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Deuteronomy 19:7

in Deuteronomy 19

This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt set apart three cities for thee.

KJV

Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.

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This verse in Deuteronomy 19

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

hath cut off the nations

on Deuteronomy 19:1-7

Numbers 35:9-15 and Exodus 21:13 had already set these cities apart, and what this chapter adds is the road: thou shalt prepare thee a way, with the land divided into three parts so that distance never decides a case. Verse 6 gives the reason plainly, that the avenger overtakes the slayer while his heart is hot because the way is long. The statute then works one example at length, an axe head flying off the helve in the wood, and no other case here is given that much room. Numbers 35:25 holds the manslayer in the city until the death of the high priest, a clause this retelling does not repeat.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Wherefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt separate three cities for thee. This was to be done immediately, as soon as they were settled in the land of Canaan, and established in the possession of it, the inhabitants being cut off, or driven out, or however subdued.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

That a false witness should incur the same punishment which was to have been inflicted upon the person he accused. If two, or three, or many witnesses, concurred in a false testimony, they were all liable to be prosecuted upon this law. (2.) The person wronged or brought into peril by the false testimony is supposed to be the appellant,

The words behind it

9 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • עַל־there-

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • כֵּ֛ן-fore

    kenH3651 →771 times

  • אָנֹכִ֥יI

    ʾanokhiH595 →359 times

  • מְצַוְּךָ֖[am] commanding you

    metzavekhaH6680 →494 times

  • לֵאמֹ֑ר<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

  • שָׁלֹ֥שׁthree

    shaloshH7969 →432 times

  • עָרִ֖יםcities

    ʾarimH5892 →1090 times

  • תַּבְדִּ֥ילyou will set apart

    tavdilH914 →42 times

  • לָֽךְ׃ סfor <the> yourself

    lakh

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 19 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 19 →