You will drive them out. And you will make your homes in their towns and their houses.

2 When you do, set apart for yourselves three cities in the land. It’s the land the LORD your God is giving you to take as your own.

3 Figure out the distances and then separate the land into three parts. Then anyone who kills another person can run to one of these cities for safety. They are in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.

4 Here is the rule about a person who kills someone. That person can run to one of those cities for safety. The rule applies to anyone who kills a neighbour they didn’t hate and didn’t mean to kill.

5 For example, suppose a man goes into a forest with his neighbour to cut wood. When he swings his axe to chop down a tree, the head of the axe flies off. And it hits his neighbour and kills him. Then that man can run to one of those cities and save his life.

6 If he doesn’t go to one of those cities, the dead man’s nearest male relative might become very angry. He might chase the man. If the city is too far away, he might catch him and kill him. But the man running to the city isn’t worthy of death, because he didn’t hate his neighbour.

7 That’s why I command you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

8 The LORD your God will increase the size of your territory. He promised your people of long ago that he would do it. He will give you the whole land he promised them.

9 But he’ll do it only if you are careful to obey all the laws I’m commanding you today. I command you to love the LORD your God. You must always live as he wants you to live. Suppose you are careful to obey, and the LORD your God gives you more land. Then you must set apart three more cities.

10 Do it to protect those not guilty of murder. Then you won’t spill their blood in your land. It’s the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.

11 But suppose a man hates his neighbour. So he hides and waits for him. Then he attacks him and kills him. And he runs to one of those cities for safety.

12 If he does, the elders of his own town must send for him. He must be brought back from the city. He must be handed over to the dead man’s nearest male relative. Then the relative will kill him.

13 Don’t feel sorry for him. He has killed someone who hadn’t done anything wrong. Crimes like that must be punished in Israel. Then things will go well with you.

14 Don’t move your neighbour’s boundary stone. It was set up by people who lived there before you. It marks the border of a field in the land you will receive as your own. The LORD your God is giving you that land. You will take it over.

Witnesses

15 Suppose someone is charged with committing a crime of any kind. Then one witness won’t be enough to prove that person is guilty. Every matter must be proved by the words of two or three witnesses.

16 Suppose a witness who tells lies goes to court and brings charges against someone. The witness says someone committed a crime.

17 Then the two people in the case must stand in front of the LORD. They must stand in front of the priests and the judges who are in office at that time.

18 The judges must check out the matter carefully. And suppose the witness is proved to be lying. Then he has said something false in court against another Israelite.

19 So do to the lying witness what he tried to do to the other person. Get rid of that evil witness.

20 The rest of the people will hear about it. And they will be afraid. They won’t allow such an evil thing to be done among them again.

21 Don’t feel sorry for that evil person. A life must be taken for a life. An eye must be put out for an eye. A tooth must be knocked out for a tooth. A hand must be cut off for a hand and a foot for a foot.

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English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

1 “When the Lord your God cuts 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 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

3 You shall measure the distances* and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

4 “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past—

5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live,

6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.

7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.

8 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—

9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three,

10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,

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

13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood* from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.

16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,

17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.

18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,

19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil* from your midst.

20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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