Deuteronomy 19; Deuteronomy 20; Deuteronomy 21; Mark 13:21-37

1 When the Lord your God gives you land that belongs to the other nations, nations that he will destroy, you will force them out and live in their cities and houses.

2 Then choose three cities in the middle of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

3 Build roads to these cities, and divide the land the Lord is giving you into three parts so that someone who kills another person may run to these cities.

4 This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these cities in order to save his life. But the person must have killed a neighbor without meaning to, not out of hatred.

5 For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood and swings an ax to cut down a tree. If the ax head flies off the handle, hitting and killing the neighbor, the one who killed him may run to one of these cities to save his life.

6 Otherwise, the dead person's relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer might be angry and chase him. If the city is far away, the relative might catch and kill the person, even though he should not be killed because there was no intent to kill his neighbor.

7 This is why I command you to choose these three cities.

8

9 Carefully obey all these laws I'm giving you today. Love the Lord your God, and always do what he wants you to do. Then the Lord your God will enlarge your land as he promised your ancestors, giving you the whole land he promised to them. After that, choose three more cities of safety

10 so that innocent people will not be killed in your land, the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your own. By doing this you will not be guilty of allowing the death of innocent people.

11 But if a person hates his neighbor and, after hiding and waiting, attacks and kills him and then runs to one of these cities for safety,

12 the older leaders of his own city should send for the murderer. They should bring the person back from the city of safety and hand him over to the relative who has the duty of punishing the murderer.

13 Show no mercy. You must remove from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people so that things will go well for you.

14 Do not move the stone that marks the border of your neighbor's land, which people long ago set in place. It marks what you inherit in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

15 One witness is not enough to accuse a person of a crime or sin. A case must be proved by two or three witnesses.

16 If a witness lies and accuses a person of a crime,

17 the two people who are arguing must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who are on duty.

18 The judges must check the matter carefully. The witness who is a liar, lying about a fellow Israelite,

19 must be punished. He must be punished in the same way the other person would have been punished. You must get rid of the evil among you.

20 The rest of the people will hear about this and be afraid, and no one among you will ever do such an evil thing again.

21 Show no mercy. A life must be paid for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.

1 When you go to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army that is bigger than yours, don't be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.

2 The priest must come and speak to the army before you go into battle.

3 He will say, "Listen, Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Don't lose your courage or be afraid. Don't panic or be frightened,

4 because the Lord your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies and to save you."

5 The officers should say to the army, "Has anyone built a new house but not given it to God? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would get to give his house to God.

6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would enjoy his vineyard.

7 Is any man engaged to a woman and not yet married to her? He may go home, because he might die in battle and someone else would marry her."

8 Then the officers should also say, "Is anyone here afraid? Has anyone lost his courage? He may go home so that he will not cause others to lose their courage, too."

9 When the officers finish speaking to the army, they should appoint commanders to lead it.

10 When you march up to attack a city, first make them an offer of peace.

11 If they accept your offer and open their gates to you, all the people of that city will become your slaves and work for you.

12 But if they do not make peace with you and fight you in battle, you should surround that city.

13 The Lord your God will give it to you. Then kill all the men with your swords,

14 and you may take everything else in the city for yourselves. Take the women, children, and animals, and you may use these things the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.

15 Do this to all the cities that are far away, that do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 But leave nothing alive in the cities of the land the Lord your God is giving you.

17 Completely destroy these people: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.

18 Otherwise, they will teach you what they do for their gods, and if you do these hateful things, you will sin against the Lord your God.

19 If you surround and attack a city for a long time, trying to capture it, do not destroy its trees with an ax. You can eat the fruit from the trees, but do not cut them down. These trees are not the enemy, so don't make war against them.

20 But you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build devices to attack the city walls, until the city is captured.

1 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person.

2 Your older leaders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities.

3 The older leaders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke,

4 and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow's neck.

5 The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord's name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks.

6 Then all the older leaders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.

7 They should declare: "We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen.

8 Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don't blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person." And so the murder will be paid for.

9 Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

10 When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive.

11 If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.

12 Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails

13 and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife.

14 But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor.

15 A man might have two wives, one he loves and one he doesn't. Both wives might have sons by him. If the older son belongs to the wife he does not love,

16 when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love.

17 He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son.

18 If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn't obey them or listen when they correct him,

19 his parents must take him to the older leaders at the city gate.

20 They will say to the leaders, "Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much, and he is always drunk."

21 Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because then all the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid.

22 If someone is guilty of a sin worthy of death, he must be put to death and his body displayed on a tree.

23 But don't leave his body hanging on the tree overnight; be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone whose body is displayed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not ruin the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

21 At that time, someone might say to you, 'Look, there is the Christ!' Or another person might say, 'There he is!' But don't believe them.

22 False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great wonders and miracles. They will try to fool even the people God has chosen, if that is possible.

23 So be careful. I have warned you about all this before it happens.

24 "During the days after this trouble comes, 'the sun will grow dark, and the moon will not give its light.

25 The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.'

26 "Then people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

27 Then he will send his angels all around the earth to gather his chosen people from every part of the earth and from every part of heaven.

28 "Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near.

29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come.

30 I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living.

31 Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed.

32 "No one knows when that day or time will be, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows.

33 Be careful! Always be ready, because you don't know when that time will be.

34 It is like a man who goes on a trip. He leaves his house and lets his servants take care of it, giving each one a special job to do. The man tells the servant guarding the door always to be watchful.

35 So always be ready, because you don't know when the owner of the house will come back. It might be in the evening, or at midnight, or in the morning while it is still dark, or when the sun rises.

36 Always be ready. Otherwise he might come back suddenly and find you sleeping.

37 I tell you this, and I say this to everyone: 'Be ready!'"