¹³ However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place^(A) I will designate.

Cities of Refuge^(A)

⁶ “Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee.^(B) In addition, give them forty-two other towns.

¹¹ select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone^(A) accidentally^(B) may flee. ¹² They will be places of refuge from the avenger,^(C) so that anyone accused of murder^(D) may not die before they stand trial before the assembly.^{(E) 13} These six towns you give will be your cities of refuge.^{(F) 14} Give three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge.

Cities of Refuge^(A)

⁴¹ Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, ⁴² to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally^(B) killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. ⁴³ The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth^(C) in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

² then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities.

⁴ This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. ⁵ For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood^(A) might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. ⁷ This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your territory,^(B) as he promised^(C) on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, ⁹ because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him^(D)—then you are to set aside three more cities.