When the Lord your God shall destroy the nations, whose land he will deliver to you, and you shall possess it, and dwelt in its cities and in its palaces:

You shall separate for yourself three cities in the middle of the land, which the Lord your God will give you as a possession.

carefully paving the way, and you shall divide the whole province of your land equally into three parts, that it may have one at hand that kills a fugitive, that he may escape.

This shall be the law of the fugitive murderer, whose life is to be observed: who kills his neighbor unwittingly, and who yesterday and in the past is proven to have had no hatred against him:

but to have gone with him simply into the wood to cut wood, and to cut the wood with the ax he escapes with his hand, and smites his friend with the handle of the sword, and kills him: he shall flee to one of these cities, and live:

lest perhaps his neighbor, whose blood has been shed, stung by pain, pursue and overtake him if the journey is longer, and he may strike the soul of him who is not guilty of death;

Therefore I command you to divide the three cities at equal distance from each other.

And when the Lord your God shall enlarge your borders, as he swore to your fathers, and gave you all the land which he promised them

(but if you keep his commandments, and do the things which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways at all times), you will add to you three other cities, and you will double the number of these three cities.

that innocent blood may not be shed in the midst of the land which the Lord your God will give you for a possession, that you may not be guilty of blood.

And if any man, hating his neighbor, lay in wait for his life, and rising up, kill him, and die, and flee to one of the above mentioned cities,

they shall send the ancients of that city, and shall take possession of him from the place of escape, and deliver him into the hand of his neighbor, whose blood has been shed, and he shall die.

You shall not pity him, and you shall take away innocent blood from Israel, that it may be well with you.

You shall not take or remove your neighbor's landmarks, which they first set up in your possession, which the LORD your God will give you in the land which you shall give to possess.

One witness shall not stand up against any man, whatever sin or crime he commits, but at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.

If a false witness stands up against a man to testify against him for wrong-doing,

both of them, whose cause is, shall stand before the Lord in the sight of the priests and the judges who shall be in those days.

And after the most careful investigation, they shall find that a false witness has spoken a lie against his brother,

They shall do to him as he purposed to do to his brother, and you shall take away the evil from your midst.

that the rest, upon hearing this, may have fear, and may not dare to do such things.

You will not have pity on him, but you will demand soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.