Deuteronomy 19

₁Moses said: ‘The Lord your God will destroy the people who are living in the land and He will give their land to you. You will chase them away and you will go and live in their towns and in their homes. ₂Then you must choose 3 towns as towns_of_safety in the land that the Lord your God gives you to take for yourselves. ₃You must divide the land into 3 parts and there must be a town_of_safety in each part, so that a person who has killed someone can easily flee to one of the towns_of_safety.

₄If a person has killed someone, but he did not want to kill that person as he was not his enemy, then he may flee to one of the towns_of_safety so that he can stay alive. ₅For example: If a person goes into the forest to cut wood with another person and his axe breaks and he kills the other person by accident, then the man who had the axe in his hand may flee to one of these towns, and he may stay alive. ₆If someone wants to flee but the town_of_safety is too far away, then maybe the brother or cousin of the dead person will come and catch the man who killed him and he will be killed before he can go into the town_of_safety. That would not be right because the man was not the enemy of the dead person and he should not be killed. ₇This is why I am telling you to choose 3 towns_of_safety.

₈When the Lord your God has given you the big land that He promised your forefathers, ₉you must have those 3 towns_of_safety and you must also choose another 3 towns_of_safety. But then you must do everything that is written in these laws that I am giving you today. You must love the Lord your God and you must always live as He wants you to. ₁₀You may never kill someone who is innocent in the land that the Lord your God gives you as your land. If this happens, then you will be as guilty as a murderer.

₁₁But if someone hates another man and he waits for him and kills him and he flees to one of these towns_of_safety, ₁₂then the elders of his town must send people to take him out of the town_of_safety. They must give him to the brother or cousin of the dead man so that they can kill him. ₁₃Do not feel sorry for him. He is guilty and you must take away this sin from the Israelites so that the Lord will be with you and everything will go well with you.’

₁₄‘You may not move any stone that shows the borders between your land and the lands next to you. You may not put it at another place. Your forefathers have put it there in the land that the Lord your God gives you to belong to you.’

₁₅‘When people say that someone did something wrong, then one witness alone is not enough to say that he saw that the man had done wrong. There must be 2 or 3 witnesses who saw him doing wrong.

₁₆If a witness says that he saw someone doing wrong, but he lies and it is not the truth, ₁₇then both of them must come and stand before the Lord, before the judges and priests who are there. ₁₈Then the judges must ask them some questions and if they find out that the witness did not tell the truth but that he accused the other person falsely, ₁₉then they must punish the witness because he falsely accused someone and then he must get the same punishment that the other person would have got. You must take away sinful things like that from your people. ₂₀When they tell the other people about this, they must become so afraid that no person will ever do a bad thing like that again. ₂₁Don't feel sorry when you punish someone who has done wrong. If a person has killed someone else and has taken his life, then you must also take his life and kill him. The punishment that you must give people is: 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.’