Deuteronomy 19-20

Complete Jewish Bible

19 “When Adonai your God cuts off the nations whose land Adonai your God is giving you, and you take their place and settle in their cities and houses, ² you are to set aside three cities for yourselves in your land that Adonai your God is giving you to possess. ³ Divide the territory of your land, which Adonai your God is having you inherit, into three parts; and prepare the roads, so that any killer can flee to these cities. ⁴ The killer who will live if he flees there is someone who has killed his fellow member of the community by mistake, who did not hate him in the past. ⁵ An example would be if a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and takes a stroke with the axe to fell a tree, but the head of the axe flies off the handle, hits his neighbor and kills him. Then he is to flee to one of these cities and live there. ⁶ Otherwise the next-of-kin avenger, in the heat of his anger, may pursue the killer, overtake him because the distance [to the city of refuge] is long, and strike him dead — even though he didn’t deserve to die, inasmuch as he hadn’t hated him in the past. ⁷ This is why I am ordering you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

⁸ “If Adonai your God expands your territory, as he swore to your ancestors that he would, and gives you all the land he promised to give to your ancestors — ⁹ provided you keep and observe all these mitzvot I am giving you today, loving Adonai your God and always following his ways — then you are to add three more cities for yourselves, besides these three; ¹⁰ so that innocent blood will not be shed in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus blood guilt be on you.

¹¹ “However, if someone hates his fellow member of the community, lies in wait for him, attacks him, strikes him a death blow, and then flees into one of these cities; ¹² then the leaders of his own town are to send and bring him back from there and hand him over to the next-of-kin avenger, to be put to death. ¹³ You are not to pity him. Rather, you must put an end to the shedding of innocent blood in Isra’el. Then things will go well with you.

(vi) ¹⁴ “You are not to move your neighbor’s boundary marker from the place where people put it long ago, in the inheritance soon to be yours in the land Adonai your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵ “One witness alone will not be sufficient to convict a person of any offense or sin of any kind; the matter will be established only if there are two or three witnesses testifying against him.

¹⁶ “If a malicious witness comes forward and gives false testimony against someone, ¹⁷ then both the men involved in the controversy are to stand before Adonai, before the cohanim and the judges in office at the time. ¹⁸ The judges are to investigate carefully. If they find that the witness is lying and has given false testimony against his brother, ¹⁹ you are to do to him what he intended to do to his brother. In this way, you will put an end to such wickedness among you. ²⁰ Those who remain will hear about it, be afraid and no longer commit such wickedness among you. ²¹ Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20 “When you go out to fight your enemies and see horses, chariots and a force larger than yours, you are not to be afraid of them; because Adonai your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are about to go into battle, the cohen is to come forward and address the people. ³ He should tell them, ‘Listen, Isra’el! You are about to do battle against your enemies. Don’t be fainthearted or afraid; don’t be alarmed or frightened by them; ⁴ because Adonai your God is going with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies and give you victory.’

⁵ “Then the officials will speak to the soldiers. They are to say, ‘Is there a man here who has built a new house, but hasn’t dedicated it yet? He should go back home now; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will dedicate it.

⁶ “‘Is there a man here who has planted a vineyard, but hasn’t yet made use of its fruit? He should go back home; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will use it.

⁷ “‘Is there a man here who is engaged to a woman, but hasn’t married her yet? He should go back home; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will marry her.’

⁸ “The officials will then add to what they have said to the soldiers: ‘Is there a man here who is afraid and fainthearted? He should go back home; otherwise his fear may demoralize his comrades as well.’ ⁹ When the officials have finished speaking with the soldiers, commanders are to be appointed to lead the army.

(vii) ¹⁰ “When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it terms for peace. ¹¹ If it accepts the terms for peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people there are to be put to forced labor and work for you. ¹² However, if they refuse to make peace with you but prefer to make war against you, you are to put it under siege. ¹³ When Adonai your God hands it over to you, you are to put every male to the sword. ¹⁴ However, you are to take as booty for yourself the women, the little ones, the livestock, and everything in the city — all its spoil. Yes, you will feed on your enemies’ spoil, which Adonai your God has given you. ¹⁵ This is what you are to do to all the towns which are at a great distance from you, which are not the towns of these nations.

¹⁶ “As for the towns of these peoples, which Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance, you are not to allow anything that breathes to live. ¹⁷ Rather you must destroy them completely — the Hitti, the Emori, the Kena‘ani, the P’rizi, the Hivi and the Y’vusi — as Adonai your God has ordered you; ¹⁸ so that they won’t teach you to follow their abominable practices, which they do for their gods, thus causing you to sin against Adonai your God.

¹⁹ “When, in making war against a town in order to capture it, you lay siege to it for a long time, you are not to destroy its trees, cutting them down with an axe. You can eat their fruit, so don’t cut them down. After all, are the trees in the field human beings, so that you have to besiege them too? ²⁰ However, if you know that certain trees provide no food, you may destroy them and cut them down, in order to build siege-works against the town making war with you, until it falls.