Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land he is giving you,^(A) so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses, ² you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.^{(B) 3} You are to determine the distances^[a] and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.^[b]

⁴ “Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: ⁵ If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut 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 flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger^[c] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,^[d] since he did not previously hate his neighbor. ⁷ This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised to give them— ⁹ provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in his ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰ In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^{(C) 11} But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, 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. ¹³ Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Boundary Markers

¹⁴ “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker,^(D) established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Witnesses in Court

¹⁵ “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done.^(E) A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.^(F)

¹⁶ “If a malicious witness^(G) testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, ¹⁷ the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. ¹⁸ The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, ¹⁹ you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. ²⁰ Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.^{(H) 21} Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.^(I)

Rules for War

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours,^(J) do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,^(K) is with you. ² When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army.^{(L) 3} He is to say to them, ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you^(M) against your enemies to give you victory.’

⁵ “The officers are to address the army, ‘Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit?^[e] Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit.^{[f] 7} Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man marry her.’ ⁸ The officers will continue to address the army and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers won’t lose heart as he did.’^{[g](N) 9} When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace. ¹¹ If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.^{(O) 12} However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. ¹³ When the Lord your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.^{(P) 14} But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations. ¹⁶ However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ¹⁷ You must completely destroy them—the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.^(Q)

¹⁹ “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you? ²⁰ But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

Unsolved Murders

21 “If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities. ³ The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work. ⁴ The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in^[h] every dispute and case of assault. ⁶ All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken. ⁷ They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it. ⁸ Lord, wipe away the guilt of your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then the responsibility for bloodshed will be wiped away from them. ⁹ You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.

Fair Treatment of Captured Women

¹⁰ “When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and ¹¹ if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife, ¹² you are to bring her into your house. She is to shave her head, trim her nails, ¹³ remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her or treat her as merchandise,^[i] because you have humiliated her.

The Right of the Firstborn

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other neglected, and both the loved and the neglected bear him sons, and if the neglected wife has the firstborn son, ¹⁶ when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the loved wife as his firstborn over the firstborn of the neglected wife. ¹⁷ He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the neglected wife, by giving him two shares^[j][k] of his estate, for he is the firstfruits of his virility; he has the rights of the firstborn.^(R)

A Rebellious Son

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him, ¹⁹ his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate^(S) of his hometown. ²⁰ They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city will stone him to death.^(T) You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Display of Executed People

²² “If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, ²³ you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.^(U) You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^(V)