Study Desk

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

if you carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

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.

"You shall not displace your neighbor's boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

"A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

"And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely,

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.

"When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people.

"He shall say to them, 'Hear, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them,

"The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, 'Who is the man that has built a new house but has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it.

"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!'

"And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

"When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.

"And if it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and serve you.

"However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

"When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.

"However, the women, the children, the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall use the spoils of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.