[1] Then the LORD said to Joshua, [2] "Say to the people of Israel,
`Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, [3]
that the manslayer who kills any person without intent or unwittingly may
flee there; they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. [4]
He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the
gate of the city, and explain his case to the elders of that city; then
they shall take him into the city, and give him a place, and he shall
remain with them. [5] And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall
not give up the slayer into his hand; because he killed his neighbor
unwittingly, having had no enmity against him in times past. [6] And he
shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for
judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time: then the
slayer may go again to his own town and his own home, to the town from
which he fled.'" [7] So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill
country of Naph'tali, and Shechem in the hill country of E'phraim, and
Kir'iath-ar'ba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. [8] And
beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness
on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the
tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manas'seh. [9] These
were the cities designated for all the people of Israel, and for the
stranger sojourning among them, that any one who killed a person without
intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the
avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.
