Ulangan 19:1-10

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ¹  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, 19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities ²  in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. 19:3 You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent ³  of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. 19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ⁴  if he has accidentally killed another ⁵  without hating him at the time of the accident. ⁶  19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else ⁷  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ⁸  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ⁹  from the handle and strikes ¹⁰  his fellow worker ¹¹  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ¹²  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ¹³  19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ¹⁴  and kill him, ¹⁵  though this is not a capital case ¹⁶  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. 19:7 Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. 19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ¹⁷  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ¹⁸  19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹⁹  I am giving ²⁰  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ²¹  to these three. 19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ²²  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ²³ 

Bilangan 35:6

35:6 Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. ²⁴  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

Bilangan 35:11-12

35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee. 35:12 And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.

Bilangan 35:15-28

35:15 These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.

35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, ²⁵  he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. 35:17 If he strikes him by throwing a stone large enough that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. 35:18 Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon so that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death. 35:19 The avenger ²⁶  of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

35:20 “But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally ²⁷  so that he dies, 35:21 or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

35:22 “But if he strikes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws anything at him unintentionally, 35:23 or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm, 35:24 then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions. 35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ²⁸  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil. 35:26 But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled, 35:27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood, 35:28 because the slayer ²⁹  should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions.

Ibrani 6:18

6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him ³⁰  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

[19:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[19:2]  ² sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).

[19:3]  ³ tn Heb “border.”

[19:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”

[19:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”

[19:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”

[19:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “his neighbor” (so NAB, NIV); NASB “his friend.”

[19:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he raises his hand with the iron.”

[19:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the iron slips off.”

[19:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “finds.”

[19:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

[19:5]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person responsible for his friend’s death) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and live.”

[19:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”

[19:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.

[19:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “no judgment of death.”

[19:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.

[19:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all this commandment.” This refers here to the entire covenant agreement of the Book of Deuteronomy as encapsulated in the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[19:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today.”

[19:9]  ²¹ sn You will add three more cities. Since these are alluded to nowhere else and thus were probably never added, this must be a provision for other cities of refuge should they be needed (cf. v. 8). See P. C. Craigie, Deuteronomy (NICOT), 267.

[19:10]  ²² tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

[19:10]  ²³ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”

[35:6]  ²⁴ tn The “manslayer” is the verb “to kill” in a participial form, providing the subject of the clause. The verb means “to kill”; it can mean accidental killing, premeditated killing, or capital punishment. The clause uses the infinitive to express purpose or result: “to flee there the manslayer,” means “so that the manslayer may flee there.”

[35:16]  ²⁵ tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.

[35:19]  ²⁶ tn The participle גֹּאֵל (go’el) is the one who protects the family by seeking vengeance for a crime. This is the same verb used for levirate marriages and other related customs.

[35:20]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text is more vivid: “by lying in wait.”

[35:25]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in it.”

[35:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he.”

[6:18]  ³⁰ tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.