Deuteronomy 19-20

New American Standard Bible

Cities of Refuge

19 “^(A)When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (B)you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to ^[a]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[b]roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as an inheritance, ^[c]so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

⁴ “^(C)Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he ^[d]kills his friend ^[e]unintentionally, ^[f]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[g]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[h]handle and ^[i]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue ^[j]him ^[k]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and ^[l]take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’

⁸ “And if the Lord your God ^(D)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He ^[m]promised to give your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[n]carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(E)to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^(F)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and ^(G)guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(H)if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes ^[o]him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13 [p](I)You shall not pity him, but ^(J)you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

¹⁴ “^(K)You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to ^[q]possess.

¹⁵ “^(L)A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin ^[r]that he commits; on the ^[s]testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. ^16 (M)If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both people who have the dispute shall stand ^(N)before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ And the judges ^(O)shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then ^(P)you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. ²⁰ And ^(Q)the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ So ^[t](R)you shall not show pity: ^(S)life for life, ^(T)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see ^(U)horses, chariots, and people more numerous than you, ^(V)do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people. ³ He shall say to them, ‘Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. ^(W)Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, ⁴ for the Lord your God ^(X)is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ⁵ The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house but has not ^(Y)dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ And who is the man that has planted a vineyard but has not ^[u]put it to use? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man ^[v]would put it to use. ^7 (Z)And who is the man that is ^[w]betrothed to a woman and has not ^[x]married her? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would ^[y]marry her.’ ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘^(AA)Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that ^[z]he does not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart!’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall ^[aa]offer it terms of peace. ¹¹ And if it ^[ab]agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your ^(AB)forced labor and serve you. ¹² However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(AC)you shall strike all the ^[ac]men in it with the edge of the sword. ¹⁴ However, the women, the children, ^(AD)the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall ^[ad]use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations ^[ae]nearby. ^16 (AE)Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. ¹⁷ Instead, you shall ^[af]utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they will not teach you to do ^[ag](AF)all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, ^[ah]by which you would ^(AG)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, so you shall not cut them down. For ^[ai]is the tree of the field a human, that it should ^[aj]be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know ^[ak]are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.