Deuteronomy 19:13

Justice

¹¹ If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities,

¹² the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die.

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.

¹⁴ You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵ A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: 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.
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.
WEB: Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.
ASV: Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.
DARBY: Thine eye shall not spare him; and thou shalt put away innocent blood from Israel, that it may be well with thee.
BLB: Your eye shall not pity him, and you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

ÅB: Du skal ikke spare ham, men du skal rense Israel for uskyldig blod, for at det må gå deg vel.
OTB: Vis ingen medlidenhet. Du må rense Israel for skyld i uskyldig blodutgytelse, så det kan gå deg vel.
B1930: Du skal ikke spare ham, men du skal rense Israel for uskyldig blod, forat det må gå dig vel.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

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.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
Deuteronomy 21:9
So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
2 Samuel 21:1
During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
Read in context
Numbers 35:33–34
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 one who shed it.
Read in context
Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
Read in context
Ezekiel 16:5
No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.
Read in context