1And LORD JEHOVAH spoke with Moshe in the plain of Moab that is on the Jordan of Yerikho and said to him: 2“Command the children of Israel and they shall give towns to inhabit to the Levites from the inheritance of their possession and they shall give fields of the towns in their surroundings to the Levites. 3And they shall have cities to inhabit and their fields shall be for their livestock and for their cattle and for all their beasts.

4And the fields of the villages that you will give to the Levites are from the wall of the city and outward, one thousand cubits as a circle. 5And measure from outside the city to the side of the east, two thousand cubits, and to the side of the south two thousand cubits, and to the side of the west two thousand cubits, and to the side of the north two thousand cubits, and the city in the midst; this shall be the open space of the city for you.

6And cities that you are giving to the Levites, let six cities be a place of refuge for you, so that a killer who kills his neighbor without his intention may flee there, and add forty and two cities unto them. 7All the cities that you are giving to the Levites are forty and eight cities, those and their open spaces. 8And the cities that you are giving from the inheritance of the children of Israel, from the many you shall give more, and from the few you shall give less; a man will give from his cities to the Levites according to the proportion of the inheritance that he possesses.”

9And LORD JEHOVAH spoke with Moshe and said to him: 10“Speak with the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you have crossed the Jordan to the land of Canaan. 11Prepare for yourselves cities to be a place of refuge for you that a killer, whoever may kill a soul by accident, may escape there. 12And these cities shall be yours for a house of refuge from one seeking the vengeance of blood, and a killer will not be killed until standing in front of the assembly in judgment. 13And the cities that you are giving shall be the six cities of a place of refuge for you. 14Give three cities at the crossing of Jordan and give three cities in the land of Canaan; the cities of the place of refuge shall be. 15For the children of Israel, and those who are converted to me and those who dwell among you and these six cities shall be a place of refuge for you, so that anyone who kills a soul by accident may escape to them.

16And if he struck him with an implement of iron so that he would die, and he died, he is a murderer; that murderer certainly shall be killed. 17And if he struck him with a stone in the hand so that he should die, and he died, he is a murderer; he shall certainly be killed. 18And if he struck him with an implement of wood in the hand so that he should die, and he died, he is a murderer; he shall certainly be killed. 19The seeker of vengeance of blood shall kill the murderer when he meets him. 20And if he struck him with hatred or throws at him by treachery and he died, he is a murderer; 21With hatred he struck him with his hand so that he should die, and he died; he is a murderer; he shall certainly be killed; the seeker of vengeance of blood shall kill the murderer when he meets him.

22And if he struck him suddenly without hatred or threw at him any implement without treachery. 23Or he threw any stone upon him that kills, when he did not see, and he died, and was not his enemy and was not seeking his harm: 24The assembly shall judge between the killer and the seeker of the vengeance of blood by these judgments: 25And the assembly shall save the killer from the seeker of vengeance of blood and the assembly shall send him to a city of refuge where he had fled to it and he shall dwell in it until the Great Priest will die who is anointed with the oil of Holiness. 26And if a killer will come forth outside of the borders of the city of refuge to which he fled; 27And the seeker of vengeance of blood will find him outside of the borders of the city of refuge and the seeker of vengeance of blood will kill the killer, there is no penalty to him for bloodshed: 28Because this one should dwell in the city of refuge until the Great Priest would die, and when the Great Priest has died, the killer will return to the land of his inheritance.

29And these laws shall be for you to eternity for your generations in every place of your habitations.

30Everyone who will kill a person, the murderer will be killed through the mouth of witnesses, and one witness shall not testify against a soul that he would be put to death. 31And you shall not receive a bribe for the person of a killer who is condemned to death, but he shall certainly be killed. 32And you shall not accept a bribe that he may flee to a city of refuge and go and dwell in the land until the Great Priest would die. 33And you shall not defile the land in which you dwell, because blood defiles the land, and the land where blood is shed will not be spared for it unless the blood of him who shed it is shed in it. 34And you shall not defile the land in which you dwell, for I camp within it, because I AM LORD JEHOVAH, for I camp among the children of Israel.’”