| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1“When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is giving you, you will take over their land and settle in their towns and homes. | 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 you must set apart three cities of refuge in the land the LORD your God is giving you. | 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. |
| 3Survey the territory, and divide the land the LORD your God is giving you into three districts, with one of these cities in each district. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of the cities of refuge for safety. | 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. |
| 4“If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, the slayer may flee to any of these cities to live in safety. | 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 example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood. And suppose one of them swings an ax to chop down a tree, and the ax head flies off the handle, killing the other person. In such cases, the slayer may flee to one of the cities of refuge to live in safety. | 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. |
| 6“If the distance to the nearest city of refuge is too far, an enraged avenger might be able to chase down and kill the person who caused the death. Then the slayer would die unfairly, since he had never shown hostility toward the person who died. | 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. |
| 7That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge. | 7Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. |
| 8“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the 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, |
| 9you must designate three additional cities of refuge. (He will give you this land if you are careful to obey all the commands I have given you—if you always love the LORD your God and walk in his ways.) | 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. |
| 10That way you will prevent the death of innocent people in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession. You will not be held responsible for the death of innocent people. | 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. |
| 11“But suppose someone is hostile toward a neighbor and deliberately ambushes and murders him and then flees to one of the cities of refuge. | 11However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities. |
| 12In that case, the elders of the murderer’s hometown must send agents to the city of refuge to bring him back and hand him over to the dead person’s avenger to be put to death. | 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. |
| 13Do not feel sorry for that murderer! Purge from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people; then all will go well with you. Concern for Justice | 13You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you. |
| 14“When you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession, you must never steal anyone’s land by moving the boundary markers your ancestors set up to mark their property. | 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. |
| 15“You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case 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. |
| 16“If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, | 16If a false witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, |
| 17then both the accuser and accused must appear before the LORD by coming to the priests and judges in office at that 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 investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his 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, |
| 19you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such 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. |
| 20Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing. | 20The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. |
| 21You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be 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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