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)