Deuteronomy 19-20

Common English Bible

Cities of refuge

19 Once the Lord your God has eliminated those nations—whose land the Lord your God is giving you—and you displace them, settling into their cities and their houses, ² you must designate three cities for your use in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ Mark out the roads to them^[a] and divide the regions of the land the Lord your God is apportioning to you into three parts. These cities are the places to which a person who has killed can escape. ⁴ Here is the rule concerning a person who killed someone and is permitted to escape to one of these cities and live:

If it is someone who killed his neighbor accidentally, without having hated that person previously; ⁵ or if someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to chop some wood, and while swinging an ax to cut down the tree, the axhead flies off its handle and hits the neighbor, who subsequently dies—these kinds of killers may escape to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the blood avenger will chase after the killer out of rage and—especially if the distance to one of these cities^[b] is too far—might catch and kill him, even though a death sentence was not in order because the killer didn’t have prior malice toward the other. ⁷ This is why I am commanding you as follows: Designate three cities for your use.

⁸ Now if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors—and he will give you all the land he swore to give to them ⁹ as long as you keep all this commandment that I am giving you right now by doing it, by loving the Lord your God, and by always walking in his ways—you can add three more cities for your use along with the first three. ¹⁰ Innocent blood must not be spilled in the land the Lord your God is giving to you as an inheritance, or it will be bloodshed that will be required of you.

¹¹ But if someone does hate a neighbor and ambushes him, rising up against him and attacking him so he dies, and then escapes to one of these cities, ¹² elders from the killer’s hometown will send word, and the killer will be sent back from there. They will then hand him over to the blood avenger, and he will be executed. ¹³ Show no mercy to such killers. Remove^[c] innocent bloodshed from Israel so that things go well for you.

Property laws

¹⁴ Now in the land the Lord your God is giving you, in your allotted property that you will receive there, you must not tamper with your neighbor’s property line, which has been previously established.

Rules for testimony

¹⁵ A solitary witness against someone in any crime, wrongdoing, or in any sort of misdeed that might be done is not sufficient. The decision must stand by two or three witnesses. ¹⁶ Now if a spiteful witness comes forward against someone, so as to testify against them falsely, ¹⁷ the two persons who have a legal suit must stand before the Lord, before the priests, and before the judges that are in office at that time. ¹⁸ The judges will look into the situation very carefully. If it turns out that the witness is a liar—that the witness has given false testimony against his fellow Israelite— ¹⁹ then you must do to him what he had planned to do to his fellow Israelite. Remove^[d] such evil from your community! ²⁰ The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again. ²¹ Show no mercy on this point: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Rules for warfare

20 When you march out to battle your enemies and you see horses, chariots, and a fighting force larger than yours, don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, the one who brought you up from Egypt, is with you. ² As you advance toward the war, the priest will come forward and will address the troops. ³ He will say to them: “Listen, Israel: Right now you are advancing to wage war against your enemies. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be afraid! Don’t panic! Don’t shake in fear on account of them, ⁴ because the Lord your God is going with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you.”

⁵ The officials will also say to the troops: “Is there anyone here who has just built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the war and someone else would dedicate the house. ⁶ Or is there anyone here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet put it to good use? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would use the vineyard. ⁷ Or is there anyone here who is engaged but not yet married? He may leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would marry his fiancée.”

⁸ The officials will continue to address the troops, stating: “Is there anyone here who is afraid and discouraged? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, his comrades might lose courage just as he has.” ⁹ Once the officials have completed their speech to the troops, the army commanders will assume leadership of the forces.

¹⁰ When you approach a city to fight against it, you should first extend peaceful terms to it. ¹¹ If the city responds with peaceful terms and surrenders to you, then all the people in the city will serve you as forced laborers. ¹² However, if the city does not negotiate peacefully with you but makes war against you, you may attack it. ¹³ The Lord your God will hand it over to you; you must kill all the city’s males with the sword. ¹⁴ However, you can take for yourselves the women, the children, the animals, and all that is in the city—all its plunder. You can then enjoy your enemies’ plunder, which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁵ That’s what you must do to all the cities that are located far away from you—specifically, those cities that don’t belong to these nations here. ¹⁶ But in the case of any of the cities of these peoples—the ones the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance—you must not spare any living thing. ¹⁷ Instead, you must place these under the ban:^[e] Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹⁸ Then they can’t teach you to do all the detestable things they did for their gods, with the result that you end up sinning against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ Now if you have been attacking a city for some time, fighting against it and trying to conquer it, don’t destroy its trees by cutting them down with axes. You can eat from those trees; don’t cut them down! Do you think a tree of the field is some sort of warrior to be attacked by you in battle? ²⁰ That said, if you know that a tree is not a food-producing tree, you are allowed to destroy it, cutting it down and using it in the siege against the city that is fighting against you until it falls.