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Deuteronomy 19 :: New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20)

Cities of Refuge

(Num 35:9–28; Jos 20:1–9 )

Deu 19:1

Deu 19:1

“When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

Deu 19:2

Deu 19:2you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to [fn]possess.

Deu 19:3

Deu 19:3“You shall prepare the [fn]roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as an inheritance, [fn]so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

Deu 19:4

Deu 19:4

“Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he [fn]kills his friend [fn]unintentionally, [fn]not hating him previously—

Deu 19:5

Deu 19:5as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand [fn]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the [fn]handle and [fn]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live.

Deu 19:6

Deu 19:6“Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue [fn]him [fn]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and [fn]take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously.

Deu 19:7

Deu 19:7“Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’

Deu 19:8

Deu 19:8

“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He [fn]promised to give your fathers—

Deu 19:9

Deu 19:9if you [fn]carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

Deu 19:10

Deu 19:10“So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

Deu 19:11

Deu 19:11

“But if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes [fn]him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

Deu 19:12

Deu 19:12then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

Deu 19:13

Deu 19:13“[fn]You shall not pity him, but you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

Deu 19:14

Deu 19:14

“You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to [fn]possess.

Deu 19:15

Deu 19:15

“A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin [fn]that he commits; on the [fn]testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

Deu 19:16

Deu 19:16“If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing,

Deu 19:17

Deu 19:17then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

Deu 19:18

Deu 19:18“And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely,

Deu 19:19

Deu 19:19then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

Deu 19:20

Deu 19:20“And the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

Deu 19:21

Deu 19:21“So [fn]you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
See the NASB20 Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NASB20 Footnotes
Lit possess it
Lit road
Lit and it shall be for everyone who committed manslaughter to flee there
Lit strikes
Lit without knowledge
Lit and he was not hating him previously
Lit is put to the
Lit wood
Lit finds
Lit the one who committed manslaughter
Lit while his heart is hot
Lit strike him in the soul
Lit spoke
Lit keep all...to do it
Lit him in the soul
Lit Your eye
Lit possess it
Lit in any sin, that he sins
Lit mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three
Lit your eye
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