Presumed innocent is a Biblical principle

A law we all want to live under.

Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as I attempt to read the Bible with fresh eyes, as if I don’t know anything about it, and without consulting experts on what it “really” means.. Let’s see where this takes us!

Deuteronomy 19

I’m reading Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

“Cities of Refuge” are something I hadn’t recalled in my first studies of the Bible years ago. They actually sound like something out of fantasy or post-apocalyptic science fiction: those morally innocent of wrongdoing have a safe place to go to if they were involved in a fatal accident.

It sounds like there must be a lot of such accidents among the Israelites. Then again, perhaps each of these cities is really a small community.

It’s an intriguing idea, sparing the innocent from misguided revenge. More than that, however, it seems like an act of mercy for both the innocent and the family of the accident victim.

If I lived in a small community and was the inadvertent cause of the accidental death of another, say, a mother of three young children, I might choose to live elsewhere. If I saw her…