Cities of Refuge
1
Then the LORD said to Joshua:
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"Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge,
as I instructed you through Moses,
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so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there
and find protection from the avanger of the 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 blood pursues him, they must not surrender the one accused,
because he killed his neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought.
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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."
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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 side 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.
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Any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed someone accidentally
could flee to thse designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood
prior to standing trial before the assembly.