Deuteronomy 19:7-17

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

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

11 "But ⁵if 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 "⁶You shall not pity him, but ⁷you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

14 "⁸You 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 "⁹A 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 "¹⁰If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,

17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ¹¹before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

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

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "spoke"
• [b]. Lit "keep...to do it"
• [c]. Lit "him in the soul"
• [d]. Lit "Your eye"
• [e]. Lit "possess it"
• [f]. Lit "in any sin, which he sins"
• [g]. Lit "mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three"
• [h]. Lit "testify against"
• [i]. Lit "turning aside"