Deuteronomy 19:4-14

4 "¹Now 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 ²enlarges 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, ³to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always * -⁴then 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 ⁵bloodguiltiness be on you.

11 "But ⁶if 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 "⁷You shall not pity him, but ⁸you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

14 "⁹You 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.

Deuteronomy 19:4-14 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.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 35:9-34
• 2. Genesis 15:18
• 3. Deuteronomy 6:5
• 4. Joshua 20:7
• 5. Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 21:1-9
• 6. Exodus 21:12; Numbers 35:16; 1 John 3:15
• 7. Deuteronomy 7:2
• 8. 1 Kings 2:31
• 9. Deuteronomy 27:17; Job 24:2; Proverbs 22:28; Hosea 5:10

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "smites"
• [b] Lit "without knowledge"
• [c] Lit "and he was not hating him previously"
• [d] Lit "is thrust with"
• [e] Lit "wood"
• [f] Lit "finds"
• [g] Lit "while his heart is hot"
• [h] Lit "smite him in the soul"
• [i] Lit "spoke"
• [j] Lit "keep...to do it"
• [k] Lit "him in the soul"
• [l] Lit "Your eye"
• [m] Lit "possess it"