Deuteronomy 19:1-21:9

Jubilee Bible 2000

19 ¶ When the LORD thy God has cut off the Gentiles whose land the LORD thy God gives thee, and thou hast inherited them and dost dwell in their cities and in their houses,

² thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit.

³ Thou shalt prepare thee a way and divide the borders of thy land, which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit, into three parts, so that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴ And this is the case of the manslayer who is to flee there, that he may live: whoever kills his neighbour by mistake, whom he hated not in time past;

⁵ and he who went into the woods with his neighbour to cut firewood and his hand fetched a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree and the head slipped from the handle and lighted upon his neighbour so that he died, he shall flee unto one of those cities and live,

⁶ lest the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of the blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him, whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.

⁷ Therefore, I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

⁸ And if the LORD thy God enlarges thy borders, as he has sworn unto thy fathers, and gives thee all the land which he was to give unto thy fathers,

⁹ when thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day: to love the LORD thy God, and to walk all the days in his ways, then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, besides these three,

¹⁰ that innocent blood not be shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance, and the blood shall not be upon thee.

¹¹ But when any man hates his neighbour and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and smites him mortally that he dies and flees into one of these cities,

¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood, and he shall die.

¹³ Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with thee.

¹⁴ ¶ Thou shalt not reduce thy neighbour’s border, which those of old time have marked in thine inheritance, which thou shalt possess in the land that the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit.

¹⁵ One witness shall not be valid against a man for any iniquity or for any sin, in any sin which he should commit. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

¹⁶ When a false witness rises up against any man to testify rebellion against him,

¹⁷ then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, 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 shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother; so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.

²⁰ And those who remain shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

²¹ And thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20 ¶ When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies and seest horses and chariots and a people more than thou, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD thy God is with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

² And it shall be, when ye are come near unto the battle that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people

³ and shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies; let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them,

⁴ for the LORD your God is he that goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

⁵ And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house lest peradventure he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁶ And who has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return unto his house lest peradventure he die in the battle and another man eat of it.

⁷ And what man is there that has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house lest peradventure he die in the battle and another man take her.

⁸ And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and a coward at heart? Let him go and return unto his house that he not cause his brethren’s hearts to become as his heart.

⁹ And it shall be when the officers have finished speaking unto the people that the captains of the armies shall lead before the people.

¹⁰ ¶ When thou comest near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.

¹¹ And it shall be, if it makes thee an answer of peace and opens unto thee, that all the people that are found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

¹² And if it will make no peace with thee but will make war against thee, and if thou should besiege it,

¹³ and if the LORD thy God should deliver it into thine hands, then thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ Only the women and the little ones and the animals and all that is in the city, all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat of the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God has given thee.

¹⁵ Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these Gentiles.

¹⁶ Only of the cities of these peoples, which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breathes;

¹⁷ but thou shalt utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD thy God has commanded thee,

¹⁸ that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they do unto their gods, lest ye should sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹ When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them, for thou may eat of them; and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege.

²⁰ Only the trees which thou knowest that they are not trees for food, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that makes war with thee, until it is subdued.

21 ¶ When one is found dead in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee to inherit, lying in the field, and it is not known who has slain him,

² then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is dead;

³ and it shall be that the elders of the city which is next unto the dead man shall take a heifer, which has not served, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

⁴ and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which has neither been plowed nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

⁵ And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for the LORD thy God has chosen them to minister unto him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be determined.

⁶ And all the elders of that closest city next to the dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.

⁷ And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸ Reconcile thy people Israel, whom thou hast ransomed, O LORD, and impute not the innocent blood shed in the midst of thy people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹ So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.