Deuteronomy 19:3

Thou shalt prepare thee a way,.... A road, an highway to those cities: on the first of Adar, or February, the magistrates used to meet, and proclaimed, or ordered to be proclaimed, that the ways be

Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither. Thou shalt prepare thee a way.

Thou shalt prepare thee a way; distinguish it by evident marks, and make it plain and convenient, to prevent mistakes and delays. Into three parts; not into more, because it was fit that these places should, as far as it was possible, be at some considerable distance from the friends of the slain person, lest the sight of the manslayer might have provoked their passion, and occasioned his ruin.

Deuteronomy 19:3 Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither.Ver. 3. Thou shalt prepare thee a way.] A direct, plain, fair highway: such a way must ministers prepare and pave for their people to Christ, the true asylum, by giving them "the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins."

Deuteronomy 19:1-13. THE CITIES OF REFUGE.(See for more on this subject, Numbers 35:9, &c.; Joshua 20) (1) When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations.—We find that the three cities of refuge on the west of Jordan were appointed by Joshua after the conquest (Joshua 20). The first three on the east of Jordan, namely, Bezer, Ramoth-Gilead, and Golan, had already been selected by Moses (Deuteronomy 4:41, &c), but Joshua assigned them to their Levitical possessors. (3) Thou shalt prepare thee a way.—Upon this phrase Rashi remarks (from the Talmud) that “Miklot! Miklot (‘Refuge! Refuge!’) was written up at the parting of the ways.” Divide the coasts of thy land . . . into three parts.—So that no part of the country might be too far from any of the cities of refuge. (5) As when a man goeth into the wood.—An obvious instance. (6) The avenger of the blood.—Literally, the redeemer of the blood. The Hebrew, gooël stands for all the three words, “redeemer,” “avenger,” “kinsman.” (8, 9) if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast . . . thou shalt add three cities—i.e., thou shalt add three to the six, making nine in all. There is no trace of this ever having been done in the history of Israel. The comments of Jewish writers show that nothing is known of the fact in their literature. Some of them point out that only seven nations were assigned to thehost of Joshua, and that the land occupied by these seven could not have needed more than the six cities. They lay stress upon the words “If He give thee all the land which He promised to give thy fathers” (not merely the seven nations promised to thee). They refer to the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites in particular, as three nations promised to Abraham. It would have been more to the purpose if they had referred to the Hittites. The cities of this people, as recently discovered, from Kedesh on the Orontes to Carchemish, lie to the north of the known territory of Israel. If “all the laud of the Hittites” (Joshua 1:4) had been conquered, the three additional cities might have been required. But though this land seems to have been tributary to Solomon, it was not so occupied by Israel as to necessitate the appointment of three additional cities of refuge. And Solomon’s empire lasted only for his own reign. But without going back to these details, they also take the promise as prophetical; holding that when the Lord has “circumcised their heart” (Deuteronomy 30:6), “to love the Lord,” and given them “one heart and one way to fear Him for ever, and shall make an everlasting covenant with them, and put His fear in their hearts ( Jeremiah 32:39-40) that they shall not depart from Him,” then the promises will be fulfilled. All the land will be given to them, and they will need these other cities. One writer adds, “Blessed is he that waiteth, and shall attain to it,” from Daniel 12:12.

Verse 3. Thou shalt prepare thee a way] The Jews inform us that the roads to the cities of refuge were made very broad, thirty-two cubits; and even, so that there should be no impediments in the way; and were constantly kept in good repair.

3. prepare thee the way] Usually taken as making the road open and firm. But (though Steuern.’s objection to this meaning, that such preparation would give equal advantage to the pursuer with the pursued, is hypercritical) this has no relevance to the rest of the v., as the older translators already saw and gave it another sense: LXX στόχασαίσοι, ‘reckon,’ or ‘guess,’ O.L. aestimare. Steuern. renders measure the distance. Better fix, or make sure of, the direction (in which the cities lie), and divide the area of thy land into three. every manslayer] The general term, Deuteronomy 4:42.

3. Thou shalt prepare thee a way — The sentence might read, prepare the road. This was understood to be a direction to have the roads leading to the cities of refuge kept in order.