Cities of Refuge
1Yahweh said to Joshua, 2“Tell the Israelites: Appoint the cities of refuge, as I told you through Moses, 3so that anyone who kills a person accidentally, without intent, may flee there. They will be a refuge for you from the avenger of blood. 4When someone flees to one of these cities, he is to stand at the entrance of the city gate and state his case before the elders of that city. They will then take him into the city and give him a place among them to live. 5If the avenger of blood comes after him, they must not hand the one who killed over to him, because he struck his neighbor without intent, not having hated him beforehand. 6He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly, and until the death of whoever is high priest at that time. Then he may return to his own town and his own house, to the town from which he fled.” 7So they set apart 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. 8East of the Jordan, opposite Jericho, they designated Bezer, in the wilderness on the plateau, from the tribe of Reuben; 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 Israelites and for any foreigner living among them, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally could flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood before standing trial before the assembly.
