Study Desk

This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’

“When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land he is giving you, so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses,

you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

You are to determine the distances and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give them—

provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in his ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three.

In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

“When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’

When the Lord your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.

But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you.

However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

You must completely destroy them—the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you,

so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

“If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

“When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and

you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“A woman is not to wear male clothing, and a man is not to put on a woman’s garment, for everyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord your God.