Numbers 35

Towns for the Levites

1Yahweh spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho. He said, 2“Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in out of the inheritance the Israelites possess, and give the Levites pastureland around those towns as well. 3The towns will be theirs to live in, and the pastureland will be for their cattle, their property, and all their animals. 4The pastureland of the towns that you give the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits out from the town wall in every direction. 5You shall measure two thousand cubits outside the town on the east side, two thousand cubits on the south side, two thousand cubits on the west side, and two thousand cubits on the north side, with the town in the center. This will be their pastureland for each town. 6Among the towns that you give the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall provide so that a man who kills someone may flee there. And you shall add forty-two more towns to them. 7So all the towns that you give the Levites shall be forty-eight towns, together with their pastureland. 8As for the towns you give from the possession of the Israelites, take more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one; each tribe shall give some of its towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance it has received.”

The Cities of Refuge

9Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 10“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11you shall select cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a man who kills someone unintentionally may flee there. 12These cities will be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that the one who has killed does not die before he has stood trial before the congregation. 13Of the cities that you give, six shall be cities of refuge for you. 14You shall give three cities on the other side of the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. 15These six cities shall be a refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner and the settler among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

Laws of Murder and Manslaughter

16But if he strikes him with an iron object and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. 17And if he strikes him with a stone in his hand, one that could cause death, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. 18Or if he strikes him with a wooden object in his hand, one that could cause death, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. 19The avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death; when he encounters him, he shall put him to death. 20If he pushed him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, 21or struck him with his hand in enmity so that he died, then the one who struck him must surely be put to death — he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he encounters him. 22But if he pushed him suddenly, without hostility, or threw any object at him without lying in wait, 23or dropped any stone that could cause death on him without seeing him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy and was not seeking to harm him — 24then the congregation shall judge between the one who struck him and the avenger of blood, according to these rules. 25The congregation shall deliver the one who killed from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge to which he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26But if the one who killed ever goes outside the border of his city of refuge, to which he had fled, 27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge and kills him, the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed, 28because the one who killed was required to remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land of his own possession. 29These shall be statutes of judgment for you throughout your generations, wherever you live. 30Anyone who kills a person, the murderer, shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness. 31You shall not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death. 32Nor shall you accept a ransom for someone who has fled to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the priest. 33You shall not defile the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land for the blood shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34Do not defile the land where you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I, Yahweh, dwell among the Israelites.”