Study Desk

you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

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

You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die.

A single witness may not testify against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

You must not show pity; the principle will be 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.

When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry and troops who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers,

for the Lord your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory."

However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city—all its plunder—you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you.

As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive.

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it!

However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

Then the Levitical priests will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, and to decide every judicial verdict)

Do not blame your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord , and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person." Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before the Lord .

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife.

Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved wife as firstborn and give him the double portion of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father's procreative power—to him should go the right of the firstborn.

his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury him that same day, for the one who is left exposed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If the owner does not live near you or you do not know who the owner is, then you must corral the animal at your house and let it stay with you until the owner looks for it; then you must return it to him.