Deuteronomy 19

²⁹When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

¹⁰And when the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

¹When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

¹⁴When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

¹These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess.

¹³If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

¹⁸Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

⁴¹Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east

⁴²to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

²“Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

³so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁴And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”

¹³Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

¹⁰Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!

⁸And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.

¹⁵These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

⁴²to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

²Even in times past, while Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them back. And the Lord your God said, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be ruler over them.’”

⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm.

²And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.

³³For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

¹²The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

⁵As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. “Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”

⁶“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God. And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float.

²Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.

²⁵The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

¹²You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

⁷Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.”

⁵Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the manslayer into his hand, because that man killed his neighbor accidentally without prior malice.

²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

¹⁵But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this city, and upon its residents; for truly the Lord has sent me to speak all these words in your hearing.”

¹⁶Then the officials and all the people told the priests and prophets, “This man is not worthy of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God!”

¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

¹⁹the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

²⁴For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

³¹And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

²⁰When the Lord your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

²⁰And mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem and exercised authority over the whole region west of the Euphrates; and tribute, duty, and toll were paid to them.

¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

⁷So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

⁸And beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer on the wilderness plateau from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

²²For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

²³then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

⁷Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

⁴“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

⁵So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

¹⁴So they cried out to the Lord: “Please, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O Lord, have done as You pleased.”

³¹And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.

⁴and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was unwilling to forgive.

²⁴‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁷Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

²⁴then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

¹²Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.

¹³If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

¹⁷A man burdened by bloodguilt will flee into the Pit; let no one support him.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

²⁸When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and is now beside the altar.” So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down!”

⁵Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

⁶So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

³¹And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

⁹So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

³³Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

³⁴Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.”

²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed.

¹⁷‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.

²Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

³⁰If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

¹This is the third time I am coming to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

⁶On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.

¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

²⁸Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁷Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.

¹²Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.

¹¹Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.

¹“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.

²You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

¹⁰But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹¹So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had instructed in the letters she had written to them.

¹³where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

⁵⁵Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they did not find any.

⁵⁶For many bore false witness against Jesus, but their testimony was inconsistent.

⁹You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

⁷For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

⁴and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

¹⁴then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,

¹⁶I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.

⁶Then he said to the judges, “Consider carefully what you do, for you are not judging for man, but for the Lord, who is with you when you render judgment.

⁷And now, may the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who pours out lies will perish.

²⁴you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²⁴At the command of the king, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they and their children and wives. And before they had reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

⁷The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.

⁷If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

¹³Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

¹¹Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

²⁰But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.

³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval.

⁴For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

¹¹When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom; and when a wise man is instructed, he acquires knowledge.

³⁸You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’

³⁹But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;

²³But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—

²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

¹³You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

¹⁷And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death.

¹⁸Whoever kills an animal must make restitution—life for life.