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Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves.
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When God, your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them
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because you are diligently living the way I'm commanding you today, namely, to love God, your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities
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so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land. God, your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance - you don't want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves.
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On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that's a different story.
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The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution.
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Don't feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you'll be able to live well and breathe clean air.
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Don't move your neighbor's boundary markers, the longstanding landmarks set up by your pioneer ancestors defining their property.
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You cannot convict anyone of a crime or sin on the word of one witness. You need two or three witnesses to make a case.
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If a hostile witness stands to accuse someone of a wrong,
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then both parties involved in the quarrel must stand in the Presence of God before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.