Deuteronomy 19

1When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, 2you are to set apart three cities inside your land, the land the LORD your God is giving you to take as your own. 3Prepare the roads, and divide into three regions the territory the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of these cities. 4This is the rule for the killer who may flee there and stay alive: it is anyone who kills a neighbor by accident, without having hated that neighbor before. 5For example, someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood. As the ax is swung to fell a tree, the head flies off the handle and strikes the neighbor, who dies. The one who was cutting may flee to one of these cities and stay alive, 6or else the avenger of blood, in the heat of anger, might chase the killer, catch up because the way is long, and kill them. Yet that person did not deserve to die, having had no hatred for the dead neighbor before. 7That is why I command you to set apart three cities.

8If the LORD your God extends your borders, as he promised your ancestors on oath, and gives you all the land he said he would give them, 9because you are careful to keep this whole commandment that I give you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in his ways, then add three more cities to these three, 10so that innocent blood is not shed in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you do not become guilty of bloodshed.

11But if someone hates a neighbor, lies in wait, attacks and kills that neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, 12the elders of the murderer’s own town are to send for them, bring them back from there and hand them over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. 13Show them no pity. You must remove from Israel the guilt of innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.

14Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, set up by those who came before you, in the inheritance you will receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.

15One witness alone is not enough to convict anyone of any crime or wrong, whatever the offense may be. A case can stand only on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 16If a witness who means harm comes forward to accuse someone of wrongdoing, 17then the two people who have the dispute must stand before the LORD, in front of the priests and the judges in office at that time. 18The judges are to look into the matter carefully. If the witness proves to be a liar who has given false evidence against a fellow Israelite, 19do to that witness what the witness intended to do to the other person. In this way you will remove the evil from among you. 20Everyone else will hear of it and be afraid, and none of them will ever again do anything so evil among you. 21Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.