Joshua

Chapter 20

1 God also spoke to Joshua, saying,

2 Tell the people of Israel to choose cities of refuge as I instructed you through Moses.

3 The person who accidentally kills someone without meaning to can run there for safety, and it will protect you from the person seeking revenge for the blood shed.

4 When someone runs to one of those cities, he should stand at the city gate entrance and explain his situation to the city elders. They will let him into the city and give him a place to live with them.

5 If someone seeking revenge chases the killer, they should not hand over the killer to them, because he accidentally killed his neighbor without previous hatred.

6 He will live in that city until he goes before the people for a decision, and until the high priest dies at that time. Then the person who killed someone can go back to his own city and house, the city he ran from.

7 They chose Kedesh in Galilee in the Naphtali hills, Shechem in the Ephraim hills, and Kirjatharba, known as Hebron, in the Judah hills.

8 On the other side of the Jordan by Jericho to the east, they gave Bezer in the desert on the plain to the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead to the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan to the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These cities were set for all Israelites and any foreigner staying with them so anyone who accidentally killed someone could go there and not be killed by the person seeking revenge until they faced the community.