Joshua 20

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 The LORD said to Joshua:	1 Yahweh said to Joshua,
2 "Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of which I spoke to them through Moses,	2 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them, "Choose yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke toyou through Moses,
3 to which one guilty of accidental and unintended homicide may flee for asylum from the avenger of blood.	3 to which anyone who has accidental y (unintentional y) kil ed someone else may flee, and which wilserve you as refuge from 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 (The kil er must flee to one of these towns. He will stop at the entrance to the town gate and explain hiscase to the town elders. These wil admit him to their town and assign him a place to live among them.
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 If the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the kil er over to him, since he has kil ed hisfel ow unintentionally and was not motivated by long-standing hatred for him.
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 He must stay in this town) until he is brought to trial before the community (until the death of the highpriest then in office. Only then may the kil er go back to his own town and to his own house in the town fromwhich he has 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 For this purpose they designated Kedesh in Galilee, in the highlands of Naphtali, Shechem in thehighlands of Ephraim, and Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- in the highlands of Judah.
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 On the other, eastern, side of the Jordan opposite Jericho, in the desert of the tableland, they choseBezer of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan of the tribe ofManasseh.
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 Such were the towns designated for al the Israelites and for foreigners living among them, so thatanyone who had accidental y kil ed someone could flee there and might escape the hand of the avenger ofblood, until brought to trial before the community.