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Deuteronomy 19:13

in Deuteronomy 19

You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.

KJV

Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.

This verse in Deuteronomy 19

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

It may be alluded to to show that in Jesus Christ there is no refuge for presumptuous sinners, that go on still in their trespasses. If we thus sin wilfully, sin and go on in it, there remains no sacrifice, Heb. x.

This site's exposition

And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory

on Deuteronomy 19:8-13

Three cities become six if the border grows, and verse 9 ties that growth to “loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways”. Joshua 20:7-9 names all six, three west of the Jordan and the three of 4:41-43.

This site's exposition

You must show him no pity

Numbers 35:31 forbids a ransom for the life of a murderer, and showing no pity here closes the same door. Albert Barnes reads this chapter and the two after it as laws that impress the sanctity of human life on Israel.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Thine eye shall not pity him,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

“This means that you shall not say, ‘The first person has already been killed. Why should we kill him also, with the result that two people will be killed?’” This is Rashi’s language quoting the Sifre. 265 Sifre, Shoftim.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Deuteronomy 19:13:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
This is a warning against changing the boundaries of the division by which the princes apportioned the Land to the tribes. Numbers:16-29. or to any individual among them. Therefore he stated, which they of old time have set, 276 In Verse 14 before us.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Deuteronomy 19:14:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

10 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.

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • תָח֥וֹסit will look with pity

    tachosH2347 →24 times

  • עֵֽינְךָ֖eye your

    ʾeinekhaH5869 →887 times

  • עָלָ֑יוon him

    ʾalavH5921 →5755 times

  • וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֧and you will remove

    uviartaH1197 →94 times

  • דַֽם־[the] blood of

    dam-H1818 →360 times

  • הַנָּקִ֛יthe innocent [person]

    hanakiH5355 →43 times

  • מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֖לfrom Israel

    miyisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • וְט֥וֹבand it will be good

    vetovH2895 →45 times

  • לָֽךְ׃ סto <the> you

    lakh

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

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 7:16

    You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 23:33

      They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

    • Judges 8:27

      From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

    • Deuteronomy 7:2

      and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

    • 1 Corinthians 15:33

      Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

    • Deuteronomy 19:21

      You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 7:2

    and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

    it leads to

    • Judges 2:2

      and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?

    • Exodus 23:32–33

      You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

  • Through

    1 Kings 2:31

    And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 35:33

      Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the…

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.