Deuteronomy 19

Revised Geneva Translation

19 “When the LORD your God shall root out the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

² “you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.

³ “You shall prepare the way for yourself and divide the coasts of the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit into three parts, so that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “This also is the cause for which the manslayer shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor ignorantly and did not hate him in time past —

⁵ “as he who goes to the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and his hand strikes with the axe to cut down the tree, if the head slips from the helve and hits his neighbor so that he dies—the same shall flee to one of the cities and live;

⁶ “lest the avenger of the blood follows after the manslayer while his heart is hot and overtakes him (because the way is long) and kills him, although he is not worthy of death because he did not hate him in time past.

⁷ “Therefore I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “And when the LORD your God enlarges your coasts (as He has sworn to your fathers) and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers

⁹ “(if you keep all these Commandments, to do them, which I command you this day: that you love the LORD your God and walk in His ways forever), then you shall add three more cities for yourselves besides those three,

¹⁰ “so that no innocent blood is shed within your land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit (lest blood be upon you).

¹¹ “But, if a man hates his neighbor and lays in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes any man so that he dies and flee to any of these cities,

¹² “then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there and deliver him to the hands of the avenger of the blood, so that he may die.

¹³ “Your eye shall not spare him, but you shall put away the cry of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ “You shall not remove your neighbor’s border, which those of old time have set in your inheritance, so that you shall inherit in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.

¹⁵ “One witness shall not rise against a man for any trespass, or for any sin, or for any fault in which he offends. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

¹⁶ “If a false witness rises up against a man to accuse him of trespass,

¹⁷ “then both men who strive together shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.

¹⁸ “And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And if the witness is found false (has given false witness against his brother),

¹⁹ “then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall take away evil from among you.

²⁰ “And the rest shall hear and fear and shall no longer commit any such wickedness among you.

²¹ “Therefore, your eye shall have no compassion: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”