1. When Jehovah your God shall cut off the nations whose land Jehovah your God is giving to you, and when you dispossess them, and live in their cities, and in their houses,
2. you shall separate three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess it.
3. You shall prepare the way for yourself, and shall divide into three parts the border of your land which Jehovah your God shall cause you to inherit, so that every manslayer may flee there.
4. And this is the case of the manslayer who shall flee there, that he may live: whoever strikes his neighbor unawares, and has not hated him yesterday and the day before;
5. even he who goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand brings a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips from the wood and finds his neighbor so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities, and shall live;
6. that the avenger of blood not pursue the manslayer when his heart is hot, and shall overtake him because the way is long, and shall strike him so as to die, and he had no sentence of death, for he did not hate him yesterday or the day before.
7. On account of this I am commanding you, saying, You shall separate to yourself three cities.
8. And if Jehovah your God shall enlarge your border, as He has sworn to your fathers, and shall give to you all the land which He has spoken to give to your fathers,
9. if you will keep these commandments which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in His ways forever, then you shall add to yourself another three cities to these three.
10. And innocent blood shall not be shed in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving to you as an inheritance, and there be blood on you.
11. And if a man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes his life from him, so that he dies, and flees to one of these cities,
12. then the elders of his city shall send and bring from him there, and give 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, and it shall be well with you.
14. You may not remove your neighbor's landmark, which those formerly have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you, to possess it.
15. One witness shall not rise against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin which he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses a thing shall be raised up to judgment.
16. If a vicious witness rises up against any man to charge apostasy against him,
17. then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.
18. And the judges shall carefully investigate and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and he has testified falsely against his brother,
19. then you shall do to him as he plotted to do to his brother. And you shall put away the evil from among you.
20. And those who remain shall hear and fear, and thereafter shall not add to commit 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.