Cities of Refuge
1
Then the LORD said to Joshua:
2
"Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you
through Moses,
3
so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally
may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.
4
"When he flees to one of these cities, he is to stand in the entrance
of the city gate and state his case before the elders of that city.
Then they are to admit him into their city and give him a place to live
with them.
5
If the avenger of the blood pursues him, they must not surrender the one
accused, because he killed his nerighbor unintentionally and without
malice aforethought.
6
He is to stay in that city until he has stood trial before the assembly
and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time.
Then he may go back to his own home in the town from which he fled."
7
So 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.
8
On the east siode of the Jordan of Jericho they designated Bezer in the desert
on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad,
and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh.
9
Any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed
someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities and
not be killed by the avenger of blood
prior to standing trial before the assembly.
