Six Cities of Refuge
(Numbers 35:9–34; Deuteronomy 4:41–43; Deuteronomy 19:1–14)

1And YHWH spoke to Joshua, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you⁺ by the hand of Moses, 3for the fleeing there of the manslayer who kills a person inadvertently, without knowledge. And they shall be unto you⁺ a refuge from the avenger of the blood. And he flees to one of these cities, and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declares in the ears of the elders of that city his case, and they shall take him into the city as one of them and give to him a place, that he may dwell among them.

And if the avenger of the blood pursues after him, they shall not shut up the manslayer into his hand, because without knowing he struck his neighbor; he did not hate him from yesterday and the day before yesterday. And he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the face of the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest who is in those days. Then the manslayer may return and come to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.”

7And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

8And on the other side of the Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

9These were the cities appointed for all the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner who dwelt among them, for the fleeing there of anyone striking a person accidentally, that he would not die by the hand of the avenger of the blood until his standing before the face of the congregation.