Old/New Testament

19 “When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations you will displace, and when you are living in their cities and homes, ^2-3 you must set apart three Cities of Refuge so that anyone who accidentally kills someone may flee to safety. Divide the country into three districts, with one of these cities in each district; and keep the roads to these cities in good repair.

⁴ “Here is an example of the purpose of these cities: ⁵ If a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and the axhead flies off the handle and kills the man’s neighbor, he may flee to one of those cities and be safe. ^6-7 Anyone seeking to avenge the death will not be able to. These cities must be scattered so that one of them will be reasonably close to everyone; otherwise the angry avenger might catch and kill the innocent slayer, even though he should not have died since he had not killed deliberately.

⁸ “If the Lord enlarges your boundaries as he promised your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised ⁹ (whether he does this depends on your obedience to all these commandments I am giving you today—loving the Lord your God and walking his paths), then you must designate three additional Cities of Refuge. ¹⁰ In this way you will be able to avoid the death of innocent people, and you will not be held responsible for unjustified bloodshed.

¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and springs out of hiding and kills him, and then flees into one of the Cities of Refuge, ¹² the elders of his hometown shall send for him and shall bring him home and deliver him over to the dead man’s avenger, to kill him. ¹³ Don’t pity him! Purge all murderers from Israel! Only then will all go well with you.

¹⁴ “When you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, remember that you must never steal a man’s land by moving the boundary marker.

¹⁵ “Never convict anyone on the testimony of one witness. There must be at least two, and three is even better. ¹⁶ If anyone gives false witness, claiming he has seen someone do wrong when he hasn’t, ¹⁷ both men shall be brought before the priests and judges on duty before the Lord at the time. ¹⁸ They must be closely questioned, and if the witness is lying, ¹⁹ his penalty shall be the punishment he thought the other man would get. In this way you will purge out evil from among you. ²⁰ Then those who hear about it will be afraid to tell lies on the witness stand. ²¹ You shall not show pity to a false witness. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot; this is your rule in such cases.

20 “When you go to war and see before you vast numbers of horses and chariots, an army far greater than yours, don’t be frightened! The Lord your God is with you—the same God who brought you safely out of Egypt! ² Before you begin the battle, a priest shall stand before the Israeli army and say,

³ “‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Don’t be afraid as you go out to fight today! ⁴ For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you the victory!’

⁵ “Then the officers of the army shall address the men in this manner: ‘Has anyone just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, go home! For you might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate it! ⁶ Has anyone just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, go home! You might die in battle and someone else would eat it! ⁷ Has anyone just become engaged? Well, go home and get married! For you might die in the battle, and someone else would marry your fiancée. ⁸ And now, is anyone afraid? If you are, go home before you frighten the rest of us!’ ⁹ When the officers have finished saying this to their men, they will announce the names of the battalion leaders.

¹⁰ “As you approach a city to fight against it, first offer it a truce. ¹¹ If it accepts the truce and opens its gates to you, then all its people shall become your servants. ¹² But if it refuses and won’t make peace with you, you must besiege it. ¹³ When the Lord your God has given it to you, kill every male in the city; ¹⁴ but you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, cattle, and booty. ¹⁵ These instructions apply only to distant cities, not to those in the Promised Land itself.^[a]

¹⁶ “For in the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land you are to save no one; destroy every living thing. ¹⁷ Utterly destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This is the commandment of the Lord your God. ¹⁸ The purpose of this command is to prevent the people of the land from luring you into idol worship and into participation in their loathsome customs, thus sinning deeply against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city, don’t destroy the fruit trees. Eat all the fruit you wish; just don’t cut down the trees. They aren’t enemies who need to be slaughtered! ²⁰ But you may cut down trees that aren’t valuable for food. Use them for the siege to make ladders, portable towers, and battering rams.^[b]

21 “If, when you arrive in the Promised Land, a murder victim is found lying in a field and no one has seen the murder, ² the elders and judges shall measure from the body to the nearest city. ³ Then the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has never been yoked, ⁴ and lead it to a valley where there is running water—a valley neither plowed nor sowed—and there break its neck.

⁵ “Then the priests shall come (for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce his blessings and decide lawsuits and punishments), ⁶ and shall wash their hands over the heifer, ⁷ and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. ⁸ O Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and do not charge them with murdering an innocent man. Forgive us the guilt of this man’s blood.’ ⁹ In this way you will put away the guilt from among you by following the Lord’s directions.

¹⁰ “When you go to war and the Lord your God delivers your enemies to you, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful girl you want as your wife, ¹² take her home with you. She must shave her head and pare her nails ¹³ and change her clothing, laying aside that which she was wearing when she was captured, then remain in your home in mourning for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may marry her. ¹⁴ However, if after marrying her you decide you don’t like her, you must let her go free—you may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives but loves one and not the other, and both have borne him children, and the mother of his oldest son is the wife he doesn’t love, ¹⁶ he may not give a larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves. ¹⁷ He must give the customary double portion to his oldest son, who is the beginning of his strength and who owns the rights of a firstborn son, even though he is the son of the wife his father doesn’t love.

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they punish him, ¹⁹ then his father and mother shall take him before the elders of the city ²⁰ and declare, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and won’t obey; he is a worthless drunkard.’ ²¹ Then the men of the city shall stone him to death. In this way you shall put away this evil from among you, and all the young men of Israel will hear about what happened and will be afraid.

²² “If a man has committed a crime worthy of death, and is executed and then hanged on a tree, ²³ his body shall not remain on the tree overnight. You must bury him the same day, for anyone hanging on a tree is cursed of God. Don’t defile the land the Lord your God has given you.

²¹ “And then if anyone tells you, ‘This is the Messiah,’ or, ‘That one is,’ don’t pay any attention. ²² For there will be many false Messiahs and false prophets who will do wonderful miracles that would deceive, if possible, even God’s own children.^{[a] 23} Take care! I have warned you!

²⁴ “After the tribulation ends, then the sun will grow dim and the moon will not shine, ²⁵ and the stars will fall—the heavens will convulse.

²⁶ “Then all mankind will see me, the Messiah,^[b] coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And I will send out the angels to gather together my chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest bounds of earth and heaven.

²⁸ “Now, here is a lesson from a fig tree. When its buds become tender and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that spring has come. ²⁹ And when you see these things happening that I’ve described, you can be sure that my return is very near, that I am right at the door.

³⁰ “Yes, these are the events that will signal the end of the age.^{[c] 31} Heaven and earth shall disappear, but my words stand sure forever.

³² “However, no one, not even the angels in heaven, nor I myself,^[d] knows the day or hour when these things will happen; only the Father knows. ³³ And since you don’t know when it will happen, stay alert. Be on the watch for my return.^[e]

³⁴ “My coming^[f] can be compared with that of a man who went on a trip to another country. He laid out his employees’ work for them to do while he was gone and told the gatekeeper to watch for his return.

^35-37 “Keep a sharp lookout! For you do not know when I^[g] will come, at evening, at midnight, early dawn or late daybreak. Don’t let me find you sleeping. Watch for my return! This is my message to you and to everyone else.”