Deuteronomy 19

¹ ‘When Yahweh your God has annihilated the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you have dispossessed them and you live in their towns and in their houses,

² you are to set aside three cities in the land Yahweh is giving you for your possession.

³ You must keep the approaches to them in good order and divide into three parts the area of the land Yahweh your God is giving into your possession, so that any homicide may be able to find a refuge in them.

⁴ Here is the case of how a man may save his life by taking refuge there. ‘If anyone has struck his fellow accidentally, not having any previous feud with him

⁵ (for example, he goes with his fellow into the forest to cut wood; his arm swings the axe to fell a tree; the head slips off the handle and strikes his companion dead), that man may take refuge in one of these cities and save his life.

⁶ It must not be allowed that the avenger of blood, in the heat of his anger, should pursue the killer and that the length of the road should help him to overtake and fatally wound him; for the man has not deserved to die, having had no previous feud with his companion.

⁷ ‘I command you therefore: You are to set aside three cities,

⁸ and if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers he would, and gives you the whole land he promised to give your fathers –

⁹ provided you keep and observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God and always following his ways – then to those three cities you will add three more.

¹⁰ In this way, innocent blood will not be shed in the land Yahweh your God gives for your inheritance; otherwise there would be blood-guilt on you.

¹¹ ‘But if it happens that a man has a feud with his fellow and lies in wait for him and falls on him and wounds him fatally and he dies, and the man takes refuge in one of these cities,

¹² the elders of his own town shall send to have him seized and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die.

¹³ You are to show him no pity. You must banish the shedding of innocent blood from Israel, and then you will prosper.

¹⁴ ‘You must not displace your neighbour’s boundary mark, set by your forbears, in the inheritance you receive in the land Yahweh is giving into your possession.

¹⁵ ‘A single witness cannot suffice to convict a man of a crime or offence of any kind; whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two witnesses or three is required to sustain the charge.

¹⁶ ‘If a malicious witness appears against a man to accuse him of rebellion,

¹⁷ both parties to this dispute before Yahweh must be brought before the priests and judges then in office.

¹⁸ The judges must make a careful inquiry, and if it turns out that the witness who accused his brother is a lying witness,

¹⁹ you must deal with him as he would have dealt with his brother. You must banish this evil from your midst.

²⁰ Others will hear of it and be afraid and never again do such an evil thing among you.

²¹ You are to show no pity.