Deut 19.1-21 tells us about laws relating to crime; the cities of refuge; removing a landmark; conspiring false witnesses and equitable compensation.
v 1…”When the Lord your God cuts off all the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,
v 2…you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land (on the west side of the Jordan), which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
v 3…You shall prepare the roads for yourself (so it will be easy for the manslayer to flee there), and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there (these three cities should equally distant from one another).
v 4…Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously (not premeditated),
v 5…as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies-he may flee to one of the cities and live (be safe),
v 6…lest the avenger of blood pursues the manslayer in the heat of his anger and overtake him, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.
v 7…Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself (for safety).’
v 8…And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, just as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give to your fathers-
v 9…if you carefully observe all this commandment, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God (by action), and to walk in his ways always-then you shall add three more cities for yourself (on the east side of the Jordan), besides these three.
v 10…So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your kand which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and bloodguiltiness be on you (the guilt of innocent blood crying for vengeance).
v 11…But if there is amn he hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,
v 12…then the elders (judges) of the city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die (after a thorough investigation into the matter).
v 13…You (the judges) shall not pity him (show no favor on account of his being a citizen or rich or whatever his circumstances are) but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you (in God’s blessings).
v 14…You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which your ancestors have set in your inheritance (Num 34)which you shall inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess (Deut 27.17).
v 15…A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.
v 16…If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
v 17…then both men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord; before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days (Deut 17.9).
v 18…And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,
v 19…then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother (the same fine, punishment or action). Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
v 20…And the rest will hear (through a proclamation that he is a false witness) and be afraid (to commit the same sin), and will never again do such an evil thing among you.
v 21…Thus you shall not show any pity; life for life (if the false testimony would have cost the accused his life), eye for eye (the price for an eye), tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (if the injuries were not fatal, then monetary compensation was required; measure for measure; it had to be equitable).”
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