Deuteronomy 19:6-21
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.