Joshua 20

¹ Yahweh said to Joshua,

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 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 (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 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 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 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 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 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.