Deuteronomy (Chapter 19)

Deuteronomy 19 establishes God’s standards for justice through the cities of refuge, the distinction between murder and manslaughter, and the requirement of multiple witnesses. These laws reveal that the Lord is both just and merciful, caring about the truth and the intentions of the heart. False testimony is condemned because it harms the innocent and corrupts the community. This chapter shows that God’s justice protects life, upholds truth, and calls His people to reflect His righteousness in every generation.

Transcript

Setting The Stage: Deuteronomy 19

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_02 0:27

Everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. We are walking through the book of Deuteronomy, uh, chapter by chapter, and we're picking up today in chapter 19. And so we're gonna uh pick up where we left off and continue to walk towards the end of the book. And so, doc, if you want to uh get us started, we would really enjoy it, I think.

Dr. David Klingler 0:47

Yeah, so we're in the section where there's gonna be a a lot more case law type of things. And and uh this is the section of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, where there are these laws that are given or case laws. If this occurrence happens, then this is the judgment type of thing. And it's the means by which, at least in my estimation, we ought to interpret the narrative. If there's a story and someone is doing something that violates the law and Moses is the standard, it gives you framework, yeah. Then yeah. And what's interesting to me, and we'll run into this in uh in weeks to come, uh I don't know that we'll get to it. We certainly won't get it to it uh in this podcast. But there will be places where the the patriarchs come into view, and you're thinking, no, how does that work? Um but uh but we'll we'll talk about that when we when we get to those sections. And and remember that not everything that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob did were correct or right. Uh some of the things they did were uh were in fact wrong. Um and and so we know that through reading the law, right? Through reading the uh through Torah.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Yeah, and so since a lot of times, since these are if-then type of situations, it's dealing with hard-heartedness, it's dealing with sin, and and and later it's actually gonna be used. You'll see that in the gospels with the Pharisees. Well, Moses said Right, but but it's in these you sort of if-then kind of situations where it's well, it's because of your hard hearts, right?

Dr. David Klingler 2:22

If this sin has occurred, then this is the judgment that is to be rendered. It doesn't make the sin okay, exactly, right.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Just because Moses said it, right, or allowed it or whatever.

Cities Of Refuge And Intent

Dr. David Klingler 2:32

And we get into some gray areas, and and and how do you you know kind of determine and and judge these things? So this is a good example. We'll begin in in 191. When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you possess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess. You shall prepare the roads for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of your land, which the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any and they translate it manslayer may flee there. We'll come back to that translation here in just a second. Now, this is the case of any manslayer who may flee there and live, when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously. And it gives some examples of that. And then he goes on to uh to say that uh that if the Lord, this is in verse eight, and we'll come back to these verses we're skipping, if the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers and gives you all the land which he promised to give you, uh, if you carefully observe all this commandment today, uh then uh he will give you three more cities. Well, in uh when we jump forward in the story to Joshua chapter twenty, these six cities are spelled out. Three on one side, three on the other. Uh they were to be uh so this is in chapter twenty, Joshua chapter twenty, verse seven. So they set apart Kadash in Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, uh, and uh Cariath Arba in the uh that is Hebron. Hold on to that one. That's gonna actually come back into the story. And it's not gonna tell you that's right, that's what it's doing, but it's in 2 Samuel chapters 1 through 3, uh that's gonna come back into a story. We'll tell you about that here in a minute. Yes. Uh beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they designated Bezar in the wilderness on the plain uh from the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth and Galead uh from the tribe of Gad and Golan and Vashan, the tribe of Manasseh. Uh these were appointed cities for all the sons of Israel, and for the stranger who uh lives in them, that whoever kills anyone unintentionally, he may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation. There they're translating it killer, the manslayer. The word, let's go back to uh to the Deuteronomy passage. The word here that they're translating manslayer actually comes all it goes all the way back to Exodus chapter 20, uh Ten Commands, verse 13, you shall not murder. That's the word that's translated there, murder. Um and so the cities sh shall give uh this is in Numbers 35, 6. Uh, the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer, the murderer, to flee. So so you flee there to see if you're innocent or not, kind of to stand trial, right? Uh you're brought before the elders in the city gate, they hear the evidence. If you are found innocent, unintention and and not that you know you didn't kill someone, that goes without saying. You you did, but but you're fleeing there to say that it was unintentional. You you didn't have hatred in your heart, it wasn't premeditated.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah, and while you're in this city, you're not available to be avenged, basically. Right. You're under protection.

Joshua’s Map And Legal Process

Dr. David Klingler 6:15

Yeah, and and we get this um a lot of our categories in law from many countries. Yeah. Murder, man uh slaughter, um, you know, premeditated murder, you know, kind of levels of it. Right. Um and uh intent matters, yeah. Yeah, and so so that's what's going on here. Uh so the instruction is for these these roads to be given, um, they're not to be far off so that the the pursuer um, you know, he can flee there and live uh when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously. Verse five, and when a man goes into the forest and he's uh to cut wood, here's an example, and his hand swings the axe to cut the tree, and the uh iron head slips off the handle and it strikes his friend. He must have bought this at like tractor supply or something. It wasn't high quality construction, but it was keep Home Depot. But uh but the axe head flies off and strikes his friend so that he dies, he may flee to one of the cities and live. Otherwise, the Avenger of Blood might pursue the manslaver, uh slayer or that murderer in the heat of his anger and overtake him because it's a long way away. See, this is why there were to be many of them in the land. Um, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. Now there's going to be instruction, provision for what happens when you know unintentional things happen, and what's the payment? Right? It's not to say that there's not a payment, but nonetheless. Uh therefore I command you, saying, You shall set aside three cities for yourself. And then if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, just as he swore to your fathers, to give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers, and if you carefully obey this commandment, which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways always, then he will add three more cities for you besides these three. So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and blood guiltness be on you. But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up and against him and he strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, then the elders of the city shall shall send him and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may die. You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel. That's the point.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah.

Abner, Joab, And Hebron’s Lesson

Dr. David Klingler 8:50

That it may go well with you. Um there's going to be some more instruction here about how to how this case is to be um mitigated or played out. But I want to pause and go back to our our uh you know manslayer cities, um, cities of refuge, we call them. Yeah. And um, and you know, so you go to Joshua chapter 20 and you get the list. Uh and you have to know this list. So you have to know the instruction, you have to know how this is supposed to work. Uh the one who is killed is to flee to the city of refuge. Uh the the uh you know, the one who's pursuing him, the avenger of blood, they call it, uh, is to pursue him. Uh, but he has protection inside the city. The case is to be heard by the elders, uh, and then the elders decide. And if the elders decide that he's guilty, uh, then they he's put outside the city. Um, but if he is innocent, then he can stay in the city for uh for uh protection.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 9:53

And so when we get over to first or to 2 Samuel, um and we pick it up in 2 Samuel chapter 1, um this is uh you know the death of Saul, and David learns of the death of Saul, and then there's a man named Ishbasheth who comes becomes king in Israel, and David is uh king down in Judah, and there's a war between the two uh and the general, uh his name is Abner, the general for uh Ishbasheth uh Ishbasheth in the in the north, uh he is fighting against Joab. Joab is David's general in the south. Uh and the story tells us that uh that Abner had uh you know that Joab had some brothers who were joining him in battle, and one of them's name was Amasa. Uh I think it was some is it Amasa? Um Asahel. Uh yeah, sorry, Asahel, yeah. And and he is um it says he's swift of foot. Uh and uh this is uh yeah, this is down in uh in you know in the world.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Like a like an Ibex or something like that.

Dr. David Klingler 11:04

And he's uh and so he's uh pursuing Abner, and and Abner says, you know, is that you, Asa Hel? And he says it is, and he said, Don't pursue me or I'm gonna have to kill you. You know, and it's war, so you know, and he does, and so Abner kills him, and now Joab pursues Abner to Hebron. And at Hebron, Joab draws him out of the city and kills him. There's no trial.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah.

Legal Principles For The Church

Dr. David Klingler 11:36

Um, he deceives him, says, No, you know, I'm just here to talk, you know, or whatever. And he draws him out. He gets him in the alley and he just and he kills him. Yeah, and uh now uh this is a problem. Um Joab has violated the law, uh, and uh, you know, this is uh this is clear. Now, there's also places later in the story, after that even, where it becomes clear that David knew, right? And so now you've got this Joab, Joab's operating on behalf of David, but he's uh, you know, uh he's evil. And so this is in 1 Kings uh chapter 2, when David is commissioning uh Solomon, his son, to take over his reign. And he's kind of giving him a list of things to correct that David has blown it and Solomon needs to fix it. Uh and he continues, this is in chapter 2, verse 5. Now you know what Joab, the son of Zereh, did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner, son of Nur, and to Amasah, the son of Jathar. That's there's there's two of them there, um, whom he killed. And he also shed the blood of war in peace. And he put uh the war, uh, the blood of war on his belt, about his waist, and sandals on his feet. So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace. Uh, in other words, um, he deserved death, and I didn't do it. You need to fix it. Right. And that's what's going to happen here. And so, so this is the way, uh, so there's several levers levels here, right? First, you have to know that there's cities of refuge and what's their function. Second, you have to know which cities they are. Yeah. Third, you have to know what's going on, what's allowed, what's not allowed uh per the law during warfare. The warfare chapter will be uh the the next uh section that we're gonna be in. Uh uh, you have to know that what Joab did was evil, violated the law, was worthy of death. Yeah, that David didn't exact that judgment and he should, uh, and now he's going to tell Solomon to do it, and he does it. And that's a way the narrators uh to show the reader that Solomon, at least starting out, yeah, is fixing all the places where David blew it. Yeah. He's looking pretty good, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Right. Yeah, I notice the narrator doesn't say go back and read Deuteronomy 19. It doesn't give you that clue to go back and read Joshua.

Two Or Three Witnesses

Dr. David Klingler 14:08

They didn't have a cross-ference cross-reference Bible either. Yeah. So you're supposed to know this. And of course, if you're if you're reading this as a story, as a narrative, uh, from beginning to end, then these things you catch along the way. This is part of the previous scenes of the movie, so to speak. And you are supposed to remember these, you know. Yes. You don't just come to each scene of the movie and delete everything that's happened in your mind. Uh, but you've got to keep these things going. Yep. Um, and so uh so you know, do you need to know Deuteronomy chapter 19? Yes. Uh for Old Testament? Yes. For uh prophets, yes. Um, what about for New Testament? Do you need to know um uh a passage like Deuteronomy chapter 19? Well let's keep reading and see because it turns out that uh that you do, and it's gonna come right into our even our church theology. And so um, you know, we we got this um you know this instruction, uh, but then we pick it up in uh chapter 19, verse 14. You shall not move your neighbor's boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance, which you will inherit the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess. A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or sin which he's committed, but on the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed. Well, that right there is you know quite a bit of New Testament theology, right? Right. Um if you see your brother and sin, what do you do? You go confront him. You go, yep. If he bring him back, you know, and if if you win him over, wonderful. If not, then what do you do? Well, you take two or three. You know, you uh on the witness of two or three, the issue is to be confirmed. Yeah. And now what what if he's um if he won't listen to to them, then you elevate it and you take him to the elders. Well, this is exactly what happens in Israel, right? And if they're guilty, you put them outside. Yeah, they're witness of two or three, and uh, and so this is the you know, this is you know very much the the same theology at least that's going on in the New Testament, the same principle. Absolutely. Um a malicious witness, right? So on the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed, verse 15, verse 16. If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, if a aid chamas, uh aid chamas, maybe you heard this word Hamas, but it's uh violence, yeah. Yeah, violence. Uh a witness of violence arises uh against a man and accuses him uh of wrongdoing, then both men shall stand uh who have the dispute, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests, and before the judges who are in office in those days, and the judges shall investigate thoroughly. If a witness is a false witness, if he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he intended to do to his brother. So you shall purge the easel evil from among you. Well, several passages come to mind in this one. Um there's one over at the end of the book of Judges, uh, and again, you get all of this irony uh where uh there's this priest, and he has gone, you know, he's he's a Levite, he's got a concubine, he's traveling, his concubine plays the harlot, she goes back to her dad's house, he goes and wooes her back, and you're going, how many things can you pile up here that are problematic? And then they're traveling and they're going down the trail, and they come to this place to lodge for the night, and they come to a choice, and one choice is to turn into the city of Jebus, where the Jebusites live, and we don't know that as Jebus, but we know it is Jerusalem. So it's the city of Jerusalem. It's not yet been conquered.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 17:58

That's a problem. Um, they're in the land, but they haven't conquered the city of Jerusalem yet. Throw that on the pile. Yeah, so they turn into the city of Gibeah. Uh and in the city of Gibeah, uh the Sodom and Gomorrah story shows up all over again, and the men surround the house, and and this Levite takes his concubine. Uh, he seizes this concubine and throws her out, and they ravage her. And don't know if we they killed her or if he killed her.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

It seems like it, but is she dead at the end of it?

Dr. David Klingler 18:29

Well, it doesn't say, here's the thing is he hacks her into pieces, doesn't it say she's dead. Doesn't say if she's dead or not. So the story kind of trying to figure out who did it. Certainly they're guilty.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Yeah.

False Witness And Just Penalties

Dr. David Klingler 18:41

Certainly he's guilty for turning her over to them. Yeah. Then he hacks her up and sends her to the 12 tribes, and they gather together as one man. That's the language, as one man. And then he, who is the Levite, he's to be operating as the judge. He's the one who's supposed to be doing the righteous judgment here. Yeah. Um, but he's playing the witness, he's a single witness. Um, they are playing the role of judge, they're not supposed to. Um, and and then they render judgment against, and you're just going, there's nothing right about this story, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Everything's backwards.

Dr. David Klingler 19:17

Uh but if you don't know the law, you don't know what to contrast it with. Uh, and so you don't know how wrong it actually is that everything's happening here. And this is the narrator's effort to show the reader who knows the law. Israel's a wreck.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yes.

Dr. David Klingler 19:33

This is an absolute mess, and it's gonna lead uh it's gonna end in civil war. Another um story that comes to mind is the uh you know the the the adulterous woman story in uh in John chapters uh seven and eight, seven fifty-three through eight, was it ten or eleven? And uh and of course this is a debated one. Uh is it supposed to be in the New Testament or not? And I think that one of the reasons why it may have been problematic for for scribes, copyists, is uh um what do you do with the this command of Jesus? Um, you know, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 20:13

Um that would mean that all of Moses' commands to cast stones, to stone people to death, required that the stone thrower be perfect. That's not what the law says. It says the eyewitness.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 20:29

Uh you cannot rise up against someone on a single eyewitness account, but on the witness of two or three. But they have to be qualified. They can't be a malicious witness. They they've got to have pure intentions. Their desire is to be to rid uh the land from, you know, purge the evil from the witness. From guilt, yeah, from guilt from the land. Yeah. But they're clearly um guilty. They're not per they're they're they're deceitful, the the Pharisees are, and how they're setting this up. Yeah, they don't care at all about her or her sin. They're trying to set up Jesus. Or establishing righteousness in the land.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Exactly. That's the right thing.

Dr. David Klingler 21:01

Uh what they're doing is they've set it up so that they're the, you know, they're just kind of the innocent prosecution. You know, Moses says, I mean, what do we know? What do you say, Jesus? Yeah. Judge Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 21:13

Uh, since she was caught in adultery in the very act. So they've set it up as she's the the defense, they're the prosecution, judge uh Jesus is the judge. But John slips this little statement in there. They were doing this in order to find cause to kill him, to persecute him, to kill him, uh, to accuse him. Uh which makes them, by definition, malicious malicious witnesses. So the the the They don't have anything against him, but they want to kill him. Yeah, and uh they're seeking to get this woman killed uh and using this whole situation to do it. And so they're seeking the death penalty, and that's what's required then of them. And what we're gonna see here is that uh this malicious witness, if they are a witness of Violence, malicious witness. They are not to be shown mercy. Right. But um the eyewitness, if you go to some other passages, chapter 17, chapter 19, the eyewitness is the one that is required, so long as he's qualified, not a malicious witness, is required to cast the first stone. So Jesus was not an eyewitness. Yeah. He's not qualified by the law to cast the first stone. They've been shown to be disqualified. If they want to pursue the case, then okay, well, let's start throwing stones. You know, who do we who do we start with? Which one of you yet?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

That's good.

Dr. David Klingler 22:39

And so so this is a another passage where understanding this Old Testament law, you know, will again play out in the New Testament.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

But you would you say this is an expansion on, you know, like the Ten Commandments, right? Oh, sure. Not bearing false witness. This is how it's playing out in Israel, right? Yeah.

Judges 19: When Law Goes Wrong

Dr. David Klingler 22:57

So the this this you know, thou shalt not murder. Okay, well, what if you're swinging an axe and the head flies off? Yeah. Well, that's not murder, right? That's because it's not intentional. Or or and so it it kind of defines more what it means to you shall not uh you know kill. Yeah. Um well, what about in war? What about unintentional? What about you know, so these are the case laws, and this was how the judge or the priest who was in office in those days was to discern through these instructions. Yeah, to judge the judge the cases. Yeah. Uh and so anyway, both of them will appear before uh stand before the Lord. That's interesting. It says stand before the Lord, that is to say, before the priests and the judges who were in office in those days. That's uh chapter 19, verse 17. Um to s the priest or the judge was to judge in accordance with the will and word what uh of the Lord, what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Yeah, which we saw last week as we looked at.

Dr. David Klingler 23:51

Not to be distorted, not to be blinded. And the judges will investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness, and he has accused his brother falsely, then you will do to him just as he intended to do to his brother, thus you shall purge the evil from among you, and the rest will hear and fear, be afraid. And they will never again do such an evil thing among them. Thus you shall show no pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Right? So that we you know, this is where we get the eye for an eye, right? Um are you to give mercy? Of course. Always? Almost. Almost. Yeah. Uh when do you not, according to the law of Moses, uh, when there's a malicious witness, when someone has manipulated the facts to falsely accuse uh someone of a crime, uh, you know, of worthy of death or worthy of whatever. Um and think about how we you know we do this in in our this is why you have witnesses and testimony and um you know someone's on trial, but what if someone is on trial and they've been falsely accused? And throughout the case you you find out that they've falsely accused. Um, you know, I can think of situations today where someone accuses someone of rape or someone accuses someone of murder, but it's a false accusation, it's all made up for the you know, because of hatred, right? And they intend to get this person, you know, in trouble, uh imprisoned or worse, killed, uh judgment of death. Uh what should happen to that person? Yeah. Well, per the law of Moses, uh whatever you know, punishment they were seeking, because they were a malicious witness and they made this whole thing up, they get it. Yeah. And it is not to be uh, you know, the sentence is not to be lowered. Yes. Okay. It is it is eye for eye, life for life, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Yeah, these things clearly lay out which things you are to purge from the land. Because these things spread like leaving. And it it hits me in each of these situations. Whether it's purging false prophets or or this, it's you do this in order that everybody sees it. Yeah. And they're afraid of that judgment. And it doesn't, it's a it's a it's to be a reminder to them not to do the same thing.

Dr. David Klingler 26:23

To establish righteousness in the land. So what does it look like to love your brother as yourself? This is it.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 26:29

Right? Um, you care for him, you protect him. Uh, we're gonna get that uh here not the next time, not in our next uh podcast, but in in two of them. So make sure that you continue to uh to listen, you know. If uh if you're there there's there's gonna be another New Testament passage that's gonna come into relevance there. It's if uh you know if your brother's ox falls in a hole, what do you do? Well, not only do you care for your brother, your neighbor, you care for his stuff, his wife, his possessions, his donkeys, you know. Well, what if you know you gotta keep it and feed it? Yes, then keep it and feed it.

John 8 And Qualified Witnesses

SPEAKER_02 27:05

That hits hard because a lot of these scenarios in these chapters are showing up in the gospels, which highlights the points. That the the Pharisees know the Ten Commandments. Yes, but it their problems are when they get into these details of the case law, they're misapplying it consistently. Whereas these the Moses told you how these Ten Commands apply to these various situations, and they're annulling it, they're changing it, they're lowering the standard, right? And and these situations help us to understand really what Jesus is saying there and how he's correcting them.

Dr. David Klingler 27:39

Yeah, because they actually don't love the Lord their God with all their heart and their soul, and they don't love their neighbor as themselves. Huge. And so it comes right back. So we're gonna continue to see this as we go through. And and so so many of these New Testament passages, gospel passages, epistolary, you know, passages in the epistles uh are going to be just straight out of the law.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 28:01

And Israel was to know it, uh, and the reader of the Bible knows it as well, and then you understand what uh the authors are doing, and and uh so so how important is um understanding Deuteronomy? Well, if you don't understand Deuteronomy, you can't understand Samuel, you can't understand kings, you can't understand the prophets, you can't understand the gospels, you can't understand the epistles, and you can't understand Revelation. So I'd say it's pretty important, yeah. Right? It's pretty important to understand Deuteronomy. And yeah, and so uh next time we'll pick it up in chapter 20, good, and uh and we'll get some more Old Testament relevance.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Don't skip these chapters.

Dr. David Klingler 28:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Stay in them, uh, know these details, commit them to your to your mind and your heart because they're gonna be so helpful um and necessary as we continue to read this story. So uh thanks again, Doc, for walking us through that. We'll pick up uh next time in chapter 20. So we'll see you guys then.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

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