Deuteronomy 19:2

2 you shall set apart three cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Deuteronomy 19:2 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 19:2

Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy
land
From the cities they took possession of and dwelt in; and indeed from the cities of the Levites, which were given to them to inhabit; three were before ordered to be separated from those inhabited by the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, ( Deuteronomy 4:41-43 ) but these were to be in the midst of the land of Canaan; see ( Joshua 20:7 Joshua 20:8 ) ,

which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it:
which as it is often mentioned when this land is spoken of, so it carries in it a reason here why this order of the Lord's should be readily complied with, the whole land and all the cities of it being the gift of his to them.

Deuteronomy 19:2 In-Context

1 When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and in their houses,

2 you shall set apart three cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

3 You shall calculate the distances and divide into three regions the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any homicide can flee to one of them.

4 Now this is the case of a homicide who might flee there and live, that is, someone who has killed another person unintentionally when the two had not been at enmity before:

5 Suppose someone goes into the forest with another to cut wood, and when one of them swings the ax to cut down a tree, the head slips from the handle and strikes the other person who then dies; the killer may flee to one of these cities and live.