19:1 “When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,
19:2 you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to ①possess.
▷ ①Lit possess it
19:3 You shall prepare the ①roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as an inheritance, ②so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.
▷ ①Lit road ②Lit and it shall be for everyone who committed manslaughter to flee there
19:4 “Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he ①kills his friend ②unintentionally, ③not hating him previously—
▷ ①Lit strikes ②Lit without knowledge ③Lit and he was not hating him previously
19:5 as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ①swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ②handle and ③strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live.
▷ ①Lit is put to the ②Lit wood ③Lit finds
19:6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue ①him ②in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and ③take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously.
▷ ①Lit the one who committed manslaughter ②Lit while his heart is hot ③Lit strike him in the soul
19:7 Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’
19:8 “And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He ①promised to give your fathers—
▷ ①Lit spoke
19:9 if you ①carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.
▷ ①Lit keep all...to do it
19:10 So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.
19:11 “But if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes ①him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,
▷ ①Lit him in the soul
19:12 then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
19:13 ①You shall not pity him, but you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.
▷ ①Lit Your eye
19:14 “You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to ①possess.
▷ ①Lit possess it
19:15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin ①that he commits; on the ②testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.
▷ ①Lit in any sin, that he sins ②Lit mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three
19:16 If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing,
19:17 then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.
19:18 And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely,
19:19 then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
19:20 And the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.
19:21 So ①you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
▷ ①Lit your eye