Deut 19
1
When YHWH your God shall cut off the nations, whose land YHWH 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 you in the midst of your land, which YHWH your
God gives you to possess it.
3
You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which YHWH your
God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.
4
And this is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoso kills
his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in time past;
5
as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetches
a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the helve, and
lights upon his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and
live:
6
lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake
him, because the way is long, and smite him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of
death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.
7
Wherefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.
8
And if YHWH your God enlarge your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give
you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;
9
if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to
love YHWH your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shall you add three cities
more for you, besides these three:
10
that innocent blood be not shed in the midst of your land, which YHWH your God gives
you for an inheritance, and so blood be upon you.
11
But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him,
and smite him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;
12
then 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.
13
Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away 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 YHWH your God gives you
to possess it.
15
One 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 a matter be established.
16
If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,
17
then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before YHWH, before
the priests and the judges that shall be in those days;
18
and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false
witness, and have testified falsely against his brother;
19
then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put
away the evil from the midst of you.
20
And those that remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any
such evil in the midst of you.
21
And your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot.