Joshua 20

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 The LORD said to Joshua:	1 And the Lord spoke to Josue, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them:
2 "Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of which I spoke to them through Moses,	2 Appoint cities of refuge, a of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses:
3 to which one guilty of accidental and unintended homicide may flee for asylum from the avenger of blood.	3 That whosoever shall kill a person unawares may flee to them: and may escape the wrath of the kinsman, who is the avenger of blood:
4 To one of these cities the killer shall flee, and standing at the entrance of the city gate, he shall plead his case before the elders, who must receive him and assign him a place in which to live among them.	4 And when he shall flee to one of these cities: he shall stand before the gate of the city, and shall speak to the ancients of that city, such things as prove him innocent: and so shall they receive him, and give him a place to dwell in.
5 Though the avenger of blood pursues him, they are not to deliver up the homicide who slew his fellow man unintentionally and not out of previous hatred.	5 And when the avenger of blood shall pursue him, they shall not deliver him into his hands, because he slew his neighbour unawares, and is not proved to have been his enemy two or three days before.
6 Once he has stood judgment before the community, he shall live on in that city till the death of the high priest who is in office at the time. Then the killer may go back home to his own city from which he fled."	6 And he shall dwell in that city, till he stand before judgment to give an account of his fact, and till the death of the high priest, who shall be at that time: then shall the manslayer return, and go into his own city and house from whence he fled.
7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the mountain region of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountain region of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the mountain region of Judah.	7 And they appointed Cedes in Galilee of mount Nephtali, and Sichem in mount Ephraim, and Cariath-Arbe, the same is Hebron in the mountain of Juda.
8 And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho they designated Bezer on the open tableland in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh.	8 And beyond the Jordan to the east of Jericho, they appointed Bosor, which is upon the plain of the wilderness of the tribe of Ruben, and Ramoth in Galaad of the tribe of Cad, and Gaulon in Basan of the tribe of Manasses.
9 These were the designated cities to which any Israelite or stranger living among them who had killed a person accidentally might flee to escape death at the hand of the avenger of blood, until he could appear before the community.	9 These cities were appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the strangers, that dwelt among them: that whosoever had killed a person unawares might flee to them, and not die by the hand of the kinsman, coveting to revenge the blood that was shed, until he should stand before the people to lay open his cause.