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Deuteronomy 19

Deuteronomy 19 orders Israel’s courts and communities to protect innocent life, distinguish intent, and punish murder and false testimony.

Moses instructs Israel about justice in the land YHWH is giving them. Cities of refuge must be within reach so that someone who kills without intent can escape an avenger’s anger. A murderer, however, must be handed over for execution. Moses then forbids moving a neighbor’s boundary marker and sets rules for testimony: multiple witnesses, careful investigation, and punishment for a false witness equal to the harm he intended.

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1When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the middle of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess.
3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there.
4This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him in time past—
5as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live.
6Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer while hot anger is in his heart and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past.
8If the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;
9and if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three.
10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.
11But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;
12then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.
14You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.
15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,
17then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;
18and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother,
19then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
20Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you.
21Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Deuteronomy 19:15The requirement for multiple witnesses guards against establishing guilt on the strength of one person’s accusation.
Deuteronomy 19:21This rule sets punishment in proportion to harm, concluding the command to impose a false witness’s intended penalty.
Deuteronomy 19:16The possibility of malicious testimony leads into instructions for judges to investigate and hold a false witness accountable.
Where this chapter reaches

Numbers shares the laws concerning cities of refuge and the distinction between unintended killing and murder, while Proverbs shares warnings about boundary markers and false witnesses. Matthew takes up both the requirement for multiple witnesses and the wording of proportional punishment also found in Exodus and Leviticus.

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After reading the whole chapter

What stands out about the practical steps Israel must take to protect someone who kills without intent?

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How do the witness laws shape your understanding of fairness when an accusation is made?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 19

What were the cities of refuge in Deuteronomy 19?

These were designated cities where someone who killed another person without intent could flee and live. Israel had to prepare routes and distribute the cities across the land. The protection applied where there was no prior hatred; someone who committed murder through a planned attack was to be surrendered for execution.

Why does Deuteronomy 19 require two or three witnesses?

Verse 15 says that one witness is insufficient to establish a charge. The following verses show that testimony also requires scrutiny: judges must investigate a disputed accusation. Multiple witnesses provide a safeguard, while the penalty for false testimony addresses the danger that someone might use the courts to harm another person.

What does eye for eye mean in Deuteronomy 19?

The phrase closes a law about false testimony. A witness who seeks to bring an unjust penalty on someone else must receive that same penalty. In this setting, the wording establishes correspondence between intended harm and punishment within Israel’s judicial process. The judges are charged with investigation before punishment.

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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).