The cities of refuge. Wilful murder, and false witnesses must be punished.

¹ “When the Lord your God will have destroyed the nations, whose land he will deliver to you, and when you possess it and live in its cities and buildings,

² you shall separate for yourselves three cities in the midst of the land, which the Lord will give to you as a possession,

³ paving the road carefully. And you shall divide the entire province of your land equally into three parts, so that he who is forced to flee because of manslaughter may have a place nearby to which he may be able to escape.

⁴ This shall be the law of the killer who flees, whose life is to be saved. Whoever strikes down his neighbor unwillingly, and who has been proven to have had no hatred against him yesterday and the day before,

⁵ such that he had gone with him into the forest simply to cut wood, and in cutting down the tree, the axe slipped from his hand, or the iron slipped from the handle, and it struck his friend and killed him: he shall flee to one of the cities stated above, and he shall live.

⁶ Otherwise, perhaps the near relative of him whose blood was shed, impelled by his grief, might pursue and apprehend him, unless the way is too long, and he might strike down the life of him who is not guilty unto death, since he had demonstrated that he had no prior hatred against him who was slain.

⁷ For this reason, I instruct you to separate three cities at equal distance from one another.

⁸ And when the Lord your God will have enlarged your borders, just as he swore to your fathers, and when he will have given to you all the land that he has promised to them,

⁹ (but this is only so if you will keep his commandments and do the things which I instruct to you this day, so that you love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways at all times) you shall add for yourselves three other cities, and so you shall double the number of the three cities stated above.

¹⁰ So may innocent blood not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord your God will give you to possess, lest you be guilty of blood.

¹¹ But if anyone, having hatred for his neighbor, will have lain in ambush for his life, and, rising up, will have struck him, and he will have died, and if he will have fled to one of the cities stated above,

¹² the elders of his city shall send, and they shall take him from the place of refuge, and they shall deliver him into the hand of the relative of him whose blood was shed, and he shall die.

¹³ You shall not take pity on him, and so shall you take away the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

¹⁴ You shall not take up or move the landmark of your neighbor, which those before you have placed, in your possession that the Lord your God will give to you, in the land you will receive to possess.

¹⁵ One witness shall not stand against another, no matter what the sin or outrage may be. For every word shall stand by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶ If a lying witness will have stood against a man, accusing him of a transgression,

¹⁷ both of those whose case it is shall stand before the Lord in the sight of the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.

¹⁸ And when, after a very diligent examination, they will have found that the false witness had told a lie against his brother,

¹⁹ they shall render to him just as he intended to do to his brother. And so shall you take away the evil from your midst.

²⁰ Then the others, upon hearing this, will be afraid, and they will by no means dare to do such things.

²¹ You shall not take pity on him. Instead, you shall require 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.”