Deuteronomy 2:34

2:34 At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them ¹  under divine judgment, ²  including even the women and children; we left no survivors.

Deuteronomy 3:5

3:5 All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; ³  in addition there were a great many open villages. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 3:19

3:19 But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

Deuteronomy 4:42-43

4:42 Anyone who accidentally killed someone ⁵  without hating him at the time of the accident ⁶  could flee to one of those cities and be safe. 4:43 These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

Deuteronomy 13:12

Punishment of Community Idolatry

13:12 Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that

Deuteronomy 19:1-2

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ⁷  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, 19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities ⁸  in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

Deuteronomy 19:11

19:11 However, suppose a person hates someone else ⁹  and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, ¹⁰  and then flees to one of these cities.

Deuteronomy 20:15

20:15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹¹ 

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¹ tn Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.

² tn Heb “under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). The verb employed is חָרַם (kharam, usually in the Hiphil) and the associated noun is חֵרֶם (kherem). See J. Naudé, NIDOTTE, 2:276-77, and, for a more thorough discussion, Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible, 28-77.

sn Divine judgment refers to God’s designation of certain persons, places, and things as objects of his special wrath and judgment because, in his omniscience, he knows them to be impure and hopelessly unrepentant.

³ tn Or “high walls and barred gates” (NLT); Heb “high walls, gates, and bars.” Since “bars” could be understood to mean “saloons,” the qualifying adjective “locking” has been supplied in the translation.

⁴ tn The Hebrew term פְּרָזִי (pÿraziy) refers to rural areas, at the most “unwalled villages” (KJV, NASB “unwalled towns”).

⁵ tn Heb “the slayer who slew his neighbor without knowledge.”

⁶ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day).” The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing.

⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁸ sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).

⁹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “rises against him and strikes him fatally.”

¹¹ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”