Deuteronomy 19:7

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

King James Version
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

Lexham English Bible
Therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities.'

English Standard Version
Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.

New Century Version
This is why I command you to choose these three cities.

New English Translation
Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

Amplified Bible
"Therefore, I command you, saying, 'You shall set aside three cities [of refuge] for yourself.'

New American Standard Bible
"Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall set aside for yourself three cities.'

Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt appoint out three cities for thee.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.'

Contemporary English Version
That's why I said there must be three Safe Towns.

Complete Jewish Bible
This is why I am ordering you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

Darby Translation
Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thyself.

Easy-to-Read Version
That is why I commanded you to choose three special cities.

George Lamsa Translation
Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

Good News Translation
This is why I order you to set aside three cities.

Literal Translation
On account of this I am commanding you, saying, You shall separate to yourself three cities.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore commaunde I the, that thou appoynte out thre cities.

American Standard Version
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt set apart three cities for thee.

Bible in Basic English
And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherfore I commaunde thee, saying: Thou shalt appoynt out three cities for thee.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Wherefore I command thee, saying: 'Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.'

King James Version (1611)
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Therefore I charge thee, saying, Thou shalt separate for thy self three cities.

English Revised Version
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

Berean Standard Bible
This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor Y comaunde to thee, that thou departe thre citees of euene space bitwixe hem silf.

Young's Literal Translation
therefore I am commanding thee, saying, Three cities thou dost separate to thee.

Update Bible Version
Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for yourself.

Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

World English Bible
Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

New King James Version
Therefore I command you, saying, "You shall separate three cities for yourself.'

New Living Translation
That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge.

New Life Bible
So I tell you, ‘Set apart three cities for yourself.'

New Revised Standard
Therefore I command you: You shall set apart three cities.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For this cause, am I commanding thee saying, - Three cities, shalt thou set apart for thee.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore I command thee, that thou separate three cities at equal distance one from another.

Revised Standard Version
Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Therefore, I command you, saying, 'You shall set aside three cities for yourself.'

Contextual Overview

¹When God , your God, throws the nations out of the country that God , your God, is giving you and you settle down in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three easily accessible cities in the land that God , your God, is giving you as your very own. Divide your land into thirds, this land that God , your God, is giving you to possess, and build roads to the towns so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there. ⁴This is the guideline for the murderer who flees there to take refuge: He has to have killed his neighbor without premeditation and with no history of bad blood between them. For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into the woods to cut a tree; he swings the ax, the head slips off the handle and hits his neighbor, killing him. He may then flee to one of these cities and save his life. If the city is too far away, the avenger of blood racing in hot-blooded pursuit might catch him since it's such a long distance, and kill him even though he didn't deserve it. It wasn't his fault. There was no history of hatred between them. Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves. ⁸When God , your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them because you are diligently living the way I'm commanding you today, namely, to love God , your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land. God , your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance—you don't want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves. ¹¹On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that's a different story. The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution. Don't feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you'll be able to live well and breathe clean air.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Cross-References

Genesis 19:4
Before they went to bed men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, "Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!"

Genesis 19:9
They said, "Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you're going to tell us how to run our lives. We'll treat you worse than them!" And they charged past Lot to break down the door.

Genesis 19:23
The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.

Genesis 19:24
Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.

Leviticus 18:22
"Don't have sex with a man as one does with a woman. That is abhorrent.

Leviticus 20:13
"If a man has sex with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is abhorrent. They must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.

Deuteronomy 23:17
No daughter of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute; and no son of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute. And don't bring the fee of a sacred whore or the earnings of a priest-pimp to the house of God, your God, to pay for any vow—they are both an abomination to God , your God.

Judges 19:23
He went out and told them, "No, brothers! Don't be obscene—this man is my guest. Don't commit this outrage. Look, my virgin daughter and his concubine are here. I'll bring them out for you. Abuse them if you must, but don't do anything so senselessly vile to this man."

Romans 1:24
So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wherefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt separate three cities for thee. This was to be done immediately, as soon as they were settled in the land of Canaan, and established in the possession of it, the inhabitants being cut off, or driven out, or however subdued.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This and the next two chapters contain enactments designed to protect human life, and to impress its sanctity on Israel.

In Deuteronomy 19:1-13 the directions respecting the preparation of the roads to the cities of refuge, the provision of additional cities in case of an extension of territory, and the intervention of the elders as representing the congregation, are unique to Deuteronomy and supplementary to the laws on the same subject given in the earlier books (compare the marginal reference).

Deuteronomy 19:1, Deuteronomy 19:2

The three cities of refuge for the district east of Jordan had been already named. Moses now directs that when the territory on the west of Jordan had been conquered, a like allotment of three other cities in it should be made. This was accordingly done; compare Joshua 20:1 ff,

Deuteronomy 19:3

Thou shalt prepare thee a way - It was the duty of the Senate to repair the roads that led to the cities of refuge annually, and remove every obstruction. No hillock was left, no river over which there was not a bridge; and the road was at least 32 cubits broad. At cross-roads there were posts bearing the words Refuge, Refuge, to guide the fugitive in his flight. It seems as if in Isaiah 40:3 ff the imagery were borrowed from the preparation of the ways to the cities of refuge.

Deuteronomy 19:5

With the axe - literally, “with the iron.” Note the employment of iron for tools, and compare Deuteronomy 3:11 note.

Deuteronomy 19:8, Deuteronomy 19:9

Provision is here made for the anticipated enlargement of the borders of Israel to the utmost limits promised by God, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18, note; Exodus 23:31, note). This promise, owing to the sins of the people, did not receive its fulfillment until after David had conquered the Philistines, Syrians, etc.; and this but a transient one, for many of the conquered peoples regained independence on the dissolution of Solomon’s empire.