約書亞記 20
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
避難城
20 耶和華對約書亞說： 2 「你吩咐以色列人，照我以前藉摩西所吩咐你們的，設立一些城邑作為避難城， 3 好讓那些誤殺了人的可以逃到那裡，免遭仇人追殺。 4 逃進城的人要先站在城門口，向避難城的長老陳明事情的經過，長老就把他們收容到城裡，給他們地方住。 5 如果他們的仇人追到，長老們不可把他們交出來，因為他們是無意殺的，跟被殺者無冤無仇。 6 這些人要住在城內，直到在會眾面前受了審訊，並且還要等到在任的大祭司死後，才可離城回鄉。」
7 於是，民眾便設立拿弗他利山區加利利境內的基低斯、以法蓮山區的示劍和猶大山區的基列·亞巴，即希伯崙作為避難城。 8 他們又在約旦河、耶利哥東面空曠的平原上設立呂便支派的比悉，迦得支派基列境內的拉末和瑪拿西支派巴珊境內的哥蘭作為避難城。 9 這是為以色列人和那些從外地來寄居的人所設立的避難城，誤殺了人的可以逃到那裡，不致未在會眾面前受審便死在報仇的人手裡。
Joshua 20
The Message
Asylum-Cities
20 1-3 Then God spoke to Joshua: “Tell the People of Israel: Designate the asylum-cities, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally—that is, unintentionally—may flee there as a safe place of asylum from the avenger of blood.
4 “A person shall escape for refuge to one of these cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate, and lay out his case before the city’s leaders. The leaders must then take him into the city among them and give him a place to live with them.
5-6 “If the avenger of blood chases after him, they must not give him up—he didn’t intend to kill the person; there was no history of ill-feeling. He may stay in that city until he has stood trial before the congregation and until the death of the current high priest. Then he may go back to his own home in his hometown from which he fled.”
7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hills of Naphtali, Shechem in the hills of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hills of Judah.
8-9 On the other side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer on the desert plateau from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the designated cities for the People of Israel and any resident foreigner living among them, so that anyone who killed someone unintentionally could flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood without a fair trial before the congregation.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson