Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Today's reading is from Deuteronomy chapters 19 to 21.
Chapter 19.
When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you
and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall separate
three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving
you to possess.
You shall prepare roads for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of your land
which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.
And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live, whoever kills
his neighbour unintentionally, not having hated him in time past, as when a man goes
to the woods with his neighbour to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the axe
to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbour so that
he dies.
He shall flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood, while his anger
is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him,
though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past.
Therefore I command you saying you shall separate three cities for yourself.
Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory as you swore to your fathers, and gives you
the land which you promised to give to your fathers, and if you keep all these commandments
and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to always walk
in his ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, lest
innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you
as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
But if anyone hates his neighbour, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes
him mortally so that he dies, and if flees to one of these cities, then the elders of
his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the land of the avenger
of blood that he may die.
Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from
Israel that it may go well with you.
You shall not remove your neighbour's landmark which the men of old have set in your inheritance
which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits.
By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both
men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges
who serve in those days.
And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed if the witness is a false witness
who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to
have done to his brother, so you shall put away the evil from among you.
And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit
such evil among you.
Your eye shall not pity, life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot.
Chapter 20 When you go out to battle against your enemies
and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them,
for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach
and speak to the people, and he shall say to them, Hero Israel, today you are on the
verge of battle with your enemies, do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and
do not tremble or be terrified because of them, for the LORD your God is he who goes
with you, to fight for you against your enemies to save you.
Then officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house
and has not dedicated it?
Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate
it.
So what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it?
Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of
it.
And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her?
Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man marry
her.
The officers shall speak further to the people and say, What man is there who is fearful and
faint-hearted?
Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.
And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they
shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.
And it shall be, that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the
people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you.
Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege
it.
And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in
it with the edge of the sword.
But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil,
you shall plunder for yourself.
And you shall eat the enemy's plunder which the Lord your God gives you.
Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the
cities of these nations.
But of the cities of these peoples, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance,
you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive.
But you shall utterly destroy them.
The Hittite and the Amorite, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite, and the Hivite and the
Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to
all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord
your God.
When you besiege a city for a long time while making war against it to take it, you shall
not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them.
If you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field
is man's food.
Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to
build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued.
Chapter 21 If anyone is found slain lying in the field
in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed
him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain
man to the surrounding cities.
And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer
which has not been worked, and which has not pulled with a yoke.
The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which
is neither ploughed nor sown.
And they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.
Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen
them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord.
By their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled.
And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over
the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
Then they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes
seen it.
Provide atonement O Lord for your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and do not lay innocent
blood to the charge of your people Israel.
And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.
So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right
in the sight of the Lord.
When you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your
hand and you take them captive and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire
her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house.
And she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house and mourn her father
and her mother a full month.
After that you may go into her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.
And it shall be if you have no delight in her then you shall set her free, but you certainly
shall not sell her for money.
You shall not treat her brutally because you have humbled her.
If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children
both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, then
it shall be on the day he bequeathes his possessions to his sons that he must not bestow firstborn
status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.
But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double
portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength, the right of the
firstborn is his.
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father
or the voice of his mother, and who when they have chastened him will not heed them, then
his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of
his city, to the gate of his city, and they shall say to the elders of his city, the son
of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a
drunkard, then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones, so you shall
put away the evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear.
If a man has committed a sin deserving of death and he is put to death, and you hang
him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him
that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an
inheritance, for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.