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Deuteronomy 19
When Yahweh your Elohim shall cut off the nations, whose land Yahweh your Elohim gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses; 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which Yahweh your Elohim gives you to possess. 3 You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your Elohim causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.
4 And this is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and did not hate him in time past; 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and hits his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 6 lest the avenger of blood pursues the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtakes him, because the way is long, and strikes him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you. 8 And if Yahweh your Elohim enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; 9 if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your Elohim, and to walk in his ways always; then shall you add three cities more for you, besides these three: 10 that innocent blood be not shed in your land, which Yahweh your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be upon you.
11 But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and kill him so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12 then the elders of his city shall send for him and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
14 You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you to possess it.
15 One witness shall not
rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he
sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall
a matter be established. 16 If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man
to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men, between whom the
controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges
that shall be in those days; 18 and the judges shall make diligent inquisition:
and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely
against his brother; 19 then you shall do to him, as he had thought to do to
his brother: so shall you put away the evil from among you. 20 And those that
remain shall hear, and fear, and shall from then on commit no more any such
evil among you. 21 And your eye shall not pity; life shall go for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy 20
When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your Elohim is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And it shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, 3 and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint; fear not, nor tremble, neither be afraid of them; 4 for Yahweh your Elohim is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 5 And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he dies in the battle, and another man dedicates it. 6 And what man is there that has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he dies in the battle, and another man uses the fruit of it. 7 And what man is there that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man takes her. 8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brothers’ heart melt as his heart. 9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.
10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 11 And it shall be, if it gives you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be, that all the people that are found in it shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you. 12 And if it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it: 13 and when Yahweh your Elohim delivers it into your hand, you shall kill every male of it with the edge of the sword: 14 but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the plunder of it, you shalt take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your Elohim has given you. 15 In this manner shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Armorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your Elohim has commanded you; 18 that they do not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their elohim; so would you sin against Yahweh your Elohim.
19 When you shall
besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not
destroy the trees of it by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of
them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that
it should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees of which you know that they are
not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build
bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Deuteronomy 21
If one is found slain in the land which Yahweh your Elohim is giving you to possess it, lying in the field, and it is not known who has killed him; 2 then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him that is slain: 3 and it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for Yahweh your Elohim has chosen them to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be. 6 And all the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8 Forgive, O Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and suffer not innocent blood to remain in the middle of your people Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them. 9 So shall you put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
10 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your Elohim delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire for her, and would take her to you to wife; 12 then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and trim her nails; 13 and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and mourn for her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15 If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the first-born son is hers that was hated; 16 then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the first-born before the son of the hated, who is the first-born: 17 but he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for his is the beginning of his strength; the right of the first-born is his.
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, that will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them; 19 then his father and his mother shall lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place; 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, Our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so shall you put away the evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
22 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree; 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he that is hanged is cursed of Elohim; that you defile not your land which Yahweh your Elohim is giving you for an inheritance.
