Deuteronomy 19
The full text of Deuteronomy 19 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses,
2 then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
3 Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that anyone who kills someone may flee there.
4 This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought.
5 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off the handle and strike his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life.
6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he had not previously hated his neighbor.
7 This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.
8 If the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them,
9 because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities.
10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.
11 But if out of hatred someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities,
12 the killer shall be sent for by the elders of his town, brought back from the city, and handed over to the avenger of blood to die.
13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
14 Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime,
17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time.
18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite,
19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.
20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you.
21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Translation notes (8)
- Deuteronomy 19:3a The Hebrew word rotseach, translated 'Anyone who kills someone,' is used broadly here, but verses 4-6 narrow it to refer to an unintentional killer, or manslayer, who flees to a city of refuge from the blood-avenger. The road to these cities was to be kept passable so that refuge could be genuinely reached.
- Deuteronomy 19:6a The Hebrew phrase go'el hadam, translated 'The avenger of blood,' refers to the slain person's nearest kinsman, who was responsible under the custom of the time to require a life for a life. The cities of refuge were established to restrain that vengeance against an unintentional killer.
- Deuteronomy 19:10a The Hebrew phrases dam naqi, 'innocent blood,' and damim, 'guilty of bloodshed,' frame the refuge laws as protecting the land itself from the defilement of unavenged or wrongly-avenged death.
- Deuteronomy 19:13a The Hebrew phrase lo' tachos 'einekha, translated 'Show no pity,' here forbids sheltering a deliberate murderer. The refuge protects the accidental killer, never the one who has shed innocent blood with intent.
- Deuteronomy 19:14a Moving a boundary marker secretly stole land from a neighbor. This prohibition protects the family inheritance allotted under the covenant (compare Deuteronomy 27:17 and Proverbs 22:28).
- Deuteronomy 19:15a The rule requiring two or three witnesses is a foundational safeguard for evidence across Scripture (compare Deuteronomy 17:6; Matthew 18:16; 1 Timothy 5:19; and Hebrews 10:28).
- Deuteronomy 19:19a The false witness receives exactly the penalty he sought to inflict on the accused, as indicated by the Hebrew phrase ka'asher zamam, meaning 'as he plotted.' This deters perjury by turning the intended harm back on the liar.
- Deuteronomy 19:21a The Latin phrase lex talionis, meaning 'life for life, eye for eye,' is a principle of strictly proportionate justice that limits punishment to the harm done. It caps retaliation rather than mandating mutilation, and in practice often functioned through compensation. Jesus addresses this principle in Matthew 5:38-39. The legal and ethical scope of this principle is widely debated; the wording is preserved exactly as the text gives it.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own translation of Scripture, made directly from the original Hebrew rather than revised from an older English Bible. Completed in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation available, and it is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Reading the TBV here on the web is free — the full study edition, with original-language tools and notes on every verse, lives in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: Deuteronomy 20 → · All of Deuteronomy · About the TBV · Read Deuteronomy 19 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus