申命记 19
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
设立避难城
19 “你们的上帝耶和华毁灭那些民族，把他们的土地赐给你们，使你们赶走他们，住进他们的城邑和房屋后， 2-3 你们要把土地划分为三个地区，在每个地区设立一座避难城，修好通往这三座城的道路，以便误杀人者可以逃往最近的避难城。
4 “如果有人无意间杀了素无冤仇的同伴，他可以逃往避难城，以保住性命。 5 例如，有人和朋友去森林砍树，斧头脱柄，误杀了朋友，他就可以逃往避难城，以保住性命。 6 否则，如果避难城离误杀人者太远，怒火中烧的报仇者就会追上去杀死他。其实他是不该死的，因为他与被误杀的人素无冤仇。 7 因此，我吩咐你们要设立三座避难城。
8-9 “如果你们谨遵我今天吩咐你们的这一切诫命，爱你们的上帝耶和华，一生遵行祂的旨意，祂就会按照祂对你们祖先所起的誓，扩张你们的疆域，把应许给你们祖先的土地赐给你们。那时，你们要再设三座避难城， 10 免得无辜人的血流在你们的上帝耶和华赐给你们作产业之地，以致你们担当枉杀无辜的罪。
11 “如果有人因憎恨邻居而暗中埋伏，杀了邻居，然后逃到避难城， 12 他本城的长老要派人去把他带回来，交给复仇的人，将他处死。 13 不可怜悯他，要从以色列除掉这种滥杀无辜的罪，这样你们才会顺利。
14 “在你们的上帝耶和华将要赐给你们作产业之地，你们不可挪动邻居的界石，因为那是先人立的。
15 “如果人犯了什么罪或有什么过失，不可凭一个证人作证就定罪，要有两三个证人才可以定案。 16 如果有人作伪证诬陷别人， 17 诉讼双方要站在耶和华面前，让当值的祭司和审判官定夺。 18 审判官要仔细审查案件，如果发现那人作伪证， 19 就要按照他企图加给被诬告者的伤害处罚他。这样，就从你们当中除掉了罪恶。 20 其他人听说后，都会害怕，不敢再做这种恶事。 21 你们对恶人不可心软，要以命偿命，以眼还眼，以牙还牙，以手还手，以脚还脚。
Deuteronomy 19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 19
Cities of Refuge. 1 (A)When the Lord, your God, cuts down the nations whose land the Lord, your God, is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their cities and houses,(B) 2 you shall set apart three cities[a] in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances and divide into three regions the land of which the Lord, your God, is giving you possession, so that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.
4 This is the case of a homicide who may take refuge there and live: when someone strikes down a neighbor unintentionally and not out of previous hatred. 5 For example, if someone goes with a neighbor to a forest to cut wood, wielding an ax to cut down a tree, and its head flies off the handle and hits the neighbor a mortal blow, such a person may take refuge in one of these cities and live. 6 Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood[b] might in hot anger pursue, overtake, and strike the killer dead, even though that one does not deserve the death penalty since there had been no previous hatred; 7 for this reason I command you: Set apart three cities.
8 (C)But if the Lord, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised your ancestors he would give, 9 because you carefully observe this whole commandment which I give you today, loving the Lord, your God, and ever walking in his ways, then add three more cities to these three. 10 Thus, in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.(D)
11 However, if someone, hating a neighbor, lies in wait, attacks, and strikes the neighbor dead, and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the elders of the killer’s own city shall send and have the killer taken from there, to be handed over to the avenger of blood and slain. 13 Do not show pity, but purge from Israel the innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.(E)
Removal of Landmarks. 14 You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary markers[c] erected by your forebears in the heritage that will be allotted to you in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess.(F)
False Witnesses. 15 (G)One witness alone shall not stand against someone in regard to any crime or any offense that may have been committed; a charge shall stand only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.(H)
16 If a hostile witness rises against someone to accuse that person of wrongdoing, 17 the two parties in the dispute shall appear in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and judges in office at that time,(I) 18 (J)and the judges must investigate it thoroughly. If the witness is a false witness and has falsely accused the other,(K) 19 you shall do to the false witness just as that false witness planned to do to the other. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. 20 The rest shall hear and be afraid, and never again do such an evil thing as this in your midst.(L) 21 Do not show pity. Life for life,[d] eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot!(M)
Footnotes
- 19:2 Set apart three cities: the Israelites were to have at least six cities of refuge, three in the land east of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan west of the Jordan (Nm 35:9–34); but since the three cities east of the Jordan had now been appointed (Dt 4:41–43), reference is made here only to the three west of the Jordan. The execution of this command is narrated in Jos 20.
- 19:6 The avenger of blood: see note on Nm 35:12.
- 19:14 Move your neighbor’s boundary markers: a prohibition against furtively extending one’s property by moving a neighbor’s boundary stone.
- 19:21 Life for life…: this phrasing of the lex talionis may seem exaggerated, but the law itself is meant to ensure equity and proportional punishment; cf. note on Ex 21:22–25.
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