Avoid Wicked Customs

9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, jyou shall not learn to follow the 4abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter kpass 5through the fire, lor one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 mor one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or none who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are 6an abomination to the Lord, and obecause of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be 7blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not 8appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

15 p“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb qin the day of the assembly, saying, r‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

17 “And the Lord said to me: s‘What they have spoken is good. 18 tI will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and uwill put My words in His mouth, vand He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 wAnd it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But xthe prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ywho speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—22 zwhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, aif the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Three Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God ahas 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, 2 byou shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 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.

4 “And cthis is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor 1unintentionally, not having hated him in time past—5 as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; 6 dlest 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. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

8 “Now if the Lord your God eenlarges your territory, as He swore to fyour fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, 9 and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, gthen you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, 10 hlest 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.

11 “But iif anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 jYour eye shall not pity him, kbut you shall 2put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.