| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1“When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, | 1When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, |
| 2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. | 2you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession. |
| 3You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them. | 3You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent 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. |
| 4“This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— | 4Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident. |
| 5as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, | 5Suppose 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. |
| 6lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. | 6Otherwise 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. |
| 7Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. | 7Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. |
| 8And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— | 8If the LORD your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them, |
| 9provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three, | 9and 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. |
| 10lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you. | 10You 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. |
| 11“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, | 11However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities. |
| 12then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. | 12The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die. |
| 13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you. | 13You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you. |
| 14“You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. | 14You 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. |
| 15“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. | 15A 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. |
| 16If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, | 16If a false witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, |
| 17then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. | 17then 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. |
| 18The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, | 18The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, |
| 19then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. | 19you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge evil from among you. |
| 20And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. | 20The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. |
| 21Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. | 21You 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. |
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