Deuteronomy (The Speeches of Moses) - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 192

THE SPEECHES OF MOSES

19··-7 21-9

YO I1 I2 did not hate before the event. Con- sequently I command you to appoint three cities to be provided for your- selves. But if your EVER-LIVING GOD extends your boundaries, as He promised to your fathers, and gives to you the whole of the country which He promised to give to your fathers, you shall also attend to all these orders, to do what I have commanded you to—day, and love your EVER- Lxvmo Gon, and walk in His ways, at all times. Therefore add three other cities beside these three. Be- cause you shall not shed innocent blood in the breast of the lend that your EVER-LIVING GOD has given you to inherit, for that blood would be upon yourselves. But if it happens that a man hates

his neighbour, and waits for him, and arises against him, and strikes at his life so that he dies, and then flies to one of those Cmrxas of Gon; the Magistrates of that city shall send, and apprehend him there, and deliver him to the hand of the Avenger of Blood, and he shall be killed. Your eye shall not pity over him, for you must burn out innocent blood from Israel, that you may prosper. You shall not remove the boundary

of your neighbour, which your chiefs placed to your estate, when they divided the country which your EVER- LIVING GOD gave you to possess. A single witness shall not be re-

ceived against a person for any offence, or for any sin. For every offence that may be committed, the evidence of two witnesses, or of three must establish it. 16 When anyone makes a quarrel with x7 a man, to do him an., injury, both the persons between whom the dispute is, must appear before the presence of the EvE1z—L1v1No, and before the Priests and judges who may be in

iS their times; and the judges shall enquire carefully to ascertain who is the false witness,~—giving false evi- dence to injure his brother,~·—and shall do to him as he intended to do to his brother ;——~and burn that wrong from their midst, so that when others hear they may fear and not continue to do similar wrong amongst your Your eyes shall consequently not pity. Life for life; eye for eye; tooth for tooth ; hand for hand ; foot for foot. 19 20 2I

When a corpse is found fallen in a 21 held in the land which your EVER- LIVING GOD gives you to possess, and it is not known how killed, your chiefs and magistrates shall go and measure to the towns that are round about the corpse, to ascertain the town that may be nearest to the corpse. Then the head man of that town shall take a heifer from the herd, which has not worked,——·which has not drawn whee1s,—~and the head man of that town shall cause the heifer to be taken down. to a vale with a con- stantly liowing brook, which has not been cultivated nor reaped, and break the neck of the heifer at the brook. Then the priests of the sons of

Levi shall approach,——-for the Loma your GOD chose them to ofiiciate, and to bless in the name of the EvnR— LXVING, and every contention and every dispute shall be decided by· them, with all the Magistrates of the 6 surrounding towns ;-———to the corpse, and wash their hands over the broken- necked heifer at the brook, and as- Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it. Cover-it to the people of Israel whom you have chosen, LORD, and lay not innocent blood on the breast of your People of Israel. Then the blood shall be covered for them, and youwill burn the innocent blood from amongst you,———for you must practise justice in the eyes of the EVER-LIVING. 1 Ch. xix.-exxi. These first nine verses of Ch. xxl. have been evidently misplaced by some

transcriber, and should be at the end of Ch. xix., as I now place them, as they complete the The read hem to t dealttwith bMoses: I theref subject y) ore restore their prolper position. er, however, will probe ly ask my reasons for these alterations which ’ make in the arrangement of the text in Ch. xix.-—xxi. '1`heyare as follows: I had always felt that the accepted order ot the matter had become confused by some very ancient transcribers, and therefore consulted scholars whom I believed to be fully competent to assist me in a rectification, by which I proposed to bring the thought of the speeches of Moses in those chapters to a perfectly consecu- tive current of meaning. All agreed with me that the old text had been confused, but would not venture to decide whether mnew proposed arran ements were correct. I was disappointed, g (last apealed to my talente frien the Reverend §ohn Bowen, B.D., Rector of St. L so at pawrence, Pembrokes ire, who is an accomplished Classic and Oriental Scholar, and he kindly consented to co-operate with me, and I accepted his exact and careful amendments to my suggestions, feeling convinced that they were right. The confusion of the text at the various points noted 102