Deuteronomy 19:1-13

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

1 "When ¹the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

2 ²you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

3 You shall measure the distances^[a] and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

4 "This is the provision for ³the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past--

5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies--he may flee to one of these cities and live,

6 lest ⁴the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.

7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.

8 ⁵And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, ⁶as he has sworn to your fathers, and ⁷gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers--

9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways--⁸then you shall add three other cities to these three,

10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

11 "But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him ⁹and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,

12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

13 ¹⁰Your eye shall not pity him, ¹¹but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood^[b] from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Read Chapter Compare

Deuteronomy 19:1-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 19

This chapter contains an order to separate three cities of refuge in the land of Canaan, for such that killed a man unawares to flee to, of which those who were guilty of murder purposely were to have no benefit, De 19:1-13, a law is given against removing landmarks, De 19:14, and others concerning witnesses, that they should be more than one; be two, or three, De 19:15, and that a false witness, on conviction, should be punished, De 19:16-21.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. Deuteronomy 12:29
2. Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:10, 14; Joshua 20:2, 8
3. Deuteronomy 4:42; Numbers 35:15; Joshua 20:3, 5
4. Num. 35:12, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27
5. Deuteronomy 12:20
6. Exodus 34:24; [Exodus 23:31]
7. See Genesis 15:18-21
8. ver. 2; [Joshua 20:7]
9. Deuteronomy 27:24; Exodus 21:12, 14; See Numbers 35:16-21
10. See Deuteronomy 7:16
11. Deuteronomy 21:9; Numbers 35:33; [1 Kings 2:31]

Footnotes 2

[a]. Hebrew road
[b]. Or the blood of the innocent

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.