Font Size
Ch. 19 describes cities of refuge set aside in the land west of the Jordan (cf. 4:41-43) after Yahweh has given them the land. Amidst a chapter dealing with murder, manslaughter, and false witnesses, the writer reminds Israel that Yahweh gives success because Israel is keeping the Torah “to love the Lord [their] God and to walk always in his ways” (vv.8-9). V.10 gives the motive clause for Israel’s assigning and operating the cities of refuge in the land: so that innocent blood will not be shed and so that Israel will not be guilty of bloodshed. According to the theology of Deuteronomy, the presence of either of these crimes would result in a curse falling on the land and Israel.
The fact that Israel could add three more cities in the land to the three previously set aside shows that the Torah of Israel foresaw changing circumstances and made allowance for that in principle.