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Deuteronomy 19 :: New English Translation (NET)

Deu 19:1

Deu 19:1When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

Deu 19:2

Deu 19:2you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.

Deu 19:3

Deu 19:3You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent of your land that the LORD your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities.

Deu 19:4

Deu 19:4Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident.

Deu 19:5

Deu 19:5Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself.

Deu 19:6

Deu 19:6Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

Deu 19:7

Deu 19:7Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

Deu 19:8

Deu 19:8If the LORD your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them,

Deu 19:9

Deu 19:9and then you are careful to observe all these commandments I am giving you today (namely, to love the LORD your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities to these three.

Deu 19:10

Deu 19:10You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

Deu 19:11

Deu 19:11However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities.

Deu 19:12

Deu 19:12The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die.

Deu 19:13

Deu 19:13You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

Deu 19:14

Deu 19:14You must not encroach on your neighbor's property, which will have been defined in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deu 19:15

Deu 19:15A single witness may not testify against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Deu 19:16

Deu 19:16If a false witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime,

Deu 19:17

Deu 19:17then both parties to the controversy must stand before the LORD, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days.

Deu 19:18

Deu 19:18The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused,

Deu 19:19

Deu 19:19you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

Deu 19:20

Deu 19:20The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.

Deu 19:21

Deu 19:21You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.
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Pericope

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