Deuteronomy 19
Then you shall do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother
Here Moses explains the need for cities of refuge with an example of why it would be necessary. Then, he goes on to speak about the legal requirement for witnesses, as well as the penalty for false witnesses.
Bible Passage:
19:1 When YAHWEH your God shall cut off the nations, whose land YAHWEH your God gives you, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses; 2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which YAHWEH your God gives you to possess it. 3 You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land, which YAHWEH your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.
4 And this is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and did not hate him in time past; 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand swings a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron slips from the wood, and strikes his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him because the way is long, and smite him mortally, although he was not worthy of death, because he did not hate him in time past. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for you.’ 8 And if YAHWEH 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; 9 if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love YAHWEH your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for you, besides these three, 10 in order that innocent blood is not shed in the midst of your land, which YAHWEH your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood is upon you.
11 But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and smites him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12 then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
14 You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they have set from long ago, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that YAHWEH your God gives you to possess it.
15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. 16 If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him for wrongdoing, 17 then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before YAHWEH, before the priests and the judges that shall be in those days. 18 The judges shall make diligent inquisition, and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; 19 then you shall do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 20 And those that remain shall hear, and fear, and shall from now on no longer commit any such evil in the midst of you. 21 And your eyes shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Reflection:
This would be a great policy to reenact in our legal system for false witnesses. If you come in with the intent to lie and mislead about what someone else has done, then the punishment that would have been applied to that person is instead applied to you. I imagine this would solve the amount of perjury and false testimony that happens in our justice system. Like the text says, this would cause others to hear and fear that the same should happen to them and stop them from committing such evil. Lying is so overlooked as a sin, and treated as so unimportant generally, but especially when it comes to legal contexts, it can literally be the difference between someone’s life and death. It is a heinous sin.
Questions and Answers:
Verse 5: What is a forest? [Sophia, 3]
A forest is a dense growth of trees that covers an area. So the set up of this situation is that a man and his neighbor are going into the forest to cut down some trees so they will have wood to use. But when the man goes to chop at the tree with his axe, the iron head flies off from the handle and hits the man’s neighbor. The neighbor is killed by the axe head hitting him. So he has to run out of the forest and flee to a city of refuge to be protected from someone killing him in revenge for accidentally killing his neighbor.
Verse 14: What is a boundary mark? [Gwendolyn, 9]
A “boundary mark” or a “landmark” here is whatever the people had to mark the borders of their property. They didn’t have surveyors or county records or anything that would be an official recording of where their property lines were. All they could do was use objects to mark the edges of their land, so you could use a stone, or a stick, or something that was already a natural geographic feature that would mark off what was yours. If it was something that was small enough to move, then if your neighbor moved the stone further into your property, they would, in essence, be stealing some of your land. Moses is telling the people to not move boundary markers and steal from their fellow Israelites.
Verse 16: What does malicious mean? [Elisha, 8]
NASB has “malicious” in place of “unrighteous” in verse 16.
Well, malicious in English means to have “intent to harm someone.” If someone is doing something with malice, it means they are doing it specifically to hurt you. This is actually a great translation of the word for what it is implying, but it is not the usual translation of the Hebrew word. The word behind “malicious” here is “hamas.” “Hamas” is most commonly translated “violence.” So the point of what is being said here is that this witness is coming up with testimony that is specifically meant to do violence to the person who they are testifying against. Since malicious means “intent to harm,” it perfectly describes the attitude of the false witness in this situation.
Verse 21: What is a teeth? [Sophia, 3]
Teeth are what you use to chew your food with in your mouth. A lot of times people think they are bone, but they aren’t. They are made of enamel and dentin primarily. Unlike bones, teeth are not living tissue, which is exactly why it is so important to take good care of them. If you break a bone, it will eventually heal, but if you break a tooth, it cannot be fixed, except artificially.
Humans have pretty amazing and unique teeth, in part, because we are omnivores. That means we can eat many different types of food, meat and plant materials. Animals that just eat meat, which are called carnivores, and animals that just eat plants, which are called herbivores, have teeth that are more specialized. We need to have a variety of different teeth to make sure we can eat all kinds of different food types.
What God is saying here is that our bodies matter, so if someone harms them, it should be repaid to that person.
Recording of the Passage:
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