Laws about Personal Injury

¹² “Whoever strikes a person so that he dies must be put to death.^{(A) 13} But if he didn’t intend any harm,^[a] and yet God caused it to happen by his hand, I will appoint a place for you where he may flee.^{(B) 14} If a person schemes and willfully^[b] acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from My altar to be put to death.^(C)

¹⁸ “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or his fist, and the injured man does not die but is confined to bed, ¹⁹ if he can later get up and walk around outside leaning on his staff, then the one who struck him will be exempt from punishment. Nevertheless, he must pay for his lost work time^[a] and provide for his complete recovery.

²⁰ “When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod, and the slave dies under his abuse,^[b] the owner must be punished.^{[c] 21} However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished^[d] because he is his owner’s property.^[e](A)

²² “When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely^[f] but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands^(B) from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment. ²³ If there is an injury, then you must give life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth,^(C) hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.

Cities of Refuge

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ designate cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.^{(A) 12} You will have the cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills someone will not die until he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³ The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ Select three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁶ “If anyone strikes a person with an iron object and death results, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁷ If a man has in his hand a stone capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁸ If a man has in his hand a wooden object capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself is to kill the murderer; when he finds him, he is to kill him. ²⁰ Likewise, if anyone in hatred pushes a person or throws an object at him with malicious intent and he dies, ²¹ or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood is to kill the murderer when he finds him.

²² “But if anyone suddenly pushes a person without hostility or throws any object at him without malicious intent ²³ or without looking drops a stone that could kill a person and he dies, but he was not his enemy and wasn’t trying to harm him, ²⁴ the assembly is to judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵ The assembly is to protect the one who kills someone from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge he fled to, and he must live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.^(B)

²⁶ “If the one who kills someone ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge he fled to, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge and kills him, the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed, ²⁸ for the one who killed a person was supposed to live in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the one who has killed a person return to the land he possesses. ²⁹ These instructions will be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations wherever you live.

³⁰ “If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death based on the word of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness.^{(C) 31} You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of killing someone; he must be put to death. ³² Neither should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the high priest.^[a]

³³ “Do not defile the land where you are,^[b] for bloodshed defiles the land,^(D) and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it. ³⁴ Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I reside; for I, Yahweh, reside among the Israelites.”

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land He is giving you,^(A) so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses, ² you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.^{(B) 3} You are to determine the distances^[a] and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.^[b]

⁴ “Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: ⁵ If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger^[c] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,^[d] since he did not previously hate his neighbor. ⁷ This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them— ⁹ provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰ In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^{(C) 11} But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, ¹² the elders of his city must send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. ¹³ You must not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

⁷ But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she must go to the elders at the city gate^(A) and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He isn’t willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.’