Old/New Testament

The Cities to Be a Safe Place

19 “The Lord your God will destroy the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you. You will take their place and live in their cities and in their houses. At that time ² you should set apart three cities for yourself in the land the Lord your God gives you for your own. ³ Make the roads good that lead to these cities. Divide into three parts the land the Lord your God gives you for your own. Any man who kills another may run to a city and be safe.

⁴ “This is the law of the person who kills another and runs to a city to save his life. He might have killed his friend without meaning to, a friend he did not hate in the past. ⁵ He could have gone among the trees with his friend to cut wood. As he was using his ax to cut down a tree, the ax head could have come off the stick and hit his friend, killing him. Then he may run to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Or else the one who is angry will want to punish him for the killing, and will catch him and kill him. But the killer should not be put to death, because he had not hated the man in the past. ⁷ So I tell you, ‘Set apart three cities for yourself.’ ⁸ The Lord your God will give you even more land, as He has promised your fathers. He will give you all the land which He promised to give your fathers, ⁹ if you are careful to obey all the Laws I tell you today. Love the Lord your God. Walk in His ways always. Then you will add three other cities to these three. ¹⁰ So the person without guilt will not be put to death in the land the Lord your God gives you as a gift. And you will not be guilty of blood.

¹¹ “But there might be a man who hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, goes against him, and hurts him so that he dies. After this he might run to one of these cities. ¹² Then the leaders of his city should send men to take him from there and bring him to the one who wants to punish him for the killing that he may die. ¹³ Do not pity him. In Israel be free from the blood of those that are not guilty. Then it will go well with you.

¹⁴ “Do not move your neighbor’s land-mark which the fathers of long ago have set in the land the Lord your God gives you for your own.

¹⁵ “One person will not prove the guilt of a sin another man may have done. It will take two or three people who know about the sin to prove the man’s guilt. ¹⁶ If an angry person speaks against a man, saying that he did something wrong, ¹⁷ then both men who are arguing should stand before the Lord, in front of the religious leaders and the judges who are at work at that time. ¹⁸ The judges will choose careful questions to ask about the problem. If the man lied who said his brother is guilty, ¹⁹ then you should do to him just what he wanted to do to his brother. In this way you will get rid of the sin among you. ²⁰ The rest of the people will hear and be afraid. They will never do such a sinful thing among you again. ²¹ Do not pity him. It will be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

About Battles

20 “When you go to battle against those who hate you and see more horses and war-wagons and soldiers than you have, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God, Who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are coming near the battle, the religious leader will come near and speak to the people. ³ He will say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel. Today you are going into battle against those who hate you. Do not let your hearts become weak. Do not be afraid and shake in fear before them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will fight for you against those who hate you. And He will save you.’ ⁵ The leaders will speak to the people also, saying, ‘Is there anyone among you who has built a new house and has not given it to God? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in battle and another man will give it to God. ⁶ Is there anyone who has planted grape vines and has not begun to eat their fruit? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man will begin to eat the fruit. ⁷ Is there a man who is promised in marriage to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man marry her.’ ⁸ Then the leaders will say to the people, ‘Is there a man here who is afraid and is weak in heart? Let him go and return to his house so he will not make his brothers’ hearts afraid like his heart.’ ⁹ When the leaders have finished speaking to the people, they will choose heads of the army to lead the people.

¹⁰ “When you come near a city to fight against it, ask the people of the city if they would rather have peace. ¹¹ If they agree to make peace with you and open their gates to you, all the people who are found there will be made to work for you and serve you. ¹² But if they do not make peace with you and fight against you, you must take the city in battle. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives the city to you, you must kill all the men in it with the sword. ¹⁴ Take for yourselves what is left, the women, the children, all the animals, and all that is in the city. Use what is left of those who fought against you, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are very far from you and are not of the cities of the nations that are near. ¹⁶ But in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is giving you for your own, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Destroy everything and everyone in them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has told you. ¹⁸ Then they will not teach you to do all the hated and sinful things they have done for their gods, and make you sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you stay around a city a long time, to make war against it and take it, do not destroy its trees with the ax. You may eat from them but do not cut them down. For are trees of the field men that they should be killed? ²⁰ You may destroy and cut down only the trees you know are not fruit trees. Then you may build walls with the trees to help you fight against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

About Killing Someone

21 “If a person has been killed and is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own and it is not known who killed him, ² then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man. ³ The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled a plow. ⁴ The leaders of that city will bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water, which has not been plowed or planted. They will break the cow’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the religious leaders, the sons of Levi, will come near for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bring good in the name of the Lord. Every question about what is right and every fight will be decided upon by them. ⁶ All the leaders of that city nearest to the dead man will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ Then they will say, ‘Our hands have not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it. ⁸ O Lord, forgive Your people Israel whom You have set free. Do not put the guilt of killing a man who did no wrong on Your people Israel.’ And they will be forgiven from the guilt of the man’s death. ⁹ So you must take away the guilt of taking the life of a good man by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Woman Taken in Battle

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against those who hate you, and the Lord your God gives them to you, and you make them go with you, ¹¹ and you see a beautiful woman and have a desire for her as a wife, ¹² bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails. ¹³ She will change the clothes she wore when you took her away, and stay in your house. She will have sorrow for her father and mother for one month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, you should let her go wherever she wants. But do not sell her for money or act as if she were a servant because you have put her to shame.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other not loved, and both the loved and the one not loved have borne him sons, and if the first-born son belongs to the wife who is not loved, ¹⁶ on the day when the man divides what he has for his sons, he cannot make the first-born of his loved wife the first-born before the son of the wife who is not loved, who is the first-born. ¹⁷ He must respect the first-born, the son of the wife who is not loved, by giving him twice the share of all he has. He is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born belongs to him.

¹⁸ “If a man has a strong-willed son who goes against him and does not obey his father or mother and when they punish him he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother will take hold of him and bring him to the leaders of his city at the gate of his city. ²⁰ They will say to the leaders of his city, ‘This son of ours is strong-willed and goes against us. He will not obey us. He eats and drinks too much.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city will kill him with stones. You must get rid of the sin from among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

²² “If a man has sinned and should be put to death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, ²³ his body must not hang all night on the tree. You should be sure to bury him on the same day (for he who hangs is cursed by God). So do not make your land unclean which the Lord your God is giving you.

The False Religious Teachers

²¹ “If anyone says to you, ‘See! Here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. ²² Some will come who will say they are Christ. False preachers will come. These people will do special things for people to see. They will do surprising things, so that if it can be, God’s people will be led to believe something wrong. ²³ See! I have told you about these things before they happen.

Jesus Will Come Again in His Greatness

²⁴ “After those days of much trouble and pain and sorrow are over, the sun will get dark. The moon will not give light. ²⁵ The stars will fall from the sky. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and shining-greatness. ²⁷ He will send His angels. They will gather together God’s people from the four winds. They will come from one end of the earth to the other end of heaven.

The Picture-Story of the Fig Tree

²⁸ “Now learn something from the fig tree. When the branch begins to grow and puts out its leaves, you know summer is near. ²⁹ In the same way, when you see all these things happen, you know the Son of Man is near. He is even at the door. ³⁰ For sure, I tell you, the people of this day will not pass away before all these things have happened.

³¹ “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away. ³² But no one knows the day or the hour. No! Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know. Only the Father knows.

³³ “Be careful! Watch and pray. You do not know when it will happen. ³⁴ The coming of the Son of Man is as a man who went from his house to a far country. He gave each one of his servants some work to do. He told the one standing at the door to watch. ³⁵ In the same way, you are to watch also! You do not know when the Owner of the house will be coming. It may be in the evening or in the night or when the sun comes up or in the morning. ³⁶ He may come when you are not looking for Him and find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to all. Watch!”