Deuteronomy 19

Deuteronomy 19 belongs to the legal section (chapters 12–26) that Moses delivers in Deuteronomy. Following the preceding material (through Deuteronomy 18), which deals with community leaders such as judges, kings, priests, and prophets, it sets out regulations on protecting life and land and on justice in the courts.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 When Israel possesses the land, the people are to prepare roads, divide the whole land into three parts, and set apart three cities. The purpose is that a person who kills a neighbor unknowingly, without prior hatred, may flee from the avenger of blood and save his life. The text gives the example of a man cutting wood whose axe head slips from the handle and kills his neighbor.
• Verses 8–10 If God enlarges their borders, they are to add three more cities so that innocent blood is not shed.
• Verses 11–13 If someone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, and kills him, the elders of his own city are to bring him back and hand him over to the avenger, even if he has fled to a city of refuge.
• Verse 14 The people are not to remove a neighbor's landmark set by those of old.
• Verse 15 A sin is not to be established by a single witness but confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
• Verses 16–21 When a dispute arises from false testimony, both parties are to stand before the priests and the judges. If the testimony proves false, the false witness is to suffer what he had intended to do to the other party.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 19:15 "at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established" — This verse states the principle governing testimony and is cited repeatedly in the New Testament.
• Deuteronomy 19:21 "life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" — This is the classic statement of the principle of lex talionis (retribution in kind), which limits punishment to what corresponds to the offense.
• Deuteronomy 19:10 "That innocent blood be not shed" — This verse shows the purpose of the cities of refuge.

People and Places

• The slayer: In this chapter the term refers mainly to a person who has killed someone without intent.
• The avenger of blood: A relative of the deceased who avenges the shed blood. The term translates the Hebrew go'el, the same word rendered kinsman-redeemer.
• Elders: The elders of the slayer's own city. They are responsible for bringing a deliberate killer back from the city of refuge.
• Priests and judges: They hear disputes involving false testimony.
• Cities of refuge: This chapter does not name the cities. The three east of the Jordan appear in Deuteronomy 4:41–43, and Joshua 20 lists the cities of refuge west of the Jordan as Kedesh, Shechem, and Kirjath-arba, that is, Hebron.

Points for Reflection

• The regulations on cities of refuge also appear in Numbers 35, which gives a total of six cities of refuge. Interpreters differ on how to reconcile the "three cities more … beside these three" of verse 9 with this number. Some Jewish tradition has understood them as cities to be added in the future messianic age.
• Many interpreters understand "eye for eye" not as permission for personal revenge but as a limit set for judicial proceedings so that punishment does not exceed the crime. The same principle appears in Leviticus 24:17–22. Jesus quoted this saying in Matthew 5:38–42 and taught "that ye resist not evil."
• The principle of two or three witnesses reappears in Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1, and 1 Timothy 5:19 as a standard for handling matters within the church.
• Some commentators and preaching traditions read the cities of refuge as a type of Jesus Christ, linking them with Hebrews 6:18, which speaks of those who have fled for refuge. This is an interpretation in light of the New Testament rather than something the text itself states.

In the Korean Church

Sermons that interpret the cities of refuge as a type of Christ, on the theme "Jesus Christ is our refuge," are common. The two-or-three-witness principle of verse 15 is also cited as a proof text in discussions of church discipline.