Deuteronomy 19–21

1When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess.

3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there.

4This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him in time past—

5as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live.

6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while hot anger is in his heart and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past.

7Therefore I command you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

8If Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

9and if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three.

10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.

11But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;

12then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

14You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess.

15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

17then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;

18and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother,

19then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

20Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you.

21Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

1When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

2It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,

3and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

4for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

5The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

6What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit.

7What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.”

8The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.”

9It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.

10When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

11It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you.

12If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it.

13When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword;

14but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.

15Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

16But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

17but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you;

18that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.

19When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you?

20Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

1If someone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him,

2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain.

3It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke.

4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

5The priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.

6All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

7They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

8Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.

9So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.

10When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive,

11and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife,

12then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.

13She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated,

16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;

17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them,

19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.

20They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.