Joshua 20

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The LORD said to Joshua:	1 And the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them:
2 "Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of which I spoke to them through Moses,	2 Separate the cities of refuge, about 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 so that anyone who will have struck down a life unintentionally may flee to them. And so, he may be able to escape from the wrath of a close relative, who is an 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 will have fled to one of these cities, he shall stand before the gate of the city, and he shall speak to the ancients of that city, the things that prove him innocent. And so shall they receive him, and give him a place in which to live.
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 if the avenger of blood will have pursued him, they shall not deliver him into his hands. For he struck down his neighbor unknowingly, one who was not proven 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 live in that city, until he stands before judgment in order to render the facts of his case, and until the death of the high priest, whoever it will be in that time. Then the one who killed a man may return, and he may enter his own city and house, from which he had 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 decreed Kedesh in Galilee, at mount Naphtali, and Shechem, at mount Ephraim, and Kiriath-Arba, which is Hebron, at mount 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 And beyond the Jordan, opposite the eastern side of Jericho, they appointed Bezer, which is situated on the plain of the wilderness of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan of the tribe of Manasseh.
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 established for all the sons of Israel, and for the new arrivals who were living among them, so that whoever had struck down a life unintentionally might flee to these, and not die at the hand of a close relative who desires to vindicate the blood that was shed, until he should stand before the people, in order to present his case.