When Jehovah your God cuts off the nations whose land Jehovah your God is giving you and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

You shall set apart three  ¹cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.

You shall survey the distances for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of your land, which Jehovah your God will give you as an inheritance, so that every manslayer may flee there.

And this shall be the case of the manslayer who flees there and lives: He who slays his neighbor without intent and did not hate him previously —

As when a man goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and his hand goes to cut the tree with an axe, and the iron axehead slips off the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies — he shall flee to one of these cities and live;

Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart rages, and he overtake him because the distance is long and  ¹slay him; though he is not worthy of death, for he did not hate him previously.

Therefore I am commanding you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for yourself.

And if Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers;

If you are certain to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and to walk in His ways always; then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three,

That innocent blood may not be shed in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for blood be upon you.

But if a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and he rises up against him and slays him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities;

Then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.

You shall not move your neighbor's  ¹boundary marker, which your ancestors have set, in your inheritance, which you will inherit in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.

One witness only shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin which he has committed; at the word of two witnesses or at the word of three witnesses shall a matter be established.

If a malicious witness rises up against a man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

The two men who have the dispute shall stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who are serving in those days.

And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if indeed the witness is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his brother,

You shall do to him as he intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from your midst.

And those who remain will hear and will fear and will never again do anything like this evil thing in your midst.

And your eye shall not pity: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.

When you go forth into  ¹battle against your enemies, and you see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God is with you, He who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people,

And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel! You are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart fail; do not be afraid or alarmed or terrified of them.

For it is Jehovah your God who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

Is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not  ¹partaken of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man partake of it.

Is there any man who has gotten engaged to a woman and has not taken her to himself? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her to himself.

And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, Is there any man who is  ¹afraid and whose heart fails? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers does not melt like his heart.

And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of the armies at the head of the people.

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall proclaim peace to it.

And if it responds with peace to you and opens its gates to you, all the people found within it shall become your forced labor; and they shall serve you.

But if it does not make peace with you, but rather engages in battle with you, you shall besiege it.

And when Jehovah your God delivers it into your hand, you shall slay every male in it with the edge of the sword.

But the women and the little ones and the beasts and all that is in the city, that is, all its spoil, you shall take as your plunder; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which Jehovah your God has given you.

Thus shall you do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not among the cities of these nations.

But of the cities of these peoples which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not allow anything that breathes to live;

But you must utterly  ¹destroy them: the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, just as Jehovah your God has commanded you,

So that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods and you sin against Jehovah your God.

When you besiege a city for many days, battling against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?

However, a tree that you know is not a tree for food, you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may build a siegework against the city, which engages you in battle, until it falls.

If a slain man is found lying in the field in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess, it not being known who slew him,

Then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities that surround the slain man.

And the city that is nearest the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd which has not been worked and has not drawn the yoke;

And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a river valley that flows continually, which has not been plowed or sown, and break the neck of the heifer there in the river valley.

And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall draw near; for Jehovah your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of Jehovah, and by their word shall every dispute and every assault be settled.

And all the elders of that city that is nearest the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the river valley.

And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it done.

Cover Your people Israel, whom You have ransomed, O Jehovah, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel. And the guilt of the blood shall be covered from them.

Thus you shall utterly remove the guilt of the innocent blood from your midst, for you do what is right in the sight of Jehovah.

When you go out to fight against your enemies and Jehovah your God delivers them into your hands and you take them captive,

And you see a beautiful woman among the captives and desire her and would take her to yourself as a wife;

You shall bring her within your house, and she shall shave her head, trim her nails,

And take her clothes of captivity away from her. And she shall dwell in your house and mourn her father and mother for a full month. And afterward you shall go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be a wife to you.

And if after a time you do not delight in her, you shall let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money; you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other despised, and both the beloved and the despised have borne him sons; and if the firstborn son is of the despised woman;

Then in the day when he gives what he has to his sons as his inheritance, he may not make the son of the beloved woman the firstborn instead of the son of the despised one, who is the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the despised woman, giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his vigor; the right of the firstborn is his.

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, one who does not listen to the voice of his father nor to the voice of his mother; and though they chastise him, he does not listen to them;

Then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him forth to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.

And they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.

Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones so that he dies. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and will fear.

And if in a man there is a sin, a cause worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you  ¹hang him on a tree;

His corpse shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you must bury him on that day. For he who is hanged is  ¹accursed of God, and you shall not defile your land, which Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance.