Ulangan 19:3-5

19:3 You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent ¹  of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. 19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ²  if he has accidentally killed another ³  without hating him at the time of the accident. ⁴  19:5 Suppose he goes with someone else ⁵  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ⁶  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ⁷  from the handle and strikes ⁸  his fellow worker ⁹  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ¹⁰  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ¹¹ 

[19:3]  ¹ tn Heb “border.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”

[19:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”

[19:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “his neighbor” (so NAB, NIV); NASB “his friend.”

[19:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he raises his hand with the iron.”

[19:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the iron slips off.”

[19:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “finds.”

[19:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

[19:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person responsible for his friend’s death) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and live.”