1 When Jehovah your God cuts off the nations whose land Jehovah your God is giving to you, and you have dispossessed them and dwelt in their cities and in their houses,

2 you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.

3 You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Jehovah your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.

4 And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever strikes his neighbor unintentionally, not hating him in time past;

5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head has slipped from the handle and struck his neighbor so that he has died; he shall flee to one of these cities and live;

6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer and overtake him because the way is long, and kill him while his emotions are hot, though he is not deserving of death, since he had not hated his neighbor in time past.

7 Therefore I am commanding you, saying, You shall separate three cities for yourself.

8 Now if Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you the land which He has promised to give to your fathers,

9 and if you keep all these commandments to do them, which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three,

10 that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus there be blood upon you.

11 But if anyone, while hating his neighbor, has laid in wait for him, risen against him and struck his soul so that he has died, and he has fled to one of these cities,

12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

14 You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.

15 One witness shall not rise up against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he sins; at the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.

16 If a false witness rises up against any man to testify against him regarding apostasy,

17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who hold office in those days.

18 And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother,

19 then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother; thus you shall remove the evil from among you.

20 And those who remain shall hear and fear, and thereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you.

21 Your eye shall not pity: soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.