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the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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New King James Version

Deuteronomy 19:7

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Avenger of Blood;   Homicide;   Refuge;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Murder;   Refuge, Cities of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Kill, Killing;   Motives;   Murder;   Punishment;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Alms;   Easton Bible Dictionary - City;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Law;   Pentateuch;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Avenger;   Cities of Refuge;   Manslayer;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Kin;   Numbers, Book of;   Refuge, Cities of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Refuge;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Courts, Judicial;   Deuteronomy;   Homicide;   Law in the Old Testament;   Refuge, Cities of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Avenger of Blood;  

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 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

1 Numbers 35:9-28; Joshua 20:1-9">[xr] "When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there. 4 "And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past-- 5 as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies--he shall flee to one of these cities and live; 6 lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, "You shall separate three cities for yourself.' 8 "Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, 9 and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Cross-References

Genesis 19:4
Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
Genesis 19:9
And they said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them." So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.
Genesis 19:11
And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Genesis 19:23
The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.
Leviticus 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
Deuteronomy 23:17
"There shall be no ritual harlot [fn] of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted [fn] one of the sons of Israel.
Judges 19:23
But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage.
Acts 17:26
And He has made from one blood [fn] every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

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.


 
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