Deuteronomy 19:14-21:9

Common English Bible

Property laws

¹⁴Now in the land the Lord your God is giving you, in your allotted property that you will receive there, you must not tamper with your neighbor’s property line, which has been previously established.

Rules for testimony

¹⁵A solitary witness against someone in any crime, wrongdoing, or in any sort of misdeed that might be done is not sufficient. The decision must stand by two or three witnesses. ¹⁶Now if a spiteful witness comes forward against someone, so as to testify against them falsely, ¹⁷the two persons who have a legal suit must stand before the Lord, before the priests, and before the judges that are in office at that time. ¹⁸The judges will look into the situation very carefully. If it turns out that the witness is a liar—that the witness has given false testimony against his fellow Israelite— ¹⁹then you must do to him what he had planned to do to his fellow Israelite. Remove^[a] such evil from your community! ²⁰The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again. ²¹Show no mercy on this point: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Rules for warfare

20 When you march out to battle your enemies and you see horses, chariots, and a fighting force larger than yours, don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, the one who brought you up from Egypt, is with you. ²As you advance toward the war, the priest will come forward and will address the troops. ³He will say to them: “Listen, Israel: Right now you are advancing to wage war against your enemies. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be afraid! Don’t panic! Don’t shake in fear on account of them, ⁴because the Lord your God is going with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you.”

⁵The officials will also say to the troops: “Is there anyone here who has just built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the war and someone else would dedicate the house. ⁶Or is there anyone here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet put it to good use? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would use the vineyard. ⁷Or is there anyone here who is engaged but not yet married? He may leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would marry his fiancée.”

⁸The officials will continue to address the troops, stating: “Is there anyone here who is afraid and discouraged? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, his comrades might lose courage just as he has.” ⁹Once the officials have completed their speech to the troops, the army commanders will assume leadership of the forces.

¹⁰When you approach a city to fight against it, you should first extend peaceful terms to it. ¹¹If the city responds with peaceful terms and surrenders to you, then all the people in the city will serve you as forced laborers. ¹²However, if the city does not negotiate peacefully with you but makes war against you, you may attack it. ¹³The Lord your God will hand it over to you; you must kill all the city’s males with the sword. ¹⁴However, you can take for yourselves the women, the children, the animals, and all that is in the city—all its plunder. You can then enjoy your enemies’ plunder, which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁵That’s what you must do to all the cities that are located far away from you—specifically, those cities that don’t belong to these nations here. ¹⁶But in the case of any of the cities of these peoples—the ones the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance—you must not spare any living thing. ¹⁷Instead, you must place these under the ban:^[b] Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹⁸Then they can’t teach you to do all the detestable things they did for their gods, with the result that you end up sinning against the Lord your God.

¹⁹Now if you have been attacking a city for some time, fighting against it and trying to conquer it, don’t destroy its trees by cutting them down with axes. You can eat from those trees; don’t cut them down! Do you think a tree of the field is some sort of warrior to be attacked by you in battle? ²⁰That said, if you know that a tree is not a food-producing tree, you are allowed to destroy it, cutting it down and using it in the siege against the city that is fighting against you until it falls.

Unsolved homicides

21 If a corpse is found on the ground the Lord your God is giving you to possess, lying in a field, and the identity of the killer is unknown, ²your elders and judges must come out and measure the distances to the cities nearest the body. ³Once it is determined which city is closest to the dead body, its elders must take a young cow that hasn’t been used or yet pulled a plow, ⁴and those elders will take the cow down to a ravine with a flowing stream—one that has not been plowed or planted—and they will break the cow’s neck right there in the river valley. ⁵Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, will step forward because the Lord your God selected them to minister for him and to bless in the Lord’s name, and because every legal dispute and case of assault is decided by them. ⁶All the elders of the city closest to the corpse will wash their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the river valley. ⁷They will then solemnly state: “Our hands did not shed this blood. Our eyes did not see it happen. ⁸Lord, please forgive your people Israel, whom you saved. Don’t put the guilt of innocent bloodshed on your people Israel.”