Cities of Refuge

⁶ Among the cities which you will give to the Levites there will be six cities of refuge, which you will appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee there, and to them you will add forty-two cities. ⁷ So all the cities which you will give to the Levites will be forty-eight cities. You will give them with their pasturelands. ⁸ The cities which you shall give shall be from the possession of the children of Israel. From the larger tribes you shall give many, and from the smaller tribes you shall give few. Each tribe, in proportion to the inheritance that it receives, shall give of its cities to the Levites.

⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁰ Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you are crossing over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall designate cities as your cities of refuge, so that a manslayer who unintentionally kills a person may flee there. ¹² The cities will be for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer does not die until he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³ The cities which you designate shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You will give three cities across the Jordan, and three cities you will give in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ For the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the foreign sojourner among them will be six cities. These will be for a refuge. Everyone that unintentionally kills any person may flee there.

¹⁶ If he strikes him with an instrument of iron, so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ If he strikes him with a stone in hand, by which he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he strikes him with a weapon of wood in hand, by which he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself will slay the murderer. When he meets him, he will slay him. ²⁰ But if he pushed him out of hatred, or threw something at him, lying in wait, so he dies, ²¹ or in hatred struck him with his hand, so he died, he that struck him shall surely be put to death, because he is a murderer. The avenger of blood will slay the murderer when he meets him.

²² But if he pushed him suddenly without hatred, or threw anything at him without lying in wait, ²³ or used a stone that may cause death, unintentionally throwing it at him, resulting in death, though they were not enemies, and was not trying to harm him, ²⁴ then the assembly will judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. ²⁵ And the assembly will deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the assembly will restore him to the city of his refuge where he fled, and he will dwell in it until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ But if the manslayer will go out at any time beyond the border of the city of his refuge where he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood, ²⁸ because the manslayer should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

²⁹ So these things will be for a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

³⁰ Whoever kills a person, the murderer will be put to death by the testimony of witnesses, but one witness will not testify against a person for death.

³¹ And you will not take a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he will surely be put to death.

³² You will not take a ransom for him who fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come out again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³ So you will not defile the land which you are in, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him that shed it. ³⁴ So do not defile the land which you are dwelling in, where I am residing, because I the Lord am residing among the children of Israel.

Cities of Refuge^(A)

19 When the Lord your God has cut off the nations, whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses, ² you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall prepare a roadway for yourself, and divide the territory of your land into three parts, which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, so that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴ This is the word concerning the manslayer who will flee there, so that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, whom he did not hate previously, ⁵ like when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand raises the axe to cut down the tree, and the axe head slips from the handle and lands on his neighbor causing him to die, then he may flee to one of those cities, and live. ⁶ Otherwise the avenger of blood might, while he is angry, pursue the manslayer and overtake him (because the way is long) and kill him, even though he was not worthy of death (since he did not hate him previously). ⁷ Therefore, I command you, saying, “You shall set apart three cities for yourselves.”

⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as He promised your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers, ⁹ and if you will carefully keep all these commandments, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to always walk in His ways, then you must add three cities more for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ Then innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and blood guiltiness be on you.

¹¹ But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and mortally strikes him, causing him to die, and flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city must send and fetch him from there, and deliver him to the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ¹³ Your eye must not pity him, but you must remove the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Cities of Refuge^(A)

20 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Say to the children of Israel, ‘Choose refuge cities, as I told you through Moses, ³ so that anyone who kills a person without intent and unknowingly may flee there. They shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

⁴ “ ‘The refugee can flee to one of these cities then stand at the entrance of the city gate and tell his case to the city elders. They will take him into the city and give him a place to stay, and he will live with them. ⁵ When the avenger of blood comes after him, they shall not hand over the manslayer to him, for he struck down his neighbor unintentionally with no premeditated malice. ⁶ He shall live in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the manslayer may return to his home and to his city from which he had fled.’ ”

⁷ They selected Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. ⁸ Across the Jordan east of Jericho, they selected Bezer in the wilderness plain from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹ These were the cities designated for all the children of Israel and resident foreigners living among them, to which anyone who killed someone inadvertently could flee and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation.