Deuteronomy 19:6

פֶּן־יִרְדֹּף גֹּאֵל הַדָּם אַחֲרֵי הָרֹצֵחַ כִּי־יֵחַם לְבָבוֹ וְהִשִּׂיגוֹ כִּֽי־יִרְבֶּה הַדֶּרֶךְ וְהִכָּהוּ נָפֶשׁ וְלוֹ אֵין מִשְׁפַּט־מָוֶת כִּי לֹא שֹׂנֵא הוּא לוֹ מִתְּמוֹל שִׁלְשֽׁוֹם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

פֶּן־יִרְדֹּף֩ גֹּאֵ֨ל הַדָּ֜ם אַחֲרֵ֣י הָרֹצֵ֗חַ כִּי־יֵחַם֮ לְבָבוֹ֒ וְהִשִּׂיג֛וֹ כִּֽי־יִרְבֶּ֥ה הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ וְהִכָּ֣הוּ נָ֑פֶשׁ וְלוֹ֙ אֵ֣ין מִשְׁפַּט־מָ֔וֶת כִּ֠י לֹ֣א שֹׂנֵ֥א ה֛וּא ל֖וֹ מִתְּמ֥וֹל שִׁלְשֽׁוֹם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἵνα μὴ διώξας ὁ ἀγχιστεύων τοῦ αἵματος ὀπίσω τοῦ φονεύσαντος, ὅτι παρατεθέρμανται τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ καταλάβῃ αὐτόν, ἐὰν μακροτέρα ἦν ἡ ὁδός, καὶ πατάξῃ αὐτοῦ ψυχήν· καὶ τούτῳ οὐκ ἔστιν κρίσις θανάτου, ὅτι οὐ μισῶν ἦν αὐτὸν πρὸ τῆς ἐχθὲς οὐδὲ πρὸ τῆς τρίτης.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

ne forsitan proximus ejus, cujus effusus est sanguis, dolore stimulatus, persequatur, et apprehendat eum si longior via fuerit, et percutiat animam ejus, qui non est reus mortis: quia nullum contra eum, qui occisus est, odium prius habuisse monstratur.

Spanish

De lo contrario, el vengador de la sangre podría perseguir al homicida mientras la ira ardiente está en su corazón y alcanzarlo, porque el camino es largo, y herirlo mortalmente, aunque no era digno de muerte, porque no lo odiaba en el pasado.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

No sea que el pariente del muerto vaya tras el homicida, cuando se enardeciere su corazón, y le alcance por ser largo el camino, y le hiera de muerte, no debiendo ser condenado á muerte; por cuanto no tenía enemistad desde ayer ni antes de ayer con el muerto.

English

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 19:6 warns against a danger inherent in blood-vengeance customs: the "avenger of blood" might pursue and kill a manslayer out of sudden rage before reaching a city of refuge, even though the killer did not deserve death because he held no prior hostility toward the victim. The verse gives the rationale for establishing cities of refuge described earlier in the chapter.

Key words

go.'El ("[the] avenger of", H1350H) — qal participle in construct, describing an ongoing role/function ("the one who avenges") rather than a one-time act; construct links it to ha-Dam ("the blood").
ro.Tze.ach ("killer", H7523) — qal participle, again functioning as a substantive ("the one who kills"), naming the fleeing party by his action rather than by a fixed noun for "murderer."
ye.Cham ("it will be hot", H2552) — qal imperfect, describing the heart's emotional state as heating up; paired with le.va.V ("heart", H3824) plus suffix -o ("his"), forming the idiom for anger overtaking a person.
hi.si.G ("he will overtake", H5381) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, marking the next event in the chain of consequences set in motion by the avenger's pursuit.
so.Ne' ("[was] hating", H8130) — qal participle negated by lo' ("not", H3808), describing an ongoing state (habitual disposition) rather than a single act, used to explain the killer's lack of premeditated hostility.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a chain of conditional/causal clauses introduced three times by ki (H3588A, "for/because/if"), each clause supplying a link in a cause-and-effect sequence: the avenger's heart heats up (ye.Cham), he overtakes (hi.si.G) the killer, and strikes him down (hi.Ka.h) — three sequential perfect verbs describing what happens once the initial condition (pen, H6435, "lest") is triggered. The participles go.'El and ro.Tze.ach function almost like titles, identifying the two parties by their ongoing roles ("the one who avenges," "the one who kills") rather than as fixed nouns, which keeps the focus on action and function throughout.

The clause ein mishpat-mavet ("there is no sentence of death") uses the construct chain mishpat-mavet (H4941G + H4194) to state a legal category — a judgment specifically of the death-penalty type — negated by ein (H0369), asserting that no such judgment applied in this case. The final clause explains why: lo sone hu ("he was not hating"), using a participle for an ongoing state, followed by the time expression mi-temol shilshom (H8543 + H8032, "from yesterday, the day before"), an idiom for "beforehand" or "previously," specifying that the absence of hostility long preceded the killing.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ki yirbeh ha-derekh ("for/because the way will be great") is causal, explaining why the avenger succeeds in catching up. The LXX renders this conditionally, "ἐὰν μακροτέρα ἦν ἡ ὁδός" ("if the way was longer"), shifting from cause to hypothetical condition. The Vulgate's "dolore stimulatus" ("stimulated by grief/pain") for the heart-heating idiom (yecham levavo) introduces "grief" as the motivating emotion, where the Hebrew and LXX ("παρατεθέρμανται τῇ καρδίᾳ," "having been heated in heart") emphasize heat/anger without specifying grief. The Vulgate also states "qui non est reus mortis" ("who is not guilty of death") as a direct assertion, while the Hebrew and LXX frame this as part of the same conditional/causal chain describing the hypothetical scenario.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.