seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, 9 because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities. 10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.
11 But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
11 But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
There are two messages here. The first is a continuation of yesterday's reading. The second in short, sweet, and serious.
This is from the easy English site.
The Israelites never added the extra three cities. God did not give all the country to them because they did not obey him.
You can read more about these cities in Numbers 35:6-34. Perhaps the man killed someone by accident or perhaps he murdered a person. The rulers of a city would look at the evidence. Then they would decide what to do. If a man murdered someone, the dead person’s relative could kill that man. But the relative could do that only if the man was guilty. However, a man might kill someone by accident. Then he had to stay in the city until the chief priest died. Notice that God wanted justice. He did not want anybody to kill an innocent person. In the same way, he did not want a guilty person to be free.
This was a serious crime. People needed their land so that they could produce crops. Their crops kept people alive. If people moved the position of the stone, they were stealing somebody’s land. Without their land, people had no method to remain alive.
You can read more about these cities in Numbers 35:6-34. Perhaps the man killed someone by accident or perhaps he murdered a person. The rulers of a city would look at the evidence. Then they would decide what to do. If a man murdered someone, the dead person’s relative could kill that man. But the relative could do that only if the man was guilty. However, a man might kill someone by accident. Then he had to stay in the city until the chief priest died. Notice that God wanted justice. He did not want anybody to kill an innocent person. In the same way, he did not want a guilty person to be free.
This was a serious crime. People needed their land so that they could produce crops. Their crops kept people alive. If people moved the position of the stone, they were stealing somebody’s land. Without their land, people had no method to remain alive.
Here's what bibletrack.org says about verse 14.
Here's one verse dedicated to insuring that survey markings don't get moved or altered. You will recall that these land inheritances were perpetual. Even if you sold your land, it came back to your family in the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-55). So, don't remove those markers!
So.... I had never noticed verse 14 before. There are a couple of people I know who are embroiled in expensive [and seemingly eternal] court battles over the boundaries of their land.
