Deuteronomy 19-22

New American Standard Bible

Cities of Refuge

19 “^(A)When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (B)you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[a]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[b]roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as an inheritance, ^[c]so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

⁴ “^(C)Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he ^[d]kills his friend ^[e]unintentionally, ^[f]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[g]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[h]handle and ^[i]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue ^[j]him ^[k]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and ^[l]take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’

⁸ “And if the Lord your God ^(D)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He ^[m]promised to give your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[n]carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(E)to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^(F)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and ^(G)guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(H)if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes ^[o]him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13 [p](I)You shall not pity him, but ^(J)you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “^(K)You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to ^[q]possess.

¹⁵ “^(L)A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin ^[r]that he commits; on the ^[s]testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ^16 (M)If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both people who have the dispute shall stand ^(N)before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ And the judges ^(O)shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then ^(P)you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. ²⁰ And ^(Q)the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ So ^[t](R)you shall not show pity: ^(S)life for life, ^(T)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(U)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, ^(V)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(W)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(X)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵ The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house but has not ^(Y)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not ^[u]put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[v]would put it to use. ^7 (Z)And who is the man that is ^[w]betrothed to a woman and has not ^[x]married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would ^[y]marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(AA)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^[z]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^[aa]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ And if it ^[ab]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(AB)forced labor and serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(AC)you shall strike all the ^[ac]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ However, the women, the children, ^(AD)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall ^[ad]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[ae]nearby. ^16 (AE)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. ¹⁷ Instead, you shall ^[af]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they will not teach you to do ^[ag](AF)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, ^[ah]by which you would ^(AG)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, so you shall not cut them down. For ^[ai]is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^[aj]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know ^[ak]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.

Expiation of a Crime

21 “If a person who has been killed by someone is found lying in the open country in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[al]possess, and it is not known who struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed. ³ And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the person killed, that is, that the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked ^[am]and has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then ^(AH)the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and ^[an]violent crime shall be ^[ao]settled by them. ⁶ And all the elders of that city ^[ap]which is nearest to the person killed shall ^(AI)wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷ and they shall respond and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see who did. ^8 [aq]Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, Lord, and do not place the guilt for ^(AJ)innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the guilt for bloodshed shall be ^[ar]forgiven them. ^9 (AK)So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Domestic Relations

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^(AL)the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and are strongly attracted to her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹² then you shall bring her into your home, and she shall ^(AM)shave her head and ^[as]trim her nails. ¹³ She shall also ^[at]remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and ^(AN)weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may have relations with her and become her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ But it shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go ^[au]wherever she wishes; and you certainly shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as merchandise, since you have ^[av](AO)humiliated her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^(AP)the other ^[aw]unloved, and both the loved and the ^[ax]unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the ^[ay]unloved, ¹⁶ then it shall be on the day that he wills what he owns as an inheritance to his sons, he is not allowed to treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, ^[az]at the expense of the son of the ^[ba]unloved, who actually is the firstborn son. ¹⁷ On the contrary, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the ^[bb]unloved wife, by giving him a double ^[bc]portion of everything that ^[bd]he owns, for he was the ^(AQ)beginning of his ^[be]strength; ^(AR)to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

¹⁸ “If any person has a stubborn and rebellious son who does ^(AS)not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he does not listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city ^[bf]at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰ And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, he is thoughtless and given to drinking.’ ^21 (AT)Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so ^(AU)you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and ^(AV)all Israel will hear about it and fear.

²² “Now if ^[bg]a person has committed a sin carrying ^(AW)a sentence of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on ^[bh]a tree, ^23 (AX)his body is not to be left overnight on the ^[bi]tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for ^(AY)he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you ^(AZ)do not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Various Laws

22 “^(BA)You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and avoid them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. ² And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. ³ You shall also do this with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with any lost property of your countryman, which has been lost by him and you have found. You are not allowed to avoid them. ⁴ You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, and avoid them; you shall certainly help him raise them up.

⁵ “A woman shall not wear a man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs in it, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(BB)you shall not take the mother with the young; ⁷ you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(BC)in order that it may go well for you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you shall make a ^[bj]parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹ “^(BD)You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise ^[bk]all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will be ^[bl]forfeited to the sanctuary.

¹⁰ “^(BE)You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹ “^(BF)You shall not wear a material of wool and linen combined together.

¹² “^(BG)You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws on Morality

¹³ “^(BH)If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ^[bm]turns against her, ¹⁴ and he charges her with shameful behavior and ^[bn]publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵ then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶ And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he ^[bo]turned against her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But ^[bp]this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ Then ^(BI)the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him, ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he ^[bq]publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to ^[br]divorce her all his days.

²⁰ “But if this ^[bs](BJ)charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, ²¹ then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her ^[bt]to death, because she has ^(BK)committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so ^(BL)you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²² “^(BM)If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who slept with the woman, and the woman; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.

²³ “^(BN)If there is a girl who is a virgin ^[bu]betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them ^[bv]to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²⁵ “But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and ^[bw]rapes her, then only the man who ^[bx]raped her shall die. ²⁶ And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, ^[by]so is this case. ²⁷ When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl ^[bz]cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸ “^(BO)If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered, ²⁹ then the man who had sexual relations with her shall give the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

³⁰ “^[ca](BP)A man shall not take ^[cb]his father’s wife in marriage, so that he does not ^[cc]uncover his father’s garment.