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"After the LORD your God has destroyed the people whose land he is giving you and after you have taken their cities and houses and settled there,
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divide the territory into three parts, each with a city that can be easily reached. Then any of you that kill will be able to escape to one of them for protection.
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If you accidentally kill someone who is not your enemy, you may escape to any of these cities and be safe.
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For example, if two of you go into the forest together to cut wood and if, as one of you is chopping down a tree, the ax head comes off the handle and kills the other, you can run to one of those three cities and be safe.
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If there were only one city, the distance to it might be too great, and the relative who is responsible for taking revenge for the killing might catch you and angrily kill an innocent person. After all, it was by accident that you killed someone who was not your enemy.
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This is why I order you to set aside three cities.
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"When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he told your ancestors he would, and gives you all the land he has promised,
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then you are to select three more cities. (He will give you this land if you do everything that I command you today and if you love the LORD your God and live according to his teachings.)
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Do this, so that innocent people will not die and so that you will not be guilty of putting them to death in the land that the LORD is giving you.
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"But suppose you deliberately murder your enemy in cold blood and then escape to one of those cities for protection.
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In that case, the leaders of your own town are to send for you and hand you over to the relative responsible for taking revenge for the murder, so that you may be put to death.
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No mercy will be shown to you. Israel must rid itself of murderers, so that all will go well.
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"Do not move your neighbor's property line, established long ago in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
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"One witness is not enough to convict someone of a crime; at least two witnesses are necessary to prove that someone is guilty.
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If any of you try to harm another by false accusations,
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both of you are to go to the one place of worship and be judged by the priests and judges who are then in office.
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The judges will investigate the case thoroughly; and if you have made a false accusation,
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you are to receive the punishment the accused would have received. In this way your nation will get rid of this evil.
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Then everyone else will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing.
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In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.
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"When you go out to fight against your enemies and you see chariots and horses and an army that outnumbers yours, do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who rescued you from Egypt, will be with you.
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Before you start fighting, a priest is to come forward and say to the army,
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'Men of Israel, listen! Today you are going into battle. Do not be afraid of your enemies or lose courage or panic.
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The LORD your God is going with you, and he will give you victory.'
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"Then the officers will address the men and say, 'Is there any man here who has just built a house, but has not yet dedicated it? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will dedicate his house.
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Is there any man here who has just planted a vineyard, but has not yet had the chance to harvest its grapes? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will enjoy the wine.
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Is there anyone here who is engaged to be married? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will marry the woman he is engaged to.'
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"The officers will also say to the men, 'Is there any man here who has lost his nerve and is afraid? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, he will destroy the morale of the others.'
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When the officers have finished speaking to the army, leaders are to be chosen for each unit.
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"When you go to attack a city, first give its people a chance to surrender.
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If they open the gates and surrender, they are all to become your slaves and do forced labor for you.
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But if the people of that city will not surrender, but choose to fight, surround it with your army.
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Then, when the LORD your God lets you capture the city, kill every man in it.
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You may, however, take for yourselves the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city. You may use everything that belongs to your enemies. The LORD has given it to you.
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That is how you are to deal with those cities that are far away from the land you will settle in.
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"But when you capture cities in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, kill everyone.
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Completely destroy all the people: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD ordered you to do.
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Kill them, so that they will not make you sin against the LORD by teaching you to do all the disgusting things that they do in the worship of their gods.
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"When you are trying to capture a city, do not cut down its fruit trees, even though the siege lasts a long time. Eat the fruit, but do not destroy the trees; the trees are not your enemies.
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You may cut down the other trees and use them in the siege mounds until the city is captured.
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"Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land that the LORD your God is going to give you, and you do not know who killed him.
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Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns.
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Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work.
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They are to take it down to a spot near a stream that never runs dry and where the ground has never been plowed or planted, and there they are to break its neck.
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The levitical priests are to go there also, because they are to decide every legal case involving violence. The LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name.
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Then all the leaders from the town nearest the place where the murdered person was found are to wash their hands over the cow
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and say, 'We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it.
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LORD, forgive your people Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Forgive us and do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.'
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And so, by doing what the LORD requires, you will not be held responsible for the murder.
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"When the LORD your God gives you victory in battle and you take prisoners,
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you may see among them a beautiful woman that you like and want to marry.
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Take her to your home, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails,
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and change her clothes. She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that, you may marry her.
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Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her as a slave and sell her.
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"Suppose a man has two wives and they both bear him sons, but the first son is not the child of his favorite wife.
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When the man decides how he is going to divide his property among his children, he is not to show partiality to the son of his favorite wife by giving him the share that belongs to the first-born son.
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He is to give a double share of his possessions to his first son, even though he is not the son of his favorite wife. A man must acknowledge his first son and give him the share he is legally entitled to.
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"Suppose someone has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him.
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His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial.
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They are to say to them, 'Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes money and is a drunkard.'
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Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. Everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and be afraid.
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"If someone has been put to death for a crime and the body is hung on a post,
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it is not to remain there overnight. It must be buried the same day, because a dead body hanging on a post brings God's curse on the land. Bury the body, so that you will not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
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You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross!
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Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it?
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How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power?
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Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!
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Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?
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Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, "He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."
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You should realize, then, that the real descendants of Abraham are the people who have faith.
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The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."
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Abraham believed and was blessed; so all who believe are blessed as he was.
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Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, "Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!"
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Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, "Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live."
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But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, "Whoever does everything the Law requires will live."
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But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, "Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse."
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Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.
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My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it.
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Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural "descendants," meaning many people, but the singular "descendant," meaning one person only, namely, Christ.
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What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.
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For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.
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What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between.
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But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.
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Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it.
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But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.
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But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed.
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And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.
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Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.
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It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.
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You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.
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So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.
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If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.
