Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge

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

2 ²you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess.

3 "You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there.

4 "³Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally *, not hating him previously -

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

6 otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

7 "Therefore *, I command you, saying, 'You shall set aside three cities for yourself.'

8 "If the LORD your God ⁴enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give your fathers -

9 if you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ⁵to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always * -⁶then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

10 "So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, and ⁷bloodguiltiness be on you.

11 "But ⁸if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

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

13 "⁹You shall not pity him, but ¹⁰you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

14 "¹¹You shall not move your neighbor's boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.

15 "¹²A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

16 "¹³If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,

17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ¹⁴before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

18 "The judges ¹⁵shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,

19 then ¹⁶you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

20 "¹⁷The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again * do such an evil thing among you.

21 "Thus ¹⁸you shall not show pity: ¹⁹life for life, ²⁰eye 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.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 6:10, 11
• 2. Deuteronomy 4:41; Joshua 20:2
• 3. Numbers 35:9-34
• 4. Genesis 15:18
• 5. Deuteronomy 6:5
• 6. Joshua 20:7
• 7. Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 21:1-9
• 8. Exodus 21:12; Numbers 35:16; 1 John 3:15
• 9. Deuteronomy 7:2
• 10. 1 Kings 2:31
• 11. Deuteronomy 27:17; Job 24:2; Proverbs 22:28; Hosea 5:10
• 12. Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; Matthew 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28
• 13. Exodus 23:1; Psalms 27:12
• 14. Deuteronomy 17:9
• 15. Deuteronomy 25:1
• 16. Proverbs 19:5
• 17. Deuteronomy 17:13; Deuteronomy 21:21
• 18. Deuteronomy 19:13
• 19. Exodus 21:23; Leviticus 24:20
• 20. Matthew 5:38

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "possess it"
• [b]. Lit "road"
• [c]. Lit "and it shall be for every manslayer to flee there"
• [d]. Lit "smites"
• [e]. Lit "without knowledge"
• [f]. Lit "and he was not hating him previously"
• [g]. Lit "is thrust with"
• [h]. Lit "wood"
• [i]. Lit "finds"
• [j]. Lit "while his heart is hot"
• [k]. Lit "smite him in the soul"
• [l]. Lit "spoke"
• [m]. Lit "keep...to do it"
• [n]. Lit "him in the soul"
• [o]. Lit "Your eye"
• [p]. Lit "possess it"
• [q]. Lit "in any sin, which he sins"
• [r]. Lit "mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three"
• [s]. Lit "testify against"
• [t]. Lit "turning aside"
• [u]. Lit "testified against"
• [v]. Lit "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.