Deuteronomy 19 explained: Safe Cities and Honest Courts

Three safe cities (vv. 1-7)

After driving out the nations already living in the land, Israel was to set apart three evenly spread cities, with roads kept clear, where someone who killed a person by accident could run for safety. This shielded them from the "avenger of blood," a close relative of the dead person whose role was to take the killer's life and who might strike in anger before the facts came out.

Room for three more (vv. 8-10)

If Israel's land ever grew to the full size promised to its ancestors, three more safe cities were to be added so that no innocent person would be killed anywhere in it. There is no record that these extra cities were ever set up.

No shelter for murderers (vv. 11-13)

Someone who killed out of hatred and planning could not hide in a safe city, and the leaders of his hometown were to bring him back and hand him over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. The law treated deliberate murder as guilt resting on the whole community until it was dealt with.

Do not move boundary stones (v. 14)

Fields were often marked only by a single stone or small pile of rocks, which a dishonest neighbor could quietly shift to take land. This law protected each family's inherited share.

Two or three witnesses (v. 15)

No one could be convicted of any crime on the word of just one witness. At least two or three were needed to establish the facts.

Punishing false witnesses (vv. 16-21)

If judges found that a witness had lied to get someone punished, the liar was to receive the very penalty he had tried to bring on the other person. Many scholars think the rule summed up as "eye for eye" was meant to make punishment match the harm and no more, and Christians read it alongside Jesus' later teaching against taking revenge.

Key verse: Deuteronomy 19:10

Something to think about

When someone causes serious harm by accident, what do you think they owe, and what do they deserve?