Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge
1
"When 1the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
2
2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
3
You shall measure the distancesa and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
4
"This is the provision for 3the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past--
5
as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies--he may flee to one of these cities and live,
6
lest 4the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.
7
Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.
8
5And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, 6as he has sworn to your fathers, and 7gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers--
9
provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways--8then you shall add three other cities to these three,
10
lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11
"But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him 9and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,
12
then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
13
10Your eye shall not pity him, 11but you shall purge the guilt of innocent bloodb from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
Property Boundaries
14
12"You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Laws Concerning Witnesses
15
"A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. 13Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
16
If 14a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,
17
then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, 15before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
18
The judges shall 16inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19
17then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evilc from your midst.
20
And the rest 18shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)