Old/New Testament

19 When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ² you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess. ³ You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there. ⁴ This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him in time past— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while hot anger is in his heart and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past. ⁷ Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸ If Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; ⁹ and if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three. ¹⁰ This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you. ¹¹ But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ¹³ Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess.

¹⁵ One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. ¹⁶ If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; ¹⁸ and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you. ²⁰ Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. ²¹ Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. ² It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, ³ and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; ⁴ for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

⁵ The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. ⁶ What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. ⁷ What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.” ⁸ The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.” ⁹ It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.

¹⁰ When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. ¹¹ It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you. ¹² If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword; ¹⁴ but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. ¹⁶ But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; ¹⁷ but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you; ¹⁸ that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God. ¹⁹ When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

21 If someone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him, ² then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. ³ It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke. ⁴ The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided. ⁶ All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. ⁸ Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them. ⁹ So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.

¹⁰ When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, ¹¹ and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³ She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

¹⁵ If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated, ¹⁶ then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn; ¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸ If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. ²⁰ They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ²¹ All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

²² If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³ his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

²¹ Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ don’t believe it. ²² For false christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. ²³ But you watch.

“Behold, I have told you all things beforehand. ²⁴ But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, ²⁵ the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.^{(A) 26} Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ Then he will send out his angels, and will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the sky.

²⁸ “Now from the fig tree, learn this parable. When the branch has now become tender and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near; ²⁹ even so you also, when you see these things coming to pass, know that it is near, at the doors. ³⁰ Most certainly I say to you, this generation^[a] will not pass away until all these things happen. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³² “But of that day or that hour no one knows—not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.

³⁴ “It is like a man traveling to another country, having left his house and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch. ³⁵ Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming—whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning; ³⁶ lest, coming suddenly, he might find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I tell you, I tell all: Watch!”