Deuteronomy 19:5-21
19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else
to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax
to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose
from the handle and strikes
his fellow worker
so hard that he dies. The person responsible
may then flee to one of these cities to save himself.
19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him,
and kill him,
though this is not a capital case
since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.
19:7 Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.
19:8 If the
Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors
and gives you all the land he pledged to them,
19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments
I am giving
you today (namely, to love the
Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities
to these three.
19:10 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.
19:11 However, suppose a person hates someone else
and stalks him, attacks him, kills him,
and then flees to one of these cities.
19:12 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.
19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent
from Israel, so that it may go well with you.
Laws Concerning Witnesses
19:14 You must not encroach on your neighbor’s property, which will have been defined in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
19:15 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.
19:16 If a false witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime,
19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges who will be in office in those days.
19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused,
19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge evil from among you.
19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.
19:21 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.