Study Desk

"You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as an inheritance, so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live.

"So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

"But if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

"You shall not pity him, but you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

"So you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

"Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, 'Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not make his brothers' hearts melt like his heart!'

so that they will not teach you to do all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, by which you would sin against the LORD your God.

"When you besiege a city for a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, so you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a human, that it should be besieged by you?

"Only the trees that you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war against you until it falls.

"So you shall remove the guilt for innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

"Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear about it and fear.

his body is not to be left overnight on the tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.

then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death, because she has committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father's house; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

"If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who slept with the woman, and the woman; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.

then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

"And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.