< Deuteronomy 19 >

1 After Yahweh our God has gotten rid of the people-groups from the land that he is giving to you, and after you have expelled them from their cities and you start to live in their houses,
When the nations, whose land the Lord your God is giving you, have been cut off by him, and you have taken their place and are living in their towns and in their houses;
2 you must divide into three parts the land that he is giving to you. Then choose a city in each part. You must make good roads [in order that people can get to those cities easily]. Someone who kills another person can escape to one of those cities [to be safe/protected].
You are to have three towns marked out in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.
3
You are to make ready a way, and see that the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, is marked out into three parts, to which any taker of life may go in flight.
4 “This is the rule about someone who has killed another person. If someone (accidentally/without planning to) kills another person who was not his enemy, he may escape to one of those cities and be safe/protected there.
This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there, after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate;
5 For example, if two men go into the forest to cut some wood, if the axe head comes off the handle while one of them is chopping down a tree and the axe head strikes and kills the other man, the man [who was using the axe] will be allowed to run to one of those cities and be safe there, [because the people of that city will protect him].
For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe:
6 Because he accidentally killed someone, and because the man was not his enemy, he can try to run to one of those cities. If there were only one city, it may be a long distance to that city. Then if the relative of the man who was killed [MTY], the man who is supposed/expected to get revenge, is very angry, he may be able to catch the other person before he arrives at that city.
For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate.
7 [To prevent that from happening], you must choose three cities, not only one, [in order that someone can get to one of those cities quickly].
And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose.
8 “If you do everything that I am today commanding you to do, and if you love Yahweh our God, and if you conduct your lives as he wants you to do, Yahweh our God will give you much more land than you will have when you first occupy it, which is what he promised to do. He will give you all the land which he promised your ancestors that he would give to you. When he gives you that land, you must select three more cities [to which people may escape].
And if the Lord your God makes wide the limits of your land, as he said in his oath to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he undertook to give to your fathers;
9
If you keep and do all these orders which I give you today, loving the Lord your God and walking ever in his ways; then let three more towns, in addition to these three, be marked out for you:
10 Do this in order that people who (are innocent/have killed someone else without planning to) will not die, and you will not be guilty for [allowing] them to be executed, in the land that Yahweh is giving to you.
So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to death, for which you will be responsible.
11 “But suppose someone hates his enemy and hides and waits for that person [to come along the road]. Then [when he passes by, suddenly] he attacks him and murders him. If the attacker flees to one of those cities [to be protected there],
But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns;
12 the elders of the city [where the murdered man lived must not protect the attacker. They]. must send someone to the city to which the other man escaped, and bring him to [MTY] the relative who is supposed/expected to get revenge, so that he may execute that man.
The responsible men of his town are to send and take him, and give him up to the one who has the right of punishment to be put to death.
13 You must not pity those who murder other people! Instead, you must execute them, in order that the people in the land of Israel will not murder [MTY] innocent people, and in order that things will go well for you.”
Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be well for you.
14 “[When you are living] in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, do not move the markers of your neighbors’ property boundaries which were placed there long ago.”
Your neighbour's landmark, which was put in its place by the men of old times, is not to be moved or taken away in the land of your heritage which the Lord your God is giving you.
15 “If someone is accused of committing a crime, one (witness/person who says, ‘I saw him do it’) is not enough. There must be at least two (witnesses/people who say, ‘We saw him do it’). [If there is only one witness], the judge must not believe that what he says is true.
One witness may not make a statement against a man in relation to any sin or wrongdoing which he has done: on the word of two or three witnesses a question is to be judged.
16 “If someone tries to do wrong to another person by falsely accusing him,
If a false witness makes a statement against a man, saying that he has done wrong,
17 both of them must go to the place where the people worship, to [talk to] the priests and judges who are serving at that time.
Then the two men, between whom the argument has taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests and judges who are then in power;
18 The judges must (investigate the case carefully/try to find out which one is telling the truth). If [the judges determine that] one of them has accused the other falsely,
And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother,
19 that person must be punished in the same way that the other one would have been punished [if the judge decided that he (was guilty/had done what is wrong)]. By punishing such people, you will get rid of this evil practice among you.
Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you.
20 And/Because when that person is punished, everyone will hear what has happened, and they will be afraid, and no one will dare to act that way any more.
And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you.
21 You must not pity people who are punished like that. The rule should be that a person who has murdered someone else must be executed; one of a person’s eyes must be gouged out if he has gouged out someone else’s eye, one tooth of a person who has knocked out the tooth of another person must be knocked out; one hand of a person who has cut off the hand of another person must likewise be cut off; one foot of a person who has cut off the foot of another person must also be cut off.”
Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

< Deuteronomy 19 >