Deuteronomy 19-20

English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

19 “When ^(A)the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (B)you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall measure the distances^[a] and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴ “This is the provision for ^(C)the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— ⁵ as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, ⁶ lest ^(D)the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. ^8 (E)And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, ^(F)as he has sworn to your fathers, and ^(G)gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—^(H)then you shall add three other cities to these three, ¹⁰ lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him ^(I)and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13 (J)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(K)but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood^[b] from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14 (L)“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. ^(M)Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. ¹⁶ If ^(N)a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, ^(O)before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges shall ^(P)inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ^19 (Q)then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil^[c] from your midst. ²⁰ And the rest ^(R)shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. ^21 (S)Your eye shall not pity. ^(T)It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Laws Concerning Warfare

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see ^(U)horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is ^(V)with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. ² And when you draw near to the battle, ^(W)the priest shall come forward and speak to the people ³ and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, ⁴ for the Lord your God is he who goes with you ^(X)to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ ⁵ Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not ^(Y)enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ^7 (Z)And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ ⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(AA)‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, ^(AB)offer terms of peace to it. ¹¹ And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. ¹² But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(AC)you shall put all its males to the sword, ^14 (AD)but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you ^(AE)shall take as plunder for yourselves. And ^(AF)you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. ¹⁶ But ^(AG)in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, ¹⁷ but ^(AH)you shall devote them to complete destruction,^[d] the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, ¹⁸ that ^(AI)they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you ^(AJ)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, ^(AK)you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.