The big picture
Deaths and disputes in the settled land are the next concern of Moses, the leader giving Israel its laws. Israel, the people God brings into the land, must set apart towns that people can reach for safety. An accidental killer needs shelter from revenge. A planned killer cannot claim that shelter as a right. The laws also guard against false charges and the theft of land through moving its boundary marks.
In this chapter
- Three Cities Must Offer Reachable Refuge Deuteronomy 19:1-7
Israel must set apart three cities and prepare roads to them across the land.
- More Land Requires More Refuge Cities Deuteronomy 19:8-10
God has promised more land to Israel's ancestors.
- Refuge Does Not Shield a Murderer Deuteronomy 19:11-14
A man who hates his neighbour, waits in ambush, and kills him cannot hide safely in a refuge city.
- False Witnesses Face Their Intended Penalty Deuteronomy 19:15-21
A charge needs two or three witnesses rather than one.
Central truth
God orders safety for accidental killers and care in hearing charges, while denying refuge to murderers and exposing false witnesses.
Scripture beside the summary
Deuteronomy · King James Version · 21Deuteronomy 19:1-7
Three Cities Must Offer Reachable Refuge
Israel must set apart three cities and prepare roads to them across the land. A person who kills without earlier hatred can flee there and live. Moses gives the example of an axe head slipping off and killing a companion. The dead person's relative could pursue in rage and kill the other man before he reaches safety. A refuge too far away would fail its purpose. The law treats an unplanned death differently from murder and requires a way to escape revenge.
In everyday life
A metal-lathe foreman leads a shaken operator off the factory floor after a fatal accident. Angry coworkers crowd behind them. He closes the door of a supervised room while the facts are checked. Rage must not decide the man's fate. Israel's refuge cities provide a lasting legal safeguard, not one foreman's response to a crisis.
Notice
Deuteronomy 19:3 Roads must be prepared along with the cities. Protection depends on whether a person can reach refuge, not only on naming a safe destination.
Deuteronomy 19:1-7
King James Version1When the LORD thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the LORD thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses;
2Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
3Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither.
4And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;
5As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
6Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.
7Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.
Deuteronomy 19:8-10
More Land Requires More Refuge Cities
God has promised more land to Israel's ancestors. If he grants it and the people obey him, they must add three more refuge cities. The larger land must still offer safety to a person fleeing after an accidental death. Longer roads must not leave him exposed to revenge before he reaches shelter. Otherwise the people themselves would bear guilt for his death. More land brings a greater duty to make the places of refuge close enough for people to reach.
In everyday life
The kiosk supervisor adds a named reporting contact at each new shoe-polish stand. Staff in the newest kiosks no longer have to reach the owner at the first shop to report a serious threat. Growth brings a need to extend safeguards. Israel's refuge prevents bloodshed, a danger more grave than blocked access to an employer.
Notice
Deuteronomy 19:10 Israel bears guilt if innocent blood is shed through this failure. Providing nearby refuge is a duty of the people, not only a problem for the fleeing man.
Deuteronomy 19:8-10
King James Version8And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;
9If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
10That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.
Deuteronomy 19:11-14
Refuge Does Not Shield a Murderer
A man who hates his neighbour, waits in ambush, and kills him cannot hide safely in a refuge city. His town's elders must bring him back and hand him to the dead person's avenging relative for death. Pity must not erase the guilt of planned bloodshed. Moses then forbids moving a neighbour's old boundary marker. The safe towns must not hide murder, and people must not steal land by shifting its marks. Both rules protect a neighbour's life or land.
In everyday life
A hotel security manager removes a guest from a protected reception room after camera footage shows that he attacked another guest on purpose. The room provides safety while facts are checked, not freedom from a proven charge. She calls the police. Israel's rule orders death for murder and also guards land boundaries.
Notice
Deuteronomy 19:12 The elders bring the planned killer back from refuge. The city guards against wrongful revenge, not against the penalty for an ambush and killing.
Deuteronomy 19:11-14
King James Version11But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:
12Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.
14Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
Deuteronomy 19:15-21
False Witnesses Face Their Intended Penalty
A charge needs two or three witnesses rather than one. If a witness is accused of lying, both sides appear before the priests and judges. The judges must check the case with care. A false witness receives the penalty he meant to bring on the other person. Others will hear and fear doing the same. The final matching penalties measure the response by the harm sought. Trying to bring a false charge is itself a serious act against a neighbour.
In everyday life
A music-contest steward finds that an entrant forged a complaint to have a rival banned. She checks the evidence with both musicians present, then applies the contest's penalty to the liar. Making the false charge has become his own offence. The biblical rule includes life and bodily penalties, not loss of a contest place alone.
Notice
Deuteronomy 19:19 The liar receives the harm he meant to inflict through his testimony. The law treats an accusation as an action with real consequences for another person.
Deuteronomy 19:15-21
King James Version15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
16If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
21And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Deuteronomy 19:1 begins with “When the LORD thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the LORD thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in…”
Where the chapter turns
Deuteronomy 19:11 forms a natural hinge: “But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these…”
The final note
Deuteronomy 19:21 leaves the reader with “And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, cities, land, blood, giveth, hand help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- helve
- The handle of an axe or similar hand tool.
- landmark
- A marker showing the boundary of a person's inherited land.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
