Joshua 20
International Children’s Bible
Cities of Safety
20 Then the Lord said to Joshua: 2 “Tell the Israelites to choose the special cities of safety. This is what I had Moses command you to do. 3 A person might kill someone accidentally and without meaning to kill him. He may go to a city of safety to hide. There he will be safe from the relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer.
4 “This is what he must do. When he runs to one of those cities, he must stop at the entrance gate. He must stand there and tell the leaders of the people what happened. Then they will allow him to enter the city. They will give him a place to live among them. 5 But the one who is chasing him might follow him to that city. If this happens, the leaders of the city must not give him up. They must protect the person who came to them for safety. They must protect him because he killed that person accidentally. He was not angry and did not decide ahead of time to kill the person. 6 He should stay in the city until he has been judged by the court there. And he should stay until the high priest dies. Then he may go back to his own home in the town from which he ran away.”
7 So the Israelites chose some cities to be cities of safety. These cities were: Kedesh in Galilee in the mountains of Naphtali; Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim; Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the mountains of Judah; 8 Bezer on the east side of the Jordan River near Jericho in the desert in the land of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead in the land of Gad; and Golan in Bashan in the land of Manasseh. 9 Any Israelite or anyone living among them who killed someone accidentally was included. He was to be allowed to run to one of these cities of safety. Then he could be safe there and would not be killed by the relative who had the duty of punishing a murderer. He would be judged by the court in that city.
Joshua 20
Evangelical Heritage Version
Cities of Refuge
20 Then the Lord spoke to Joshua 2 and told him to give the people of Israel the following directions:
Designate for yourselves the cities of refuge about which I spoke to you through Moses. 3 A person who takes a life may flee to one of them, if that person has killed someone by accident, without intent. These cities are to serve for you as a refuge from the avenger[a] of blood.
4 The person is to flee to one of these cities and stand at the entrance to the gate of the city and state his case before a hearing of the elders of that city. They are to receive him into the city and give him a place where he can live with them. 5 When the avenger of blood pursues him, the elders are not to hand over the person who took a life to the avenger, because that person killed his fellow man without intent, and he had not been his enemy previously. 6 The killer is to live in that city until he stands in front of the community for judgment, and then until the death of the high priest who presides in those days. At that time the one who took a life may return to his city and to his house—to the city from which he fled.
7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 8 Also in the region on the east side of the Jordan of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.
9 These were the appointed cities for all the people of Israel and for the aliens residing among them, so that anyone killing a person accidentally could flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood before he stood trial in the presence of the community.
Footnotes
- Joshua 20:3 The Hebrew word translated avenger is goel. Goel is also translated redeemer or kinsman redeemer. One function of the goel was to seek justice for a relative who had been killed. In that situation the goel is called an avenger. Another duty of the goel was recovering lost property. In that situation he is called a redeemer.
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