CHAPTER 19

(1451 B.C.)

CITIES OF REFUGE

¹When the LORD your God has cut off the nations, whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

²You shall separate three cities for you in the midst of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess it (the cities of refuge are addressed in Numbers 35:11).

³You shall prepare you a way, and divide the coasts of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither.

⁴And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso kills his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past (the cities of refuge were for individuals who killed someone accidentally; they could flee to one of these cities, and the relatives of the victim could not touch there the one who had become embroiled in the situation; however, these cities were not for murderers);

⁵As when a man goes into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetched a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the helve, and lights upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live (accidental death):

⁶Lest the avenger of the blood (a relative or friend of the victim) pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past (as stated, the mans death was an unfortunate accident).

⁷Wherefore I command you, saying, You shall separate three cities for you (for this purpose).

⁸And if the LORD your God enlarge your coast, as He has sworn unto your fathers, and give you all the land which He promised to give unto your fathers;

⁹If you shall keep all these Commandments to do them, which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in His Ways; then shall you add three cities more for you, beside these three (these latter three would be on the east side of the Jordan River):

¹⁰That innocent blood be not shed in your land, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be upon you (the design of appointing these cities was to prevent the shedding of innocent blood, which would be the case if the unintentional manslayer was killed by one of the relatives of the man he had accidentally killed).

¹¹But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and flees into one of these cities:

¹²Then the Elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die (as stated, the cities of refuge were not for murderers, but for those who killed someone accidentally).

¹³Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. (Capital punishment for capital crimes is one of the Commandments of the Lord; while execution of the guilty does not serve as a deterrent, it does serve to show the worth that God places on human life. If a man or a woman in cold blood takes the life of another, his or her life is to be forfeited, as well [Rom. 13:1-7].)

LANDMARKS

¹⁴You shall not remove your neighbours landmark, which they of old time have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess it (this pertains to landmarks which have been placed to mark the boundaries of possessions; they were not to be surreptitiously altered).

WITNESSES

¹⁵One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established (as in courts of law presently, even an eyewitness account is often faulty; thats the reason that two or more are demanded here, in order that the rights of individuals be protected).

PERJURY

¹⁶If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;

¹⁷Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the Priests and the Judges, which shall be in those days;

¹⁸And the Judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

¹⁹Then shall you do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shall you put the evil away from among you.

²⁰And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you (such directions were given in order that individuals would be fearful of lying on someone else).

²¹And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (most of the time, this was never carried out, but, instead, certain amounts of money were given to satisfy the situation).