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Statutes About Cities of Refuge

¹ "^(C1)When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,^2 (C1)you shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ^(F1)possess.³ "You shall prepare the ^(F1)roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ^(F2)so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ "^(C1)Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ^(F1)without premeditation, ^(F2)not hating him previously—⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^(F1)swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^(F2)handle and ^(F3)strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live;⁶ lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ^(F1)angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ^(F2)strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.⁷ "Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, 'You shall set apart three cities for yourself.'

⁸ "Now if Yahweh your God ^(C1)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ^(F1)promised to give to your fathers—⁹ if you ^(F1)be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(C1)to love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^(C2)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.¹⁰ "So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^(C1)bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ "But ^(C1)if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ^(F1)his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.¹³ "^(F1)(C1)You shall not pity him, but ^(C2)you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses

¹⁴ "^(C1)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 Yahweh your God gives you to ^(F1)possess.

¹⁵ "^(C1)A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ^(F1)which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established.¹⁶ "^(C1)If a malicious witness rises up against a man to ^(F1)accuse him of ^(F2)wrongdoing,¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^(C1)before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.¹⁸ "And the judges ^(C1)shall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has ^(F1)accused his brother falsely,¹⁹ then ^(C1)you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.²⁰ "^(C1)And the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you.²¹ "Thus ^(C1)your eye shall not show pity: ^(C2)life for life, ^(C3)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.