Deuteronomy 19:1-7

1 "When Yahweh your God has {exterminated} the nations [concerning whom] Yahweh your God [is] giving to you their land, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their towns and in their houses,

2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it.

3 You shall prepare the roads for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that {it will be available for any manslayer to flee there}.

4 "Now this [is] the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live [there] who has killed his neighbor {unintentionally}, and he did not hate him {previously}.

5 {For example}, when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron [head] slips from the handle [of the tool] and strikes his neighbor and he dies, [then] he may flee to one of these cities, and [so] he may live.

6 [He does this] lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because {he is hot with anger} and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance [to the city of refuge], and [so] {he kills him}, but {he did not deserve a death sentence}, because he [was] not hating him {before}.

7 Therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall set apart three cities.'

Deuteronomy 19:1-7 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "cut off"
• [b]. Hebrew "road"
• [c]. Literally "it shall be to flee there all/anyone killing"
• [d]. Literally "with no knowledge"
• [e]. Literally "from yesterday [and the] day before"
• [f]. Literally "And as"
• [g]. Literally "is hot his heart"
• [h]. Literally "he strikes him down as to his life/soul"
• [i]. Literally "for him there was not a judgment of death"
• [j]. Literally "from yesterday [and the] day before"
• [k]. Literally "to say"