Deuteronomy 19

1 "When Yahweh your God has {exterminated} the nations [concerning whom] Yahweh your God [is] giving to you their land, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their towns and in their houses,

2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it.

3 You shall prepare the roads for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that {it will be available for any manslayer to flee there}.

4 "Now this [is] the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live [there] who has killed his neighbor {unintentionally}, and he did not hate him {previously}.

5 {For example}, when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron [head] slips from the handle [of the tool] and strikes his neighbor and he dies, [then] he may flee to one of these cities, and [so] he may live.

6 [He does this] lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because {he is hot with anger} and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance [to the city of refuge], and [so] {he kills him}, but {he did not deserve a death sentence}, because he [was] not hating him {before}.

7 Therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall set apart three cities.'

8 Then if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory [just] as he swore to your ancestors and gives to you all the land that he {promised} to give to your ancestors,

9 [then] {if you diligently observe this entire commandment} that I [am] commanding you {today} by loving Yahweh your God and by going in his ways {at all times}, then you shall add three more cities for yourselves to these three.

10 [Do this] so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance and [thereby] bloodguilt would be on you.

11 But if someone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him {and murders him}, and [the murderer] flees to one of these cities,

12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and they shall give him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall be put to death.

13 Your eye shall not take pity on him, and you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, {so that good will be directed toward you}.

14 "You shall not move the boundary [marker] of your neighbor that {former generations} set up on your property in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it.

15 {The testimony of a single witness may not be used to convict} [with respect to] any crime and for any wrongdoing in any offense that a person committed; on the {evidence} of two witnesses or on the {evidence} of three witnesses {a charge shall be sustained}.

16 If {a malicious witness} gets up {to accuse} anyone to testify against him falsely,

17 then the two men {to whom the legal dispute pertains} shall stand {before} Yahweh, {before} the priests and the judges who are [in office] in those days.

18 Then judges shall make a thorough inquiry, and [if] it turns out that the witness is a false witness [and] he testified falsely against his brother,

19 then you shall do to him as he meant to do to his brother, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

20 {And the rest} shall hear and shall fear, and {they shall not continue to do such a thing again} as this evil thing in your midst.

21 {You must show no pity}: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

Deuteronomy 19 Commentary

Chapter 19

The cities of refuge, The man-slayer, The murderer. (1-13) Landmarks not to be removed. (14) The punishment of false witnesses. (15-21)

Verses 1-13 Here is the law settled between the blood of the murdered, and the blood of the murderer; provision is made, that the cities of refuge should be a protection, so that a man should not die for that as a crime, which was not his willing act. In Christ, the Lord our Righteousness, refuge is provided for those who by faith flee unto him. But there is no refuge in Jesus Christ for presumptuous sinners, who go on still in their trespasses. Those who flee to Christ from their sins, shall be safe in him, but not those who expect to be sheltered by him in their sins.

Verse 14 Direction is given to fix landmarks in Canaan. It is the will of God that every one should know his own; and that means should be used to hinder the doing and suffering of wrong. This, without doubt, is a moral precept, and still binding. Let every man be content with his own lot, and be just to his neighbours in all things.

Verses 15-21 Sentence should never be passed upon the testimony of one witness alone. A false witness should suffer the same punishment which he sought to have inflicted upon the person he accused. Nor could any law be more just. Let all Christians not only be cautious in bearing witness in public, but be careful not to join in private slanders; and let all whose consciences accuse them of crime, without delay flee for refuge to the hope set before them in Jesus Christ.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "cut off"
• [b]. Hebrew "road"
• [c]. Literally "it shall be to flee there all/anyone killing"
• [d]. Literally "with no knowledge"
• [e]. Literally "from yesterday [and the] day before"
• [f]. Literally "And as"
• [g]. Literally "is hot his heart"
• [h]. Literally "he strikes him down as to his life/soul"
• [i]. Literally "for him there was not a judgment of death"
• [j]. Literally "from yesterday [and the] day before"
• [k]. Literally "to say"
• [l]. Or "fathers"
• [m]. Hebrew "will give"
• [n]. Literally "spoke"
• [o]. Or "fathers"
• [p]. Literally "if you observe all [of] the commandment the this to do it"
• [q]. Literally "the day"
• [r]. Or "walking"
• [s]. Literally "all [of] the days"
• [t]. Hebrew "is not shed"
• [u]. Hebrew "shall be on you," but conditional sense of imperfect is clear
• [v]. Hebrew "[is] hating"
• [w]. Or "gets up"
• [x]. Literally "and strikes him mortally [with regard to his life] and he dies"
• [y]. Literally "and good shall be for you" or "it shall be good for you"
• [z]. Literally "the first settlers/ancestors"
• [aa]. Literally "Not shall get up [only] a single witness against a man"
• [ab]. Hebrew "he"
• [ac]. Literally "mouth"
• [ad]. Literally "mouth"
• [ae]. Literally "shall be established a case/charge"
• [af]. Literally "a witness of violence"
• [ag]. Literally "against"
• [ah]. Literally "who for them [are] the legal dispute"
• [ai]. Literally "to the face of"
• [aj]. Literally "to the face of"
• [ak]. Or "in fact"
• [al]. Or "planned"
• [am]. Literally "and those remaining"
• [an]. Literally "and they shall not do again to do again"
• [ao]. Literally "And not take pity your eye"

Chapter Summary

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.