1"When Jehovah thy God doth cut off the nations, whose land Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, and thou hast succeeded them, and dwelt in their cities, and in their houses, 2three cities thou dost separate for thee in the midst of thy land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee to possess it. 3Thou dost prepare for thee the way, and hast divided into three parts the border of thy land which Jehovah thy God doth cause thee to inherit, and it hath been for the fleeing thither of every man-slayer. 4"And this is the matter of the man-slayer who fleeth thither, and hath lived: He who smiteth his neighbour unknowingly, and is not hating him heretofore, 5even he who cometh in with his neighbour into a forest to hew wood, and his hand hath driven with an axe to cut the tree, and the iron hath slipped from the wood, and hath met his neighbour, and he hath died -- he doth flee unto one of these cities, and hath lived, 6lest the redeemer of blood pursue after the man-slayer when his heart is hot, and hath overtaken him (because the way is great), and hath smitten him -- the life, and he hath no sentence of death, for he is not hating him heretofore; 7therefore I am commanding thee, saying, Three cities thou dost separate to thee. 8"And if Jehovah thy God doth enlarge thy border, as He hath sworn to thy fathers, and hath given to thee all the land which He hath spoken to give to thy fathers -- 9when thou keepest all this command to do it, which I am commanding thee to-day, to love Jehovah thy God, and to walk in His ways all the days -- then thou hast added to thee yet three cities to these three; 10and innocent blood is not shed in the midst of thy land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee -- an inheritance, and there hath been upon thee blood. 11"And when a man is hating his neighbour, and hath lain in wait for him, and risen against him, and smitten him -- the life, and he hath died, and he hath fled unto one of these cities, 12then the elders of his city have sent and taken him from thence, and given him into the hand of the redeemer of blood, and he hath died; 13thine eye hath no pity on him, and thou hast put away the innocent blood from Israel, and it is well with thee. 14"Thou dost not remove a border of thy neighbour, which they of former times have made, in thine inheritance, which thou dost inherit in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee to possess it. 15"One witness doth not rise against a man for any iniquity, and for any sin, in any sin which he sinneth; by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, is a thing established. 16"When a violent witness doth rise against a man, to testify against him apostasy, 17then have both the men who have the strife stood before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who are in those days, 18and the judges have searched diligently, and lo, the witness is a false witness, a falsehood he hath testified against his brother: 19"Then ye have done to him as he devised to do to his brother, and thou hast put away the evil thing out of thy midst, 20and those who are left do hear and fear, and add not to do any more according to this evil thing in thy midst; 21and thine eye doth not pity -- life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 It was one of the precepts given to the sons of Noah that
whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, that is, by the avenger of blood,
Gen 9:6. Now here we have the law settled between blood and blood, between the blood of the murdered and the blood of the murderer, and effectual provision made,
I. That the cities of refuge should be a protection to him that slew another casually, so that he should not die for that as a crime which was not his voluntary act, but only his unhappiness. The appointment of these cities of refuge we had before (
Exod 21:13), and the law laid down concerning them at large,
Num 35:10, etc. It is here repeated, and direction is given concerning three things: -
1. The appointing of three cities in Canaan for this purpose. Moses had already appointed three on that side Jordan which he saw the conquest of; and now he bids them, when they should be settled in the other part of the country, to appoint three more,
Deut 19:1-
Deut 19:3,
Deut 19:7. The country was to be divided into three districts, as near by as might be equal, and a city of refuge in the centre of each so that every corner of the land might have one within reach. Thus Christ is not a refuge at a distance, which we must ascend to heaven or go down to the deep for, but the word is nigh us, and Christ in the word,
Roma 10:8. The gospel brings salvation
to our door, and there it knocks for admission. To make the flight of the delinquent the more easy, the way must be prepared that led to the city of refuge. Probably they had causeways or street-ways leading to those cities, and the Jews say that the magistrates of Israel, upon one certain day in the year, sent out messengers to see that those roads were in good repair, and they were to remove stumbling-blocks, mend bridges that were broken, and, where two ways met, they were to set up a Mercurial post, with a finger to point the right way, on which was engraven in great letters,
Miklat, Miklat -
Refuge, Refuge. In allusion to this, gospel ministers are to show people the way to Christ, and to assist and direct them in flying by faith to him for refuge. They must be ready to remove their prejudices, and help them over their difficulties. And, blessed be God,
the way of holiness, to all that seek it faithfully, is a highway so plain that
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 2. The use to be made of these cities,
Deut 19:4-
Deut 19:6. (1.) It is supposed that it might so happen that a man might be the death of his neighbour without any design upon him either from a sudden passion or malice prepense, but purely by accident, as by the flying off of an axe-head, which is the instance here given, with which every case of this kind was to be compared, and by it adjudged. See how human life lies exposed daily, and what deaths we are often in, and what need therefore we have to be always ready, our souls being continually in our hands. How are the sons of men
snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them! Qoh 9:12. An evil time indeed it is when this happens not only to the slain but to the slayer. (2.) It is supposed that the relations of the person slain would be forward to avenge the blood, in affection to their friend and in zeal for public justice. Though the law did not allow the avenging of any other affront or injury with death, yet the avenger of blood, the blood of a relation, shall have great allowances made for the heat of his heart upon such a provocation as that, and his killing only, should not be accounted murder if he did it before he got to the city of refuge, though it is owned he was not worthy of death. Thus would God possess people with a great horror and dread of the sin of murder: if mere chance-medley did thus expose a man, surely he that wilfully does violence to the blood of any person, whether from an old grudge or upon a sudden provocation, must flee to the pit, and
let no man stay him (
Prov 28:17); yet the New Testament represents the sin of murder as more heinous and more dangerous than even this law does.
1John 3:15,
You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (3.) It is provided that, if an avenger of blood should be so unreasonable as to demand satisfaction for blood shed by accident only, then the city of refuge should protect the slayer. Sins of ignorance indeed do expose us to the wrath of God, but there is relief provided, if by faith and repentance we make use of it. Paul that had been a persecutor obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly; and Christ prayed for his crucifiers,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
3. The appointing of three cities more for this use in case God should hereafter enlarge their territories and the dominion of their religion, that all those places which came under the government of the law of Moses in other instances might enjoy the benefit of that law in this instance,
Deut 19:8-
Deut 19:10. Here is, (1.) An intimation of God's gracious intention to enlarge their coast, as he had promised to their fathers, if they did not by their disobedience forfeit the promise, the condition of which is here carefully repeated, that, if it were not performed, the reproach might lie upon them, and not on God. He promised to give it,
if thou shalt keep all these commandments; not otherwise. (2.) A direction to them to appoint three cities more in their new conquests, which, the number intimates, should be as large as their first conquests were; wherever the border of Israel went this privilege must attend it, that
innocent blood be not shed, Deut 19:10. Though God is the saviour and preserver of all men, and has a tender regard to all lives, yet the blood of Israelites is in a particular manner precious to him,
Pss 72:14. The learned Ainsworth observes that the Jewish writers themselves own that, the condition not being performed, the promise of the enlarging of their coast was never fulfilled; so that there was no occasion for ever adding these three cities of refuge; yet the holy blessed God (say they)
did not command it in vain, for in the days of Messiah the prince three other cities shall be added to these six: they expect it to be fulfilled in the letter, but we know that in Christ it has its spiritual accomplishment, for the borders of the gospel Israel are enlarged according to the promise, and in Christ,
the Lord our righteousness, refuge is provided for those that by faith flee to him.
II. It is provided that the cities of refuge should be no sanctuary or shelter to a wilful murderer, but even thence he should be fetched, and delivered to the avenger of blood,
Deut 19:11-
Deut 19:13. 1. This shows that wilful murder must never be protected by the civil magistrate; he bears the sword of justice in vain if he suffers those to escape the edge of it that lie under the guilt of blood, which he by office is the avenger of. During the dominion of the papacy in our own land, before the Reformation, there were some churches and religious houses (as they called them) that were made sanctuaries for the protection of all sorts of criminals that fled to them, wilful murderers not excepted, so that (as Stamford says, in his
Pleas of the Crown, lib. II.
c. 38) the government follows not Moses but Romulus, and it was not till about the latter end of Henry VIII's time that this privilege of sanctuary for wilful murder was taken away, when in that, as in other cases, the word of God came to be regarded more than the dictates of the see of Rome. And some have thought it would be a completing of that instance of reformation if the benefit of clergy were taken away for man-slaughter, that is, the killing of a man upon a small provocation, since this law allowed refuge only in case of that which our law calls chance-medley. 2. It may be alluded to to show that in Jesus Christ there is no refuge for presumptuous sinners, that
go on still in their trespasses. If we thus
sin wilfully, sin and go on in it, there
remains no sacrifice, Hebre 10:26. Those that flee to Christ from their sins shall be safe in him, but not those that expect to be sheltered by him in their sins. Salvation itself cannot save such: divine justice will fetch them even from the city of refuge, the protection of which they are not entitled to.
14 Here is a statute for the preventing of frauds and perjuries; for the divine law takes care of men's rights and properties, and has made a hedge about them. Such a friend is it to human society and men's civil interest.
I. A law against frauds,
Deut 19:14. 1. Here is an implicit direction given to the first planters of Canaan to fix land-marks, according to the distribution of the land to the several tribes and families by lot. Note, It is the will of God that every one should know his own, and that all good means should be used to prevent encroachments and the doing and suffering of wrong. When right is settled, care must be taken that it be not afterwards unsettled, and that, if possible, no occasion of dispute may arise. 2. An express law to posterity not to remove those land-marks which were thus fixed at first, by which a man secretly got that to himself which was his neighbour's. This, without doubt, is a moral precept, and still binding, and to us it forbids, (1.) The invading of any man's right, and taking to ourselves that which is not our own, by any fraudulent arts or practices, as by forging, concealing, destroying, or altering deeds and writings (which are our land-marks, to which appeals are made), or by shifting hedges, meer-stones, and boundaries. Though the land-marks were set by the hand of man, yet he was a thief and a robber by the law of God that removed them. Let every man be content with his own lot, and just to his neighbours, and then we shall have no land-marks removed. (2.) It forbids the sowing of discord among neighbours, and doing any thing to occasion strife and law-suits, which is done (and it is very ill done) by confounding those things which should determine disputes and decide controversies. And, (3.) It forbids breaking in upon the settled order and constitution of civil government, and the altering of ancient usages without just cause. This law supports the honour of prescriptions.
Consuetudo facit jus -
Custom is to be held as law. II. A law against perjuries, which enacts two things: - 1. That a single witness should never be admitted to give evidence in a criminal cause, so as that sentence should be passed upon his testimony,
Deut 19:15. This law we had before,
Num 35:30, and in this book,
Deut 17:6. This was enacted in favour to the prisoner, whose life and honour should not lie at the mercy of a particular person that had a pique against him, and for caution to the accuser not to say that which he could not corroborate by the testimony of another. It is a just shame which this law puts upon mankind as false and not to be trusted; every man is by it suspected: and it is the honour of God's grace that the record he has given concerning his Son is confirmed both in heaven and in earth by
three witnesses, 1John 5:7.
Let God be true and every man a liar, Roma 3:4. 2. That a false witness should incur the same punishment which was to have been inflicted upon the person he accused.
If two, or three, or many witnesses, concurred in a false testimony, they were all liable to be prosecuted upon this law. (2.) The person wronged or brought into peril by the false testimony is supposed to be the appellant,
Deut 19:17. And yet if the person were put to death upon the evidence, and afterwards it appeared to be false, any other person, or the judges themselves,
ex officio -
by virtue of their office, might call the false witness to account. (3.) Causes of this kind, having more than ordinary difficulty in them, were to be brought before the supreme court,
The priests and judges, who are said to be
before the Lord, because, as other judges sat in the gates of their cities, so these at the gate of the sanctuary,
Deut 17:12. (4.) There must be great care in the trial,
Deut 19:18. A diligent inquisition must be made into the characters of the persons, and all the circumstances of the case, which must be compared, that the truth might be found out, which, where it is thus faithfully and impartially enquired into, Providence, it may be hoped, will particularly advance the discovery of. (5.) If it appeared that a man had knowingly and maliciously borne false witness against his neighbour, though the mischief he designed him thereby was not effected, he must undergo the same penalty which his evidence would have brought his neighbour under,
Deut 19:19.
Nec lex est justior ulla -
Nor could any law be more just. If the crime he accused his neighbour of was to be punished with death, the false witness must be put to death; if with stripes, he must be beaten; if with a pecuniary mulct, he was to be fined the sum. And because to those who considered not the heinousness of the crime, and the necessity of making this provision against it, it might seem hard to punish a man so severely for a few words' speaking, especially when no mischief did actually follow, it is added:
Thy eye shall not pity, Deut 19:21. No man needs to be more merciful than God. The benefit that will accrue to the public from this severity will abundantly recompense it:
Those that remain shall hear and fear, Deut 19:20. Such exemplary punishments will be warnings to others not to attempt any such mischief, when they see how he that made the pit and digged it has fallen into the ditch which he made.