Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

Deuteronomy 19 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

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 gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

Deu 19:2

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

Deu 19:3

Deu 19:3“You shall prepare the [fn]roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as a possession, [fn]so that any manslayer may flee there.

Deu 19:4

Deu 19:4“Now this is the case of the manslayer 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 man 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 19:6otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer [fn]in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and [fn]take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

Deu 19:7

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

Deu 19:8

Deu 19:8“If the LORD your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He [fn]promised to give your fathers—

Deu 19:9

Deu 19:9if you [fn]carefully observe all this commandment which I command 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 gives you as an inheritance, and bloodguiltiness be on you.

Deu 19:11

Deu 19:11“But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait 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 and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Deu 19:13

Deu 19:13“[fn]You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

Deu 19:14

Deu 19:14“You 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 [fn]possess.

Deu 19:15

Deu 19:15“A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin [fn]which he has committed; on the [fn]evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

Deu 19:16

Deu 19:16“If a malicious witness rises up against a man to [fn]accuse him of [fn]wrongdoing,

Deu 19:17

Deu 19:17then both the men 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“The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has [fn]accused his brother falsely,

Deu 19:19

Deu 19:19then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

Deu 19:20

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

Deu 19:21

Deu 19:21“Thus [fn]you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
See the NASB95 Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NASB95 Footnotes
Literally: possess it
Literally: road
Literally: and it shall be for every manslayer to flee there
Literally: smites
Literally: without knowledge
Literally: and he was not hating him previously
Literally: is thrust with
Literally: wood
Literally: finds
Literally: while his heart is hot
Literally: smite him in the soul
Literally: spoke
Literally: keep...to do it
Literally: him in the soul
Literally: Your eye
Literally: possess it
Literally: in any sin, which he sins
Literally: mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three
Literally: testify against
Literally: turning aside
Literally: testified against
Literally: your eye
Translation Copyright Logo

New American Standard Bible 1995
Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved
https://www.lockman.org/new-american-standard-bible-nasb/

The "NASB," "NAS," "New American Standard Bible," and "New American Standard" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by The Lockman Foundation. Use of these trademarks requires the permission of The Lockman Foundation.

For Permission To Quote visit http://www.lockman.org

For more information on this translation, see the NASB95 Preface.

Translations available: King James Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, New International Version, English Standard Version, Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible 2020, New American Standard Bible 1995, Legacy Standard Bible 2021, New English Translation, Revised Standard Version, American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation, Darby Translation, Webster's Bible, Hebrew Names Version, Reina-Valera 1960, Latin Vulgate, Westminster Leningrad Codex, Septuagint, Morphological Greek New Testament, and Textus Receptus.