| New International Version | NET Bible |
| 1When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, | 1When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, |
| 2then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. | 2you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession. |
| 3Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities. | 3You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent 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. |
| 4This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety--anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. | 4Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident. |
| 5For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. | 5Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. |
| 6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. | 6Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. |
| 7This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities. | 7Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. |
| 8If the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, | 8If the LORD your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them, |
| 9because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today--to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to him--then you are to set aside three more cities. | 9and then you are careful to observe all these commandments I am giving you today (namely, to love the LORD your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities to these three. |
| 10Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. | 10You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. |
| 11But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, | 11However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities. |
| 12the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. | 12The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die. |
| 13Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you. | 13You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you. |
| 14Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. | 14You must not encroach on your neighbor's property, which will have been defined in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the LORD your God is giving you. |
| 15One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. | 15A single witness may not testify against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. |
| 16If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, | 16If a false witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, |
| 17the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. | 17then both parties to the controversy must stand before the LORD, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days. |
| 18The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, | 18The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, |
| 19then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. | 19you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge evil from among you. |
| 20The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. | 20The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. |
| 21Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. | 21You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. |
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