Deuteronomy 19:1-4

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ¹  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, 19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities ²  in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. 19:3 You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent ³  of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. 19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ⁴  if he has accidentally killed another ⁵  without hating him at the time of the accident. ⁶ 

[19:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[19:2]  ² sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).

[19:3]  ³ tn Heb “border.”

[19:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”

[19:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”

[19:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”