Chapter Nineteen

Repetition of the law concerning the cities of refuge. — The inviolability of the boundary marker. Clarification of the law concerning witnesses in court. — Punishment of a false witness.

Deuteronomy 19:1. When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and their houses, Deuteronomy 19:2. then you shall set apart three cities in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as a possession; Deuteronomy 19:3. you shall prepare the road and divide into three parts the whole territory of your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; they shall serve as a refuge for every manslayer. Deuteronomy 19:4. This is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having been his enemy previously; Deuteronomy 19:5. if someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the ax to cut down a tree, and the iron head flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies — that man may flee to one of those cities and live, Deuteronomy 19:6. lest the avenger of blood, in the heat of his heart, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not been his enemy previously; Deuteronomy 19:7. therefore I command you: you shall set apart three cities for yourself. Deuteronomy 19:8. And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers, Deuteronomy 19:9. if you are careful to keep all these commandments that I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk in his ways at all times — then you shall add three more cities to these three, Deuteronomy 19:10. so that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and so that guilt for bloodshed not be upon you. Deuteronomy 19:11. But if anyone is an enemy to his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him and strikes him fatally, and he flees to one of these cities, Deuteronomy 19:12. then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die; Deuteronomy 19:13. your eye shall not pity him; purge from Israel the blood of the innocent, and it shall go well with you. Cf. Num 35:6-34. “Set apart three cities” (vv. 2, 9) — in western Cisjordan: three cities in the east had already been designated (Deut 4:41-43). Concerning the fulfillment of the noted ordinance of Moses, see Josh 20:7. Cf. Prov 22:28.

Deuteronomy 19:15. One witness is not sufficient against a person for any wrongdoing or for any sin that he may commit; on the testimony of two witnesses, or on the testimony of three witnesses, shall every matter be established. Cf. Num 35:30; Deut 17:6.

Deuteronomy 19:16. If a malicious witness rises up against someone, accusing him of a crime, Deuteronomy 19:17. then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days; Deuteronomy 19:18. the judges shall inquire carefully, and if the witness is a false witness and has testified falsely against his brother, Deuteronomy 19:19. then you shall do to him as he had intended to do to his brother; so you shall purge the evil from among you; Deuteronomy 19:20. and the rest shall hear and be afraid, and shall never again do such an evil thing among you; Deuteronomy 19:21. your eye shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. [Whatever harm anyone does to his neighbor, so it shall be done to him.] The motive for the strict measures recommended by the lawgiver against false witnesses is found in verses 19–20 (cf. Deut 13:5).