Cities of Refuge

1The LORD also spoke unto Joshua, saying,

2Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke unto you by the hand of Moses:

3That the slayer that kills any person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

4And when he that does flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

5And if the avenger of blood pursues after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and hated him not beforehand.

6And he shall dwell in that city, until he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from where he fled.

7And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kiriatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

8And on the other side of Jordan east of Jericho, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

9These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourns among them, that whosoever kills any person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.