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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Deuteronomy, Chapter XIX].</TITLE>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1706)
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>D E U T E R O N O M Y</B></FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XIX.</FONT>
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<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
The laws which Moses had hitherto been repeating and urging mostly
concerned the acts of religion and devotion towards God; but here he
comes more fully to press the duties of righteousness between man and
man. This chapter relates,
I. To the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill,"
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:1-13">ver. 1-13</A>.
II. To the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal,"
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:14">ver. 14</A>.
III. To the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness,"
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:15-21">ver. 15</A>, &c.</P>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Cities of Refuge.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1451.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>1 When the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land
the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and
dwellest in their cities, and in their houses;
&nbsp; 2 Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy
land, which the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God giveth thee to possess it.
&nbsp; 3 Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy
land, which the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three
parts, that every slayer may flee thither.
&nbsp; 4 And this <I>is</I> the case of the slayer, which shall flee
thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour
ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;
&nbsp; 5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew
wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the
tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his
neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities,
and live:
&nbsp; 6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his
heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay
him; whereas he <I>was</I> not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated
him not in time past.
&nbsp; 7 Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three
cities for thee.
&nbsp; 8 And if the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn
unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to
give unto thy fathers;
&nbsp; 9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I
command thee this day, to love the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God, and to walk ever
in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee,
beside these three:
&nbsp; 10 That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>
thy God giveth thee <I>for</I> an inheritance, and <I>so</I> blood be upon
thee.
&nbsp; 11 But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him,
and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and
fleeth into one of these cities:
&nbsp; 12 Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence,
and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he
may die.
&nbsp; 13 Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away <I>the
guilt of</I> innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with
thee.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
It was one of the precepts given to the sons of Noah that <I>whoso
sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed,</I> that is, by
the avenger of blood,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+9:6">Gen. ix. 6</A>.
Now here we have the law settled between blood and blood, between the
blood of the murdered and the blood of the murderer, and effectual
provision made,</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. That the cities of refuge should be a protection to him that slew
another casually, so that he should not die for that as a crime which
was not his voluntary act, but only his unhappiness. The appointment of
these cities of refuge we had before
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+21:13">Exod. xxi. 13</A>),
and the law laid down concerning them at large,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+35:10-15">Num. xxxv. 10</A>,
&c. It is here repeated, and direction is given concerning three
things:--</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. The appointing of three cities in Canaan for this purpose. Moses had
already appointed three on that side Jordan which he saw the conquest
of; and now he bids them, when they should be settled in the other part
of the country, to appoint three more,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:1-3,7"><I>v.</I> 1-3, 7</A>.
The country was to be divided into three districts, as near by as might
be equal, and a city of refuge in the centre of each so that every
corner of the land might have one within reach. Thus Christ is not a
refuge at a distance, which we must ascend to heaven or go down to the
deep for, but the word is nigh us, and Christ in the word,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+10:8">Rom. x. 8</A>.
The gospel brings salvation <I>to our door,</I> and there it knocks for
admission. To make the flight of the delinquent the more easy, the way
must be prepared that led to the city of refuge. Probably they had
causeways or street-ways leading to those cities, and the Jews say that
the magistrates of Israel, upon one certain day in the year, sent out
messengers to see that those roads were in good repair, and they were
to remove stumbling-blocks, mend bridges that were broken, and, where
two ways met, they were to set up a Mercurial post, with a finger to
point the right way, on which was engraven in great letters, <I>Miklat,
Miklat--Refuge, Refuge.</I> In allusion to this, gospel ministers are
to show people the way to Christ, and to assist and direct them in
flying by faith to him for refuge. They must be ready to remove their
prejudices, and help them over their difficulties. And, blessed be God,
<I>the way of holiness,</I> to all that seek it faithfully, is a
highway so plain that <I>the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err
therein.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
2. The use to be made of these cities,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:4-6"><I>v.</I> 4-6</A>.
(1.) It is supposed that it might so happen that a man might be the
death of his neighbour without any design upon him either from a sudden
passion or malice prepense, but purely by accident, as by the flying
off of an axe-head, which is the instance here given, with which every
case of this kind was to be compared, and by it adjudged. See how human
life lies exposed daily, and what deaths we are often in, and what need
therefore we have to be always ready, our souls being continually in
our hands. How are the sons of men <I>snared in an evil time, when it
falls suddenly upon them!</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+9:12">Eccl. ix. 12</A>.
An evil time indeed it is when this happens not only to the slain but
to the slayer.
(2.) It is supposed that the relations of the person slain would be
forward to avenge the blood, in affection to their friend and in zeal
for public justice. Though the law did not allow the avenging of any
other affront or injury with death, yet the avenger of blood, the blood
of a relation, shall have great allowances made for the heat of his
heart upon such a provocation as that, and his killing only, should not
be accounted murder if he did it before he got to the city of refuge,
though it is owned he was not worthy of death. Thus would God possess
people with a great horror and dread of the sin of murder: if mere
chance-medley did thus expose a man, surely he that wilfully does
violence to the blood of any person, whether from an old grudge or upon
a sudden provocation, must flee to the pit, and <I>let no man stay
him</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+28:17">Prov. xxviii. 17</A>);
yet the New Testament represents the sin of murder as more heinous and
more dangerous than even this law does.
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:15">1 John iii. 15</A>,
<I>You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.</I>
(3.) It is provided that, if an avenger of blood should be so
unreasonable as to demand satisfaction for blood shed by accident only,
then the city of refuge should protect the slayer. Sins of ignorance
indeed do expose us to the wrath of God, but there is relief provided,
if by faith and repentance we make use of it. Paul that had been a
persecutor obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly; and Christ
prayed for his crucifiers, <I>Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
3. The appointing of three cities more for this use in case God should
hereafter enlarge their territories and the dominion of their religion,
that all those places which came under the government of the law of
Moses in other instances might enjoy the benefit of that law in this
instance,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:8-10"><I>v.</I> 8-10</A>.
Here is,
(1.) An intimation of God's gracious intention to enlarge their coast,
as he had promised to their fathers, if they did not by their
disobedience forfeit the promise, the condition of which is here
carefully repeated, that, if it were not performed, the reproach might
lie upon them, and not on God. He promised to give it, <I>if thou shalt
keep all these commandments;</I> not otherwise.
(2.) A direction to them to appoint three cities more in their new
conquests, which, the number intimates, should be as large as their
first conquests were; wherever the border of Israel went this privilege
must attend it, that <I>innocent blood be not shed,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
Though God is the saviour and preserver of all men, and has a tender
regard to all lives, yet the blood of Israelites is in a particular
manner precious to him,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+72:14">Ps. lxxii. 14</A>.
The learned Ainsworth observes that the Jewish writers themselves own
that, the condition not being performed, the promise of the enlarging
of their coast was never fulfilled; so that there was no occasion for
ever adding these three cities of refuge; yet the holy blessed God (say
they) <I>did not command it in vain, for in the days of Messiah the
prince</I> three other cities shall be added to these six: they expect
it to be fulfilled in the letter, but we know that in Christ it has its
spiritual accomplishment, for the borders of the gospel Israel are
enlarged according to the promise, and in Christ, <I>the Lord our
righteousness,</I> refuge is provided for those that by faith flee to
him.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. It is provided that the cities of refuge should be no sanctuary or
shelter to a wilful murderer, but even thence he should be fetched, and
delivered to the avenger of blood,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:11-13"><I>v.</I> 11-13</A>.
1. This shows that wilful murder must never be protected by the civil
magistrate; he bears the sword of justice in vain if he suffers those
to escape the edge of it that lie under the guilt of blood, which he by
office is the avenger of. During the dominion of the papacy in our own
land, before the Reformation, there were some churches and religious
houses (as they called them) that were made sanctuaries for the
protection of all sorts of criminals that fled to them, wilful
murderers not excepted, so that (as Stamford says, in his <I>Pleas of
the Crown, lib.</I> II. <I>c.</I> xxxviii.) the government follows not
Moses but Romulus, and it was not till about the latter end of Henry
VIII's time that this privilege of sanctuary for wilful murder was
taken away, when in that, as in other cases, the word of God came to be
regarded more than the dictates of the see of Rome. And some have
thought it would be a completing of that instance of reformation if the
benefit of clergy were taken away for man-slaughter, that is, the
killing of a man upon a small provocation, since this law allowed
refuge only in case of that which our law calls chance-medley.
2. It may be alluded to to show that in Jesus Christ there is no refuge
for presumptuous sinners, that <I>go on still in their trespasses.</I>
If we thus <I>sin wilfully,</I> sin and go on in it, there <I>remains
no sacrifice,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+10:26">Heb. x. 26</A>.
Those that flee to Christ from their sins shall be safe in him, but not
those that expect to be sheltered by him in their sins. Salvation
itself cannot save such: divine justice will fetch them even from the
city of refuge, the protection of which they are not entitled to.</P>
<A NAME="De19_14"> </A>
<A NAME="De19_15"> </A>
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<A NAME="De19_17"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>False Witnesses.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1451.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>14 Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they
of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt
inherit in the land that the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> thy God giveth thee to possess
it.
&nbsp; 15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any
iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the
mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall
the matter be established.
&nbsp; 16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify
against him <I>that which is</I> wrong;
&nbsp; 17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy <I>is,</I> shall
stand before the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, before the priests and the judges, which
shall be in those days;
&nbsp; 18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold,
<I>if</I> the witness <I>be</I> a false witness, <I>and</I> hath testified
falsely against his brother;
&nbsp; 19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done
unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
&nbsp; 20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall
henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
&nbsp; 21 And thine eye shall not pity; <I>but</I> life <I>shall go</I> for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Here is a statute for the preventing of frauds and perjuries; for the
divine law takes care of men's rights and properties, and has made a
hedge about them. Such a friend is it to human society and men's civil
interest.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. A law against frauds,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
1. Here is an implicit direction given to the first planters of Canaan
to fix land-marks, according to the distribution of the land to the
several tribes and families by lot. Note, It is the will of God that
every one should know his own, and that all good means should be used
to prevent encroachments and the doing and suffering of wrong. When
right is settled, care must be taken that it be not afterwards
unsettled, and that, if possible, no occasion of dispute may arise.
2. An express law to posterity not to remove those land-marks which
were thus fixed at first, by which a man secretly got that to himself
which was his neighbour's. This, without doubt, is a moral precept, and
still binding, and to us it forbids,
(1.) The invading of any man's right, and taking to ourselves that
which is not our own, by any fraudulent arts or practices, as by
forging, concealing, destroying, or altering deeds and writings (which
are our land-marks, to which appeals are made), or by shifting hedges,
meer-stones, and boundaries. Though the land-marks were set by the hand
of man, yet he was a thief and a robber by the law of God that removed
them. Let every man be content with his own lot, and just to his
neighbours, and then we shall have no land-marks removed.
(2.) It forbids the sowing of discord among neighbours, and doing any
thing to occasion strife and law-suits, which is done (and it is very
ill done) by confounding those things which should determine disputes
and decide controversies. And,
(3.) It forbids breaking in upon the settled order and constitution of
civil government, and the altering of ancient usages without just
cause. This law supports the honour of prescriptions. <I>Consuetudo
facit jus--Custom is to be held as law.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. A law against perjuries, which enacts two things:--
1. That a single witness should never be admitted to give evidence in a
criminal cause, so as that sentence should be passed upon his
testimony,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>.
This law we had before,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+35:30">Num. xxxv. 30</A>,
and in this book,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:6"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 6</A>.
This was enacted in favour to the prisoner, whose life and honour
should not lie at the mercy of a particular person that had a pique
against him, and for caution to the accuser not to say that which he
could not corroborate by the testimony of another. It is a just shame
which this law puts upon mankind as false and not to be trusted; every
man is by it suspected: and it is the honour of God's grace that the
record he has given concerning his Son is confirmed both in heaven and
in earth by <I>three witnesses,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+5:7">1 John v. 7</A>.
<I>Let God be true and every man a liar,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+3:4">Rom. iii. 4</A>.
2. That a false witness should incur the same punishment which was to
have been inflicted upon the person he accused. <I>If two, or
three,</I> 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,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
And yet if the person were put to death upon the evidence, and
afterwards it appeared to be false, any other person, or the judges
themselves, <I>ex officio--by virtue of their office,</I> might call
the false witness to account.
(3.) Causes of this kind, having more than ordinary difficulty in them,
were to be brought before the supreme court, <I>The priests and
judges,</I> who are said to be <I>before the Lord,</I> because, as
other judges sat in the gates of their cities, so these at the gate of
the sanctuary,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:12"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 12</A>.
(4.) There must be great care in the trial,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
A diligent inquisition must be made into the characters of the persons,
and all the circumstances of the case, which must be compared, that the
truth might be found out, which, where it is thus faithfully and
impartially enquired into, Providence, it may be hoped, will
particularly advance the discovery of.
(5.) If it appeared that a man had knowingly and maliciously borne
false witness against his neighbour, though the mischief he designed
him thereby was not effected, he must undergo the same penalty which
his evidence would have brought his neighbour under,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
<I>Nec lex est justior ulla--Nor could any law be more just.</I> If the
crime he accused his neighbour of was to be punished with death, the
false witness must be put to death; if with stripes, he must be beaten;
if with a pecuniary mulct, he was to be fined the sum. And because to
those who considered not the heinousness of the crime, and the
necessity of making this provision against it, it might seem hard to
punish a man so severely for a few words' speaking, especially when no
mischief did actually follow, it is added: <I>Thy eye shall not
pity,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
No man needs to be more merciful than God. The benefit that will accrue
to the public from this severity will abundantly recompense it:
<I>Those that remain shall hear and fear,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+19:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
Such exemplary punishments will be warnings to others not to attempt
any such mischief, when they see how he that <I>made the pit and digged
it has fallen into the ditch which he made.</I></P>
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